Not all sports-themed advertising ephemera is as significant as this piece featuring the 1960 Red Sox; it represented Ted Williams last season and essentially a passing of the torch to Yastrzemski the following year.
This particular Narragansett beer poster was offered in Mastro’s November 1999 Millenium Auction, selling for $1789. Here’s how they described it:
1960 Red Sox Narragansett Beer Poster A magnificent oversized Narragansett Beer poster that features the 1960 Boston Red Sox and measures 47″ × 70″ Advertising Rhode Island’s finest lager, the heavy corrugated paper poster features a color team photo of the Sox at the end of an era, the Ted Williams era. The year 1960 marked the conclusion of the Kid’s four-decade career. There he is, a legend in his own time, along side teammates half his age. The poster has a few minor edge chips, can be easily matted out, bumps, and a slight tear in the caption. About Excellent condition. Makes for a wicked display! Minimum Bid $600
The same picture is used across various products; Lelands sold this one for $298 in January 2015.
Here are some more:
Unfortunately, neither the 1960 or 1961 Topps Boston Red Sox team cards feature this image.
I love uncut sheets of sports cards. They make awesome display pieces, they’re often scarce, they provide set education, finish “master” collections, and provide hobby integrity. So, despite the storage problem, they continue to be really popular. But how did these sheets make their way to the market if cards were meant to be cut up and put in boxes for sale? The conventional wisdom is that they came from Topps employees or out the backdoor of printing facilities. But the reality is a bit more complicated than that, particularly in more modern times, as Topps provided uncut sheets via direct sales, instant winner programs, marketing add-ons, and a few other planned/legitimate means.
You can see the code #945-84 sell sheet for Topps 1984 Uncut Baseball Card Sheets when it comes to direct sales. Topps offered six different sheets of 132 cards (132 * 6 = a complete 792 card set). Topps realized there was a market for uncut sheets and responded as any business would.
1984 Topps Baseball Uncut Card Sheets Sell Sheet
One collector on a forum had written that they had bought some sheets in the mid-1980s from local stores (not card stores), and the sheets came wrapped in plastic. So Topps sold some of these, though perhaps not through hobby stores. Another collector responded that as early as 1982, they bought sheets like this from ToysRUs. They were in a large box with the top cut off, left in the aisle for display, and sold for around $6. Others surmise this sales method may have happened as early as 1981
There are also examples of complete boxed sets of 6 uncut sheets of 1987 Topps that are still widely available. Whether they were sold by Topps or a 3rd party is less clear.
1987 Topps Uncut Sheets Complete Box Set
1987 Topps Uncut Sheets Complete Boxed Set Zoomed In
3 Boxes of 1987 Topps Uncut Sheets Baseball Card Collections
Topps also used to provide sheets to collectors through add-ons. In 1989, as the code #325 sell sheet indicates (courtesy of 4192Cards), if any store purchased a case of Bazooka Gum, they got two uncut sheets of Topps baseball cards. It’s believed this happened between 1986 and 1990.
1989 Topps Uncut Sheet Promotion
In 1984, OPC inserted instant winner cards into packs, and one of the prizes was the three sheets that made up a complete set.
1984 OPC Instant Winner Card
Earlier in the 1980s, for $4 ($5 in 1982), collectors could receive a full-sized uncut sheet of 1981 or 1982 Topps baseball and 1981 Topps football cards through a promotion with Coca-Cola (through the header card packed with team sets). Many of the sheets the distributor sent to collectors had errors. So, this tactic may have been a way for Topps to make some money rather than throwing away printer errors or allowing staff to walk off with them.
1981 Topps Baseball Press Sheet Offer
1981 Topps Football Press Sheet Offer
1982 Topps Baseball Press Sheet Offer
The distributor in Connecticut included an additional offer to get every sheet from 1981 for $4 a sheet or $24 for an entire print run.
1981 Topps Uncut Sheet Offer
There’s another example of acquiring uncut sheets as far back as 1972 for Topps basketball in partnership with Wheaties. The Topps Archives wrote about getting 132 player sheets for $2 plus two Wheaties proof of purchase panels. I’ve included the photos from the Topps Archives blog post below, just in case that site ever goes down and we lose access to its incredible history of articles.
Wheaties Box with 1972 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet Offer
1972 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet
I’m sure there are dozens of more legitimate examples of how Topps distributed uncut sheets of cards in addition to the methods discussed in this post. If you know of any others, share the details in the comments below.
