John

The Rare Connie Mack Book Cards

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PSA has only graded 71 Connie Mack Book Cards, so complete sets are ultra-scarce; this raw one was auctioned off in May 2000.

About the set, PSA writes, “The 1951 Connie Mack Book baseball card set, as the name implies, was issued in conjunction with the Hall of Fame manager’s book, “My 66 Years in the Big Leagues.” Consisting of only four cards – Connie Mack, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, and Rube Waddell – each piece measures 2-1/4″ by 3-1/2″ and was issued in a folder entitled “Four Mighty Heroes.” Each black-and-white card features a player photo against a white background and his name identified in print. The reverse has that athlete’s career statistics and an advertisement for Mack’s book. Not surprisingly, the value of Ruth’s card in Near Mint condition is almost twice that of the other three cards combined.”

Sports Collectors Daily reported that “the cards were packaged together in a folder likely sent to reviewers and others in hopes of garnering publicity.”

In May 2021, REA sold one of those folders and an SGC 1-graded Connie Mack card for $114; here are the front and back of the booklet.

Don’t let that sales price fool you; in the fall of 2022, REA also sold a PSA 9-graded Babe Ruth for $4800; hello icon prices!

Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 Point Game Ticket Stub

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On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks in Hershey, Penn. 4,126 tickers were originally sold for the game, and here’s one of the remaining stubs. 

This example was offered in Mastro West’s March 2000 Fine Sports Auctions catalog with a minimum bid of $900. They described it as being in Ex to Mt condition with an inscription on the back: “Wilt Chamberland (sic) scored a record 100 pts against N.Y.”

The stub was accompanied by this newspaper article describing the game.

Surviving tickets are incredibly pricey and seem to be getting more expensive; REA sold this PSA 2 graded stub for $36k in the summer of 2023.

They sold this PSA 1.5 Mk’d example approximately a year earlier for $22.2k.

Heritage has also sold several stubs, including a PSA Authentic copy for $26.4 in February 2023, another PSA Authentic copy for $49.2k in February 2022, and a PSA 2 Mk copy for $49.2k in August 2022.

St. Louis Cards Sports Collectors Club 8th Annual Spring Sports Collectors Convention

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Here’s another morsel of card show history, this one from the April 1983 edition of Trader Speaks. It’s an advertisement for the St. Lous Cards Sports Collectors Club and their 8th annual spring sports collectors convention, held May 20-22, 1983, at the Cervantes Convention Center, four blocks from Busch Stadium.

I’d love to see that Lou Brock painting in color; if anyone knows what it is, please leave a comment. I’d also love to time travel back to some of these early ’80s card shows, meet some legends of the game, check out cards before grading, and see what was popular at the time.

A High-Grade 1935 R331 National Chicle Football Complete Set

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This high-grade 1935 R331 National Chicle football complete set was offered for sale in Mastro’s August 2003 Sports Premier Catalog Auction and would rank in the Top 10 of the PSA Registry today.

The highlight was definitely the PSA 7 Bronko Nagurski. In the lot’s description, they wrote that the minimum bid of $3500 was only half of the SMR value of the Nagurski card alone at the time. That means, in 2003, a PSA 7 Nagurski was $7k. Well, REA sold this one for $105k in the summer of 2022.

Original 1949 Bowman Baseball Window Ad Sheet

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It’s incredible that this 1949 Bowman window ad sheet, meant to be stuck inside a window with pre-applied glue, survived intact.

In their May 2000 catalog, Mastro auctions described this 20” x 5-3/4” piece as in near-mint condition with a fold in the center, as manufactured. It features 16 of the set’s 240 “upcoming” cards.

One contributor on the net54 boards said these were displayed in candy store windows in the Philadelphia area in June 1949.

The Second National Sports Collectors Convention

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Bill Heitman wrote this light-hearted review of the Second National Sports Collectors Convention, held at the Plymouth Hilton in Michigan in 1981. It appeared in the September 1981 issue of Trader Speaks.

A couple of notes: I hadn’t realized the second National was a conversion of an already successful show. Second, it’s cool how tight-nit many “hobby influencers” seemed to be in 1981. Next, I wish today’s National conventions had more seminars like this one. It tracks that Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline, would be a popular signer at a Michigan card show. Bill’s closing quote is PERFECT, “If the spirit of the National Convention survives, we will all still have fun in this hobby.”

PS: The magazine was too big for my scanner, so I did my best to “glue” two scans of separate pages together; this was the “centerfold.”

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