John

Celebrating the Reverse – Card Backs With Jim McLauchlin

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So many of us overlook card backs in this day of hard plastic card encapsulation and grading, so I was super happy to find an article dedicated to them while perusing the September 1991 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine.

Baseball Cards Magazine – September 1991

Jim McLauchlin penned an article titled “Card Backs,” in which he celebrated the reverse side of cards. He kicked it off by stating that he likes card backs more than he likes card fronts! Here are the first two pages of the article.

Card Backs – Jim McLauchlin

He talks about the plethora of data that has been included on them, chats about some growing pains in card back design in our hobby’s history before digging into the real story, the specific card back highlights over the past 50 years of sports cards that he jokingly called “the first quasi annual Sy Berger Awards for Card Back Excellence (or Lack Thereof).”

I thought the Set Awards were so well-researched and accurate that they deserved to be shared with folks who don’t have junk-wax-era card magazine back issues, so I’ll share a highlight card from many of the categories before sharing the rest of the article.

Best Cartoons: 1977-78 Topps Basketball

He noted their incredible variety.

1977 Topps Swen Nater

I’ll also note that Guernsey’s sold a lot of original card cartoon art in the 1989 Topps Auction.

Topps Basketball Cartoons – The Topps Auction 1989

Best Cartoon Theme: 1974 Topps Football

Leisure-time activities.

1974 Topps Ken Stabler

Best Back Photography

Anything by Upper Deck.

1991 Upper Deck Jose Lind

Best Narratives

1955 Bowman Baseball.

1955 Bowman Vern Law

Best Non-Use of the Word “Defenseman”

1990-91 Pro Set Hockey for using terms like rugged blue liners, crafty blue liners, veteran blue liners, and bruising blue liners.

Best Bios

1961 Fleer Football.

1961 Fleer Gene Lipscomb

Word Card Back Idea

Puzzles.

Worst Use of Stats

Classic.

Best Quote

1990 Score Football Johnny Johnson.

1990 Score Johnny Johnson

Best Trivia

1975 Topps Carlton Fisk.

1975 Topps Carlton Fisk

Best Prophecy

1958 Topps Sandy Koufax.

1958 Topps Sandy Koufax

Best Cartoon

1971 Topps Football Spider Lockhart.

1971 Topps Spider Lockhart

Best Overused Bio Material

He challenged readers to find a Joe Nuxhall card that didn’t say he was the youngest player in the majors.

Best Obscure Information

1990 Pro Set Football Chris Singleton.

1990 Pro Set Chris Singleton

Worst Use of Stats

1971 Topps Football Charlie Krueger.

1971 Topps CHarlie Krueger

Best Hobby

1958 Topps Stan Lopata.

1958 Topps Stan Lopata

Best Expansion of Standard Height, Weight

1963 Topps Dick Radatz.

1963 Topps Dick Radatz

Best Culinary Card

1974-75 Topps Basketball Louis Dampier.

1974 Topps Louie Dampier

Best We’ll Find Something Nice To Say About This Spud If It Kills Us

1965 Topps Mike De La Hoz.

1965 Topps Mike De La Hoz

Greatest Card Back of Them All

1951 Bowman Leo Nomellini.

1951 Bowman Leo Nomellini

Final Pages of the Article

Card Backs – Jim McLauchlin
Card Backs – Jim McLauchlin

1976 Topps Football Cello Cases

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I thought some of you might enjoy reading about this motherload of 1976 Topps Football Cello cases that REA auctioned off in July 2000 (the auction with eBay that presented ‘The Wagner Card’).

At the top, you can see that the three lots included five full unopened cello cases, four full cello boxes, 43 cello packs, and ~2,000 loose cards. And as mentioned, 1976 Topps has Walter Payton’s rookie card!

More recently, BBCE had a case with one of the same product code (same case?) at the National in 2015 and one with wrapped boxes ($110k) at the 2018 National.

These days, BBCE-authenticated 1976 Topps Football Cello Boxes sell for $10-15k.

1978 Topps Baseball Vending Boxes And Cases

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Set building was a much bigger part of the hobby in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That really stood out when I was flipping through the January 1978 issue of The Trader Speaks and saw how ads for 1978 Topps Baseball Vending Boxes/Cases were written.

Before we go through each of the four ads, a couple of things: first, there was no mention of wax or cello products, and second, these were pre-sales with expected delivery in March/Early April.

