John – Page 3 – Post War Cards

Topps in the Field: The Rare 1910 Hermes Ice Cream Honus Wagner Pin

March 16, 2025 by John

Topps Magazine had a feature called Topps In The Field dedicated to news from around the collecting world; in the summer of 92, they included this piece about collectible pins, specifically the Hermes Ice Cream Honus Wagner from the Copeland Collection!

I’ve only started learning about sports pins, so I’m not an expert. Luckily, I do have Sotheby’s Copeland Catalog Topps was referring to. Here’s a scan of the pin from the catalog.

And here’s how Sotheby’s described the Hermes Ice Cream Pin lot that included the Wagner:

Hermes Ice Cream Pins, 1910, lot of 4 different pins, set features the 1909 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, black and white portraits, yellow border with a blue flag “Pittsburgh” and yellow skull and cross bones at bottom, Hermes logo across the top, players not identified, unnumbered, made by Whitehead and Hoag, the lot includes Leach and Abstein (both only good condition due to excessive surface wear), Clarke-Manager and Hall of Famer (near mint) and Honus Wagner (minor edge stains near the word cream on the right—also minor surface scratches) still a very significant pin and at least excellent condition. 1¼ in. diameter (4) Hermes Ice Cream pins are very rare. Honus Wagner is one of the finest early pins and is highly coveted by collectors.

The expected sales price in the catalog was $2,000-$2,500; Topps wrote that it sold for $2,975.

Regarding the Wagner pin specifically, PSA has only encapsulated two examples and graded one a seven and the other a three. And neither looks like the Copeland pin to me.

Here’s some of the sale’s history: Heritage sold the seven for $6,120 in December 2019. REA then resold it for $9k in the Summer of 2021. REA sold the three for $2,160 in the Spring of 2019 before reselling it in the Fall of 2024 for $3,840.

Happy collecting!

Baseball’s Top Ten Most Sought-After Cards (In November 1994)

March 15, 2025 by John

Here’s a great piece put together by Jon Brecka for the November 1994 issue of Trading Cards magazine, ranking baseball’s top ten most sought-after cards. Thirty years later, it’s hard to argue against! Would you trade any out?

Here are cards 6-10.

How many people do you think have all ten “All-Time Greats?” What a collection that would be!

Happy collecting!

A Look Back At Another T206 Honus Wagner Sale

March 14, 2025 by John

It’s time to look at the history of another T206 Honus Wagner—this time with the PSA 1 example sold in Mastro’s 1999 auction.

While raw, The T206Resource labeled this Wanger as 31a in their gallery.

Then, after being consigned to Mastro for their November 1999 Millennium Auction, it was graded and given the notation 31b by the T206 Resource. The T206 Resource said it sold for $58,513, which is partially true, as lot 869, with the 15% buyer’s premium, the final price, per my records, was $67,290. I believe it remains in the same slab to this day.

Two other incredible cards accompanied Wagner on Page 207 of the catalog: the Plank sold for $13,126, and the Magie sold for $9,492.

By the way, The T206 Resource calls this The Long Island Wagner on their Sales History page. Is that accurate? Also, if anyone has any more information about the history of this T206 Wagner example, please reach out. Happy collecting!

The Ones That Got Away: 1978 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheets

March 13, 2025 by John

I used to have a ridiculous 1978 Topps basketball collection: two complete high-grade PSA Sets, wax boxes, packs, trays, vending, display cases, wrappers, etc. But one thing that always eluded me was an uncut sheet, like this blank-back proof that Mastro auctioned off in December 2007.

The auction included a sister item, a blank-back proof sheet of the card backs.

Here’s the full description:

These 66-card proof sheets present, respectively, the front and back sides of 66 entries in Topps’ 1978/79 Basketball series. Virtually never found in this form, these items are printed on bright white cardstock of standard thickness; both have an unusual glossy character of a type that’s only observed on selected Topps proof relics from this era. The sheets measure about 22″ x 28-3/4″ (each with an irregular border cut at one edge) and display their subject designs in 6-card-by-11-card arrangements. Highlights among the sheets’ content include Bing, Frazier, Gervin, Gilmore, Goodrich, Hayes, King and Malone. The sheets feature alignment marks and color notes in their margins, and both exhibit a number of editorial marks placed in grease pencil. Overall EX display quality with a few small creases and wrinkles, along with occasional surface cracks in their glossy coating.

I’ve only been able to track down a few sales. The following sheet sold on eBay in 2019; I want to say it closed at $565, too.

And Mile High Card Co. sold the following sheet for $424 in December 2024.

Also, check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more items like these, and happy collecting!

