Here’s a cool item that Richard Wolffers Auctions offered in their February 1993 catalog: a Joe Jackson “Baseball Magazine” Advertising Display Piece.
They described it as a 10” x 18” sepia-toned piece from around 1914 with red lettering and one of the most spectacular Joe Jackson display pieces known to the hobby. It had been folded in half (for shipping) but was offered matted and framed with an estimated value of $10,000-12,500. Most of Wolffers’ catalogs were printed in B&W.
The picture is the same as the 1913 Joe Jackson Baseball Magazine premium, but those are usually described as being 9” x 16”. REA sold this one for $3,240 in the summer of 2022.
The posters/premiums have been found in varying formats of player identification, copyright information, and promotion for the magazine, so this display piece may just be a variety. Let me know if you know more; happy collecting!
Vintage baseball cards are incredibly popular, but people sometimes forget that baseball card manufacturers had to find original photographs to design the cards around. Here are some original photos of Mickey Mantle that Bowman, Topps, and Wheaties used on some of his earlier baseball cards.
1951 Bowman #253 and 1953 Topps #82 Mickey Mantle Cards
1951 Bowman and 1953 Topps Mickey Mantle Original Photograph
1951 Bowman #253 Mickey Mantle
1953 Topps #82 Mickey Mantle
1951 Wheaties Mickey Mantle
1951 Wheaties Mickey Mantle Original Photograph
1951 Wheaties #G Mickey Mantle
1952 Bowman #101 Mickey Mantle
1952 Bowman Mickey Mantle Original Photograph
1952 Bowman #101 Mickey Mantle
1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Original Photograph
1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle
1954 Bowman #65 Mickey Mantle
1954 Bowman Mickey Mantle Original Photograph
1954 Bowman #65 Mickey Mantle
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle
1956 Topps Mickey Mantle Original Photograph – Headshot
1956 Topps Mickey Mantle Original Photograph – Action Shot
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle
1958 Topps #487 Mickey Mantle All-Star
1958 Topps Mickey Mantle All-Star Original Photograph
1958 Topps #487 Mickey Mantle All-Star
1958 Topps World Series Batting Foes Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron
1958 Topps World Series Batting Foes Original Photograph
1958 Topps #418 Mickey Mantle / Hank Aaron World Series Batting Foes
1960 Topps Rival All-Stars Mantle & Boyer
1960 Topps Rival All-Stars Mantle & Boyer Original Photograph
The photo of Mantle and Boyer was taken in 1957, three years before Topps released the popular 1960 Topps Rival All-Stars card.
1960 Topps #160 RIval All-Stars Mantle & Boyer
Happy collecting!
PS: I put this blog post together ~ three years ago and am republishing it. None of these photos are of items in my collection, and I don’t have good records of the auctions/collections I pulled them from.
Here’s another cool uncut sheet from the hobby library archives, a 1973 Topps Test Candy Lid Uncut Sheet. This one was offered as lot 389 in Christie’s East Sports Memorabilia Auction in October 1992.
The sheet includes stars like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Pete Rose, Carlton Fisk, and Nolan Ryan. It was described as being in near mint condition and carried and had an estimated value of $700-800.
The Standard Catalog described the set as “a bit out of the ordinary, the Topps Candy Lids were the top of a product called ‘Baseball Stars Bubble Gum.’ The bottom (inside) of the lids carry a color photo of a player with a ribbon containing the name, position and team. The lids are 1-7/8” in diameter. A total of 55 different lids were made featuring most of the stars of the day.”
Here are a few examples.
There are also several slabbed and unslabbed proofs on the market, so I wonder if someone cut up the sheet.
Let me know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to check out more uncut sheets on the archive. Happy collecting!
Here’s a true hobby one-of-one: the original artwork for card number 51 in Bowman’s 1953 football set, featuring John Karras of the Chicago Cardinals.
The piece was a part of Mastro’s December 2005 Sports Premier Catalog Auction. They described it as a hand-crafted artifact measuring 3-1/8” x 4-5/8” (larger than the as-issued card). The item description mentioned that the item’s corners were chipped as a function of the working process. Also, the art piece was matted with an Ex sample of the final card on display measuring 11-3/4” x 15”, but Mastro didn’t share a photo of the combined display in the catalog.
So, here’s an example of the published Karras Bowman football card.
Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson are two of the most famous, “modern,” two-sport professional athletes. But did you know there is an NBA Hall of Famer who also pitched for the Chicago White Sox? Among the 13 athletes to play in the NBA and MLB, Dave DeBusschere was undoubtedly the most successful at basketball. Still, many of today’s collectors may not know a lot about him, so in this piece, I’ll share his professional accolades and history along with every baseball and basketball card Topps printed for him.
Dave DeBusschere attended the University of Detroit between 1959 and 1962. He averaged 24 points per game, making the NIT twice and the NCAA tournament once. He also pitched for the baseball team, leading them to 3 NCAA tournament appearances.
He was signed as a free agent by the White Sox in 1962. The same year, he was a territorial draft selection in the 1962 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. He played for the White Sox in the majors from 1962-1963, in the NBA for the Pistons between 1962 and 1968, and for the New York Knicks between 1968 and 1974. After two more years of minor league pitching, he eventually gave up baseball to concentrate on playing and coaching basketball.
He had a career 3-4 win/loss record as a pitcher with a 2.90 earned run average as a baseball player.
His first baseball card was in the 1963 Topps set, with two variations.
1963 Topps #54 – 1963 Rookie Stars
1963 Topps #54 – 1962 Rookie Stars
He also had cards in the 1964 and 1965 Topps baseball sets.
1964 Topps #247 Dave DeBusschere
1965 Topps #297 Dave DeBusschere
DeBusschere had an impressive NBA career. He was known as an elite defensive player, which resulted in his election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983. Over his career, he averaged 16.1 points per game, 11 rebounds per game, and 2.9 assists per game. He was a two-time NBA champion with the Knicks, made 8 All-Star games, and was a six-time All-Defensive First Team member.
His first basketball card was in the notoriously rare 1968 Topps Test release, so his 1969 Topps Tall Boy is more classically considered his first Topps basketball card.
1968 Topps Test #11 Dave DeBusschere
1969 Topps #85 Dave DeBusschere
Topps also printed cards for him in 1970, 71, 72, and 73, and he was on the Knicks Team Leaders card in 1974.
1970 Topps #135 Dave DeBusschere
1971 Topps #107 Dave DeBusschere
1972 Topps #105 Dave DeBusschere
1973 Topps #30 Dave DeBusschere
1974 Topps #93 New York Knicks Team Leaders
Today, most athletes commit to a single sport long before going professional, though some successful two-sport athletes play multiple sports in college. Like Tim Tebow or Michael Jordan, others have tried to transition between sports, but few have had Dave DeBusschere’s success.
PS: The 13 men who have played in the NBA and MLB are: Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Chuck Connors, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts, and Howie Schultz.
Topps Magazine had a feature called Topps In The Field dedicated to news from around the collecting world; in the summer of 92, they included this piece about collectible pins, specifically the Hermes Ice Cream Honus Wagner from the Copeland Collection!
I’ve only started learning about sports pins, so I’m not an expert. Luckily, I do have Sotheby’s Copeland Catalog Topps was referring to. Here’s a scan of the pin from the catalog.
And here’s how Sotheby’s described the Hermes Ice Cream Pin lot that included the Wagner:
Hermes Ice Cream Pins, 1910, lot of 4 different pins, set features the 1909 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, black and white portraits, yellow border with a blue flag “Pittsburgh” and yellow skull and cross bones at bottom, Hermes logo across the top, players not identified, unnumbered, made by Whitehead and Hoag, the lot includes Leach and Abstein (both only good condition due to excessive surface wear), Clarke-Manager and Hall of Famer (near mint) and Honus Wagner (minor edge stains near the word cream on the right—also minor surface scratches) still a very significant pin and at least excellent condition. 1¼ in. diameter (4) Hermes Ice Cream pins are very rare. Honus Wagner is one of the finest early pins and is highly coveted by collectors.
The expected sales price in the catalog was $2,000-$2,500; Topps wrote that it sold for $2,975.
Regarding the Wagner pin specifically, PSA has only encapsulated two examples and graded one a seven and the other a three. And neither looks like the Copeland pin to me.
Here’s some of the sale’s history: Heritage sold the seven for $6,120 in December 2019. REA then resold it for $9k in the Summer of 2021. REA sold the three for $2,160 in the Spring of 2019 before reselling it in the Fall of 2024 for $3,840.
Here’s a great piece put together by Jon Brecka for the November 1994 issue of Trading Cards magazine, ranking baseball’s top ten most sought-after cards. Thirty years later, it’s hard to argue against! Would you trade any out?
Here are cards 6-10.
How many people do you think have all ten “All-Time Greats?” What a collection that would be!
