Who doesn’t love a scarce vintage regional basketball issue?! Here’s an “ultra-complete” set of 13 1970-71 Phoenix Suns A1 cards.
Mastro offered this grouping in their November 2000 Fine Sports Auctions catalog with a minimum bid of $500. They explained that the scarce advertising cards were produced as six-pack inserts with A1 Premium Beer depicting Suns players in black-and-white photographs, formatted underneath a logo and price header, and distributed in only a very limited regional area. They then started talking a bit about the ten players in the set, plus the variations, but my 2003 Standard Catalog of Basketball Cards (6th Edition) explains it better with a checklist.
That Tuff Stuff guide explains that the cards measure 2-1/4” x 8-3/4” overall and
…feature a black-and-white photo of the player and his name printed beneath the photo at the bottom of the card. The top of the card features “Phoenix Suns picture special,” the A-1 Premium Beer logo and either a 95-cent price (most common), 98 cents (harder to locate) and no price printed. The player photo measures 2-1/4” x 3-3/8” and showcase the player in a posed position. The backs are blank and unnumbered.
Here’s the complete checklist:
- Mel Counts (95 cents)
- Mel Counts (98 cents)
- Lamar Green
- Clem Haskins
- Connie Hawkins (98 cents)
- Greg Howard
- Paul Silas
- Fred Taylor
- Dick Van Arsdale (Error – reversed negative, no price)
- Dick Van Arsdale (Corrected – no price)
- Neal Walk (95 cents)
- Neal Walk (No price)
- John Wetzel (No price)
That Tuff Stuff Standard Basketball catalog priced a near-mint complete set at $1950 in 2003, and the prices appear to have stood up.
The following 12-card set is available on eBay (July 2024) for $3,600 from BMW Sports Cards and Memorabilia.
Scottsdale Baseball Cards has the following complete 13-card master set available on its site (and eBay) for $2,500.
However, Goldin sold the following 12/13 near master set, graded by SGC, for only $420 in June 2022. However, at the time, they wouldn’t have been my top choice for selling a set like this.
That Goldin set was also missing the Dick Van Arsdale error, which is one of the tougher cards. The priciest, though, is the Connie Hawkins.
If you’re looking for a graded sample, PSA has only slabbed 67 in total.
PS, while the cards say “12 oz. Bottles” on the front, if you want to augment a collection of them, think about hunting down these four A1 Premium Beer cans; from 1967-1974, the Phoenix Roadrunners were a WHL team.
Morean Auctions sold the pictured lot of empty beer cans for $527 in September 2023.
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