TCMA’s Early Days: A Look at Their 1972 Advertisement in The Trader Speaks

March 12, 2025 by John

Here’s a historically significant ad TCMA placed in the April 1972 issue of The Trader Speaks—one of their first as a newly incorporated company that year.

Unfortunately, I’m unaware of a definitive source of TCMA sets and checklists; the major catalogs are all missing at least a handful. That said, The Standard Catalog does include the 504-card 1972 TCMA The 1930’s set. Here’s what they wrote about it:

Extending to over 500 cards, this was one of TCMA’s first ventures into the business of creating collectors’ edition card sets of former players. Over the length of the series there were a number of style differences. The set was issued in 21 series of 24 cards each. All cards were printed in black-and-white (except for Series 18-19 printed in blue) and feature player photos on usually borderless fronts. Dimensions were about 2” x 2-3/4” for most series, with Series 15-16 in a 2-1/2” x 3-1/2” format. Except for a TCMA copyright line on some of the earlier cards, there is no other printing on the front. Back have player identification, team affiliations, TCMA copyright and, after #72, a card number. Production is reported as 1,000 sets. Blank-back version and uncut panels of 12 exist.

But there’s another great source of information for the 1930’s and reprint sets from TCMA’s ad, and that’s Bert Sugar’s 1975 The Sports Collectors Bible.

And why is that? Well, Mike Aronstein wrote the section on “Collectors’ Issues!”

He’d have had a good idea three years later what he printed! Here’s the intro that he wrote:

Next, in the first two pages of the 1930s set, notice that the first three are described as unnumbered, and Aaronstein included information about distribution. Series No. 1 was issued separately, with 2 through 19 issues in pairs.

A few pages later, on the bottom of page 346, Aronstein included information about the company’s reprint sets. Some of these are mentioned in The Trader Speaks advertisement.

Happy collecting!

The Backbone Of The Amusement Arcade Business: Exhibit’s Cards For 1955

March 11, 2025 by John

Here’s another cool item from Mastro’s June 2008 Classic Collector Auction: a 1955 Exhibit Card Catalog.

The only other copy I’ve seen (which could be the same as Mastro’s) is on Adam Warshaw’s Exhibit Supply Company Page.

The full text of the cover says: Exhibit’s Cards for 1955: Sportlands, Amusement Parks, Carnival Operators. The Backbone of the Amusement Arcade Business. Exhibit Supply – 4218 30 W. Lake St. Chicago 24, Ill., Est. 1901.

From the ad’s appearance, the slicks along the top appear to feature Exhibit’s Art Model Cards.

Happy collecting!

The 1979-80 OPC Hockey Set Isn’t Great Only Because of The Gretzky Rookie Card

March 10, 2025 by John

The 1979 OPC Hockey set is a landmark release in the hobby, largely due to the iconic Wayne Gretzky rookie card. But the set is incredible for a few other reasons. In this piece, I’ll highlight some of them while saving a detailed analysis of Gretzky’s #18 rookie for another time.

First, the 1979 OPC design is sharp! They moved from a white border design to the now-iconic blue-bordered design.

However, while they look incredible, those blue borders are condition-sensitive and prone to chipping. The cards are also tough to find centered. The rough cut edges are typical for O-Pee-Chee cards, and while they don’t detract from the grading of cards, they can turn off certain collectors.

The bilingual backs have 1978-79 statistics, a biography, and a cartoon sharing a fun fact about the player.

Next, the set debuted four new NHL clubs in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford. These team cards and checklist emblems (logo cards) are some of the most expensive cards in the set.

The set is also famous for having the last cards of Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Ken Dryden. Howe was still playing pro hockey at 51, so this set demonstrates the torch passing from Howe to the 19-year-old Gretzky.

As is standard with older hockey releases, the checklists are particularly expensive. This set includes three: #131, #237, and #346.

Unfortunately, wax packs are selling for a little more than the 20 cents they sold for when released in 1979. Graded wax packs are multi-thousand-dollar collectibles; REA sold a PSA 9 in the spring of 2024 for just over $3k.

Wax boxes, which hold 48 packs, are proportionally expensive; each pack has 14 cards, which means you will get 672 total cards in a box. With a 396-card checklist, you have a good chance of pulling multiple Gretzky (or any other) cards. But remember, the cards are condition-sensitive; most won’t even be PSA 7 quality out of the pack.

Uncut sheets come to market from time to time as well. Robert Edward Auctions sold this complete set of 1979 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards on three uncut sheets (which obviously included the Gretzky rookie) for just over $20k in their spring 2019 auction. Sheets without the Gretzky rookie are significantly cheaper.

1979 OPC Hockey Complete Set on 3 Uncut Sheets

While the Gretzky card still dominates the public’s perception of the 1979 OPC Hockey set, as it should, the set has many other great features. Happy collecting!