The first ad related to 1978 Topps was an early bird special from Stephen Garrihy.

First, he targeted set builders directly, offering one, two, or three. Then, he offered 500 ct boxes (vending) for $6.50 for one, $11.50 for two, and $6.00 for each additional. You could also order a case of 24 boxes for $94.00. What’s interesting is the offer of ten free cards for folks who bought two boxes to fill in missing numbers within a set build.

The second ad was from Okey Blankenship.

He also first offered complete sets and then single vending boxes, as well as vending cases for sale.

Edward Mathewson chronologically had the third 1978 Topps baseball ad in the ‘zine. He offered a similar missing card offer for collectors who ordered two vending boxes.

The final ad was from G. S. Gallery. They offered one, two, or three vending boxes with a guaranteed 726 card set.

They also offered credits toward future purchases, ‘vinyl see-through pages,’ and a ‘1978 Baseball Yearbook’ for sale.

By the way, here’s what 1978 Topps Baseball Vending Boxes (~$3k these days) and Cases look like.

1978 Beckett Price Survey Update

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I shared Dr. Jim Beckett’s first price survey results a few weeks ago. Well, the following year, he kicked off an update with the following bit of hobby history that I scanned from the January 1978 issue of The Trader Speaks: Dr. Jim Beckett’s Price Survey Update!

David Kathman on the net54 boards pointed out that SCD published the 1978 survey update results in their July 15, 1978, issue, with an abbreviated version in the 1978 edition of the Sport Americana Baseball Card Checklist book. I believe The Trader Speaks published the updated results in their April 1978 issue; I just don’t happen to have that one in the Hobby Library to be able to include a scan.

Then, in 1979, Beckett’s first price guide book, The 1979 Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide, was published with the help of Dennis Eckes.

The rest is history!

1982 Union Oil Dodger Player Portraits

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Marc Sarchet highlighted the incredible 1982 Union Oil Dodger Player Portraits in the March 1983 issue of The Trader Speaks with some information that seems to have been lost to the modern (digital) hobby. So, I’ve decided to highlight the set on my site.

Beckett includes the following information about the 26-card set on its website:

Artist Nicholas Volpe drew members of the Dodgers for a Union Oil giveaway. These color portraits are painted in pastel; one portrait a week was given away at the stations. The cards measure 8 1/2″ x 11″ and the backs contain statistics and other biographical information. An album which contained 20 plastic sheets to hold these cards was sold by the Dodgers for $6.

So, Beckett didn’t include information about the set’s extension beyond 20, the timeline of its release, the confusion from station owners, the lag between the 20th and 21st prints, the cost of sets or 100 print boxes, or that the Dodgers sold an album to house the set; here are a few photos of it.

Neither Beckett nor Sarchet mentioned that Volpe also painted fantastic Dodgers sets in 1962 and 1969. Also, elsewhere, I’ve read that the portraits were free if you bought at least 8 gallons of fuel at 76 Gas Stations.

And yes, PSA will slab these oversized portraits.

1941 Joe DiMaggio’s Restaurant Postcards

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One of the most colorful and unique hobby-adjacent collectibles you can add to your collection is a circa 1941 Joe DiMaggio’s Restaurant Linen postcard. I picked up this variation and its souvenir envelope for just $27.

Ron Menchine wrote a few books on baseball postcards and said, “The most famous and probably the best of the brothers who have played baseball were the DiMaggios. They grew up near the San Francisco waterfront, so it’s not surprising that they parlayed their fame and money into a popular restaurant on Fishermen’s Wharf.”

The variation with the three brothers along the top has the following specs, according to Menchine in his 1999 Baseball Postcard Collection book:

  • Publisher: Joe DiMaggio’s Restaurant, San Francisco, CA
  • Manufacturer: Curt Teich Co., Chicago, IL
  • Type: Linen
  • Postmark: Not Used
  • Value: $100-$150

The other variation of the restaurant’s postcard has two interior, an exterior, and a Joe DiMaggio picture on the front.

If you’re into graded items, PSA has graded four with interior views and seven with all the brothers, and SGC has added two of each of those copies. SGC also has two labeled as ‘Joe DiMaggio’ in their Pop Report, but I think those are old-flip three-brother combos, like the following example. I’ve also seen a Beckett slabbed postcard before.

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