Happy collecting, and don’t forget to check out the Uncut Sheet Archive, too!
Mastro offered this 1979 Topps “Baseball Iron-Ons” Test Issue Keith Hernandez promotional piece in their Classic Collector Auctions Catalog in October 2007. After a lot of searching, I can’t find ANYTHING about it online or in The Hobby Library!
Unfortunately, the catalog was intended to augment an online auction, so there weren’t any item descriptions. On the net54Baseball forums, one collector wrote, “Topps would mock these up for internal use, creating Presentation Boards for one kind of pitch or another. Each piece was handmade by the New Product and /or Art Departments. I’ve not run across this one before but it’s pretty awesome.”
If you have any insight into this item or set, please get in touch with me.
The 1995 National Sports Collector’s Convention Auction featured some remarkable items, including the 1962 Topps Flexichrome artwork for card 461, Ken Hubbs’ rookie card, tucked away as lot 169.
Here’s the lots full description:
1962 TOPPS ORIGINAL FLEXICHROME ARTWORK FOR CARD # 461 KEN HUBBS ROOKIE 4 1/2 inch by 5 1/2 inch original one of a kind flexichrome for Ken Hubbs, “Rookie Of The Year” in 1962, killed in a plane crash in 1964, multicolored artwork comes with the 1962 Topps card final process #461, artwork is in perfect condition with no defects. MINIMUM BID: 200.00
Guernsey’s doesn’t appear to have sold it in their famous Topps Auction in 1989, but I may have missed it in that catalog. If you know the flexichrome’s provenance, let me know!
Finally, here’s a super clean copy of the final card, a PSA 9 that REA sold for $510 in May 2022.
After dedicating a lot of time exploring early ’90s baseball autograph insert sets, I decided to broaden my horizons a bit and delve into the world of hockey insert cards from the same era. In doing so, I stumbled upon two really attractive sets: the 1993-94 Donruss Elite and the 1994-95 Donruss Elite insert sets. The 15 1993 and 10 1994 insert cards are limited to just 10,000 copies each, and the latter set boasts a distinctive deckle edge design reminiscent of the iconic Topps baseball cards from 1969!
1969 Topps Deckle Edge #21 Pete Rose
1993-94 Donruss Elite Inserts
The 15 NHL superstar Donruss Elite cards were random inserts in two different Donruss packs. Cards 1-10 were Series 1 inserts, while U1-U5 were included in Elite Update packs. As I wrote in the intro, they’re all numbered to 10k. In their promotional material for the set, Donruss included the Teemu Selanne card but didn’t highlight any set details.
1993 Donruss Hockey Advertisement
The fronts of the cards have a color photo of an NHL start in a diamond with prism foil borders around it. The player’s name is printed at the bottom. The back features a card number out of 10, a serial number out of 10000, a headshot, and career highlights against a marble background with silver borders. I’ve read that the insert ratio was ~1:60 packs.
1993 Donruss Elite #4 Eric Lindros
Here’s the set’s checklist:
1. Mario Lemieux
2. Alexandre Daigle
3. Teemu Selanne
4. Eric Lindros
5. Brett Hull
6. Jeremy Roenick
7. Doug Gilmour
8. Alexander Mogilny
9. Patrick Roy
10. Wayne Gretzky
U1. Mikael Renberg
U2. Sergei Fedorov
U3. Felix Potvin
U4. Cam Neely
U5. Alexei Yashin
1993 Donruss Elite Complete Set
PSA has graded just over 250 examples, including 106 Gretzky, 45 Lemieux, and 29 Roy cards. A PSA 8 Gretzky sold for $37 in January 2025, and a PSA 10 Lemieux went for $285 in February 2021.
1993 Donruss Elite #10 Wayne Gretzky
1994-95 Donruss Elite Inserts
In 1994, Donruss limited the Elite Inserts to ten and only included them in Series 1 packs. Again, only 10k of each were made. This time, however, the insertion rate was 1:72 packs. Donruss had the Jeremy Roenick card on its promotional material, but no other details were included in the piece I found.
1994 Donruss Hockey Advertisement
I sort of wish Donruss had stuck with the design of the 1993 set but included the deckle cut as they did in 1994. For this series, the cards featured a rectangular player image on the front, surrounded by a silver foil deckle edge. The player’s name matching the silver foil border is an excellent integration. The back features the serial number out of 10,000 along the top with the card number, a rectangular photo, and some player information below it.
