In November 2009, Mastro offered for sale an incredible near set of 17 different 1959 Bazooka football cards, 12 of which included the promo tab at the bottom!
Here’s the auction lot’s description:
Collection of 17 different 1959 Bazooka Football cards. The year 1959 was fairly uneventful in Topps’ several entree sports card issues. However, that company’s grist, Bazooka bubble gum, appeared very sparingly in boxed form. The container, a basic cardboard prism, measured approximately 5″ x 3″ x 1″ and held individually wrapped tasty ingots. To lubricate sales, one of an assortment of well-known sports figures would appear, in full-color, on the bottoms of the boxes. Baseball, of course, preceded football. Initially, nine different baseball players were imposed on the boxes. These are scarce. Later, 14 others were added. These are much tougher, and the evidence suggests that sales were listless. Bazooka,under the guidance of Topps, obviously had an investment in preparation, and as kids returned to school, the football segment of the strategy appeared. The marketing scheme was doomed from the start, and very few remains of this misdirected ambition exist today. All that money for one card, which dimensionally disrupted otherwise uniform stacks of cards. Bazooka would later promote the idea by offering panels of three baseball cards. There were 18 different in the 1959 Bazooka football production, and all are very scarce. Of these, three were produced in undetermined shorter numbers and include Conerly, Groza and Tom Tracy. The collection offered here is missing only the Tracy card. Of the 17 cards offered here, 12 include the promo tab at the bottom of the card. Those without the tab are John Arnett, LeBaron, Joe Perry, Kyle Rote, and Tittle. The cards are cut responsibly with very little violation of the dotted lines. Condition Report: Ameche (NR-MT to MT); Arnett (cut slightly inside dotted lines, EX-MT); Brown (very light crease on back, EX+); Casares (NR-MT to MT); Conerly (mild crease on back, EX); Ferguson (NR-MT to MT); Gifford (NR-MT to MT); Groza (light crease on back, EX+); Layne (mild crease through tab, NR-MT ); LeBaron (light surface wear, EX+); Lewis (light crease on back at tab, EX-MT); Matson (mild crease on back, writing on back, EX); Perry (NR-MT to MT); Retzlaff (NR-MT to MT); Rote (very slight miscut on left border, EX-MT); Tittle (left border cut imperfectly EX+); Unitas (mild surface wear, EX-MT).
Minimum Bid $1,500
I previously highlighted the set in a piece about a complete box featuring Frank Gifford in which I mentioned that Larry Fritsch believed that the Chuck Connerly variations were the toughest to track down, but this collection, as stated, was missing the Tracy card, one of the other presumed short prints.
By the way, the cards, particularly Jim Brown’s, are pretty pricey these days. In October 2024, Heritage sold an SGC 5 graded Brown for $9,600.
I haven’t seen any complete or near-sets for sale recently, but over a decade ago, REA sold a near-complete set (17 of 18) cards for $6,518. It lacked the Perry card. For more on the set, check out this net54Baseball thread and this article from Sports Collectors Daily.
Happy collecting!