1994 Donruss Elite #10 Patrick Roy
Here’s the set’s checklist:
1. Jason Arnott
2. Martin Brodeur
3. Pavel Bure
4. Sergei Fedorov
5. Wayne Gretzky
6. Mario Lemieux
7. Eric Lindros
8. Felix Potvin
9. Jeremy Roenick
10. Patrick Roy
1994 Donruss Elite #6 Mario Lemieux
PSA has graded a little over 300 of these cards, including 109 of Gretzky, 55 of Lemieux, 32 of Roy, and 28 of Brodeur. PSA 10 Gretzky’s have sold for between $157 (July 2021) and $293 (January 2025) in the past few years, and one collector has managed a complete PSA 10 graded set on the registry.
1994 Donruss Elite #5 Wayne Gretzky
Conclusion
As you can see in the hockey card category of my archives, they aren’t my usual territory, but I’m eager to expand my knowledge and explore them further. While my expertise primarily lies in baseball cards, the 1993-94 and 1994-95 Donruss Elite hockey sets are really alluring, with the latter’s design harking back to one of my favorite deckle designs of the late ’60s. Stay tuned for more discoveries and insights as I continue my quest to learn more about hockey collectibles!
I only recently learned about this 1973 Topps-style Joe Garagiola card from the April 1986 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine. They wrote that Joe used it as his business card, but there’s a little more to it than that!
The Topps Archives has a series of posts about the card; the first, from February 2009, identifies it as part of “a small but distinct list of baseball issues from Topps that consist of a single card. The most famous of these is Joe Garagiola’s 1976 NBC Business Card that is a dead ringer for a ’73 Topps baseball card.”
Then, in June 2009, The Topps Archives connected the card to Joe Garagiola’s Bazook Big League Bubble Gum Blowing Championship that gave us the classic 1976 Topps card of Kurt Bevacqua!
And from a photo from the event, The Topps Archives pointed out the uncut sheet behind Joe G., writing, “That, ladies and gentlemen is Garagiola’s ersatz 1973 Topps business card. I think it highly likely said pasteboards were created for him to hand out at this event. The card does have a 1976 copyright on it and I have to think the contest was held after the end of the ’75 season based on the Joe G. card copyright date.”
A pair of articles from the Baseball Hall of Fame explain the competition further. You can also watch the event on YouTube, which originally aired on October 14th, 1975, before Game 3 of the 1975 World Series.
The Topps Archives then shared a few photos of Garagiola’s card as reprinted in 1991.
BaseballCardPedia summarizes the entire story of the card as follows:
Sometime in the mid-1970s, Topps produced for former Cardinals catcher and then-current NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola a business card done in the style of a baseball card. The front of the card has the design of the 1973 Topps set, while the back is set up like a 1976 Topps card.
It is unknown exactly when this card was produced; however, a framed uncut sheet of the card was seen in the background of a 1975 made-for-TV bubble gum blowing contest hosted by Garagiola for NBC. The contest was sponsored by Topps and was commemorated with a card (#564) of winner Kurt Bevacqua in the 1976 Topps set.
A second run of this card was produced in the early-90s, to coincide with Garagiola’s appointment as co-host of NBC’s Today Show. This card is identical to the 70s card, with the addition of both a Topps and Today Show logo to the front.
However, there’s still one more mystery. You can see up above the back of the variation I shared above has a 1976 copyright and Garagiola’s phone number on the back. There’s another version with a different phone number and 1976 copyright along with the 1991 reprint!
I’ve previously shared Hank Aaron’s 1961 Topps signed check and contract, well, here’s his 1954 Topps Gum Company Check that includes his rookie year signature!
Mastro offered the signed check in its August 2002 Sports & Americana Premier Catalog Auction. Unfortunately the pictures in the catalog are rather small; here’s the back:
And here’s the lots complete description from the catalog:
An official “Topps Chewing Gum Inc.” check that is dated 8/5/54 and made out to “Henry Aaron” in the amount of $10.00. The payment made is for use of Aaron’s image during the 1955 season, but the signature is pure “rookie year” in appearance. On the reverse is the “Henry Aaron” signature, as well as the printed agreement between Topps and Aaron for the rights to use his image for the 1955 cards. Although fully readable, the signature is affected by the check’s fold and by several cancellation stampings. LOA from Mike Gutierrez/MastroNet.
PS, another cool Topps check I’ve shared is Bill Russell’s 1957-58 Topps basketball card canceled paycheck.
