John

1950 Topps Frank Buck’s Bring ‘Em Back Alive One-Cent Display Box And Wrapper

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Here’s an impossibly scarce Topps display box from their early years as a company that once held 120 penny packs of Frank Buck’s Bring ‘Em Back Alive cards.

Mastro offered this box in their April 2004 Americana Premier Catalog Auction, which included the most ridiculous selection of non-sports cards I’ve ever seen. The box came with the following Canadian-printed wrapper.

The lot’s description said Topps produced the box in 1951, but the community seems to have settled on a 1950 labeling for the set with an American Card Catalog Designation of R714-2 (ACC# R714-2). The box was described as being in near-mint condition, while the wrapper was described as EX.

Heritage sold the following box, which looks like it could be the same one Mastro did, for $504 in May 2024.

Also, for some reason, my Sport Americana Price Guide to the Non-Sports Cards 1930-1960 describes this as a Bowman set, but you can see the bottom of the box has a Topps copyright with a 1950 date. I think it was just a typo, though. When referencing it elsewhere in the book, they referred to the set as a Topps-produced one.

The Non-Sports Bible says the 100-card set “was originally issued as 2-card panels that are now quite difficult to find intact. ‘Animals of the World’ is sequel to this set. Panels command a premium due to scarcity.” Despite not mentioning it, I’m pretty sure the one-cent packs had just a single card. And more about the Animals of the World set in tomorrow’s blog post.

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

The First Converse Basketball Yearbook

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Oh, to be able to time-travel back to July 1998 to bid on this one would make a fantastic addition to the Hobby Library.

The Converse Rubber Shoe Company published its first basketball yearbook in 1922, and it has become a classic. It contains the rules of the game (for that time) and pictures of all the best pro and college teams of the day, including the original Celtics team with Nat Holman.

This particular volume was described as being in excellent condition, with a few tears and minor creases on the back cover.

Converse published the yearbooks annually from 1922 to 1983. The early ones are pricey; a signed 1925 edition is available on eBay for $350, and a 1927 release is available for $130 (June 2024). And while I tracked down a few more 1922 examples online (below), who knows if one will ever come up for sale again?

VintageBasketball.com shared a few words about them here, along with the following picture of the 1922 edition.

I also tracked down these photos on WorthPoint, which I think were part of an old eBay auction that described the book as 64 pages long.

1966 Topps Baseball Uncut Blank-Back Proof Sheet

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Here’s a great item from the days of auction past: a 1966 Topps baseball full uncut blank-back proof sheet featuring 11 Hall of Famers.

Mastro offered this one in their May 2008 Sports & Americana auction catalog and included the following description:

An incredible eye-catcher, this very scarce uncut sheet offers unrivaled star power! With its content derived from the issue’s 2nd Series, the 132-card proof sheet’s roster is filled with Hall of Famers, including Alston, Banks (2), Brock (2), Cepeda, Ford (2), Killebrew, Morgan and the rookie card of Palmer. Measuring approximately 28″ x 43″ the blank-backed item’s fully printed obverse depictions are arranged in an 11-card-by-12-card configuration. The sheet presents about EX display quality, and reflects inevitable, scattered surface wrinkling (affecting many individual subjects, including one Brock, one Banks and the Killebrew designs) and marginal faults incurred during factory handling and rolled storage.

REA sold a proof sheet with the same card layout in the Spring of 2021 for $2,880. After reading about the condition and inspecting the paper loss and borders, it’s likely the same sheet Mastro had offered 13 years earlier.

Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!

1969 (Or 1968) Topps Deckle Edge Test Set Uncut Sheet

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Here’s a pretty cool item that Mastro auctioned off in March 2000: a 1969 Topps Test Set Uncut Sheet.

There are nine players on the sheet, including Carl Yastrzemski. However, Topps only used the Yaz image in the deckle-edge insert set that year. The auction description pointed out that the deckle-edge cards use similar black-and-white images with the player’s signatures across the bottom third of the cards, so it’s likely that this heavy cardboard sheet was made in that issue’s preparation. And since uncut deckle-edge sheets show identical card layouts and spacing, it’s possible this one was an early proof.

In an article about 2018 Heritage cards, SABR wrote a few words about these proof sheets, “I discovered that Topps did a test run for deckle edge in ’68 that was never distributed. There are uncut proof pages and singles with blank backs that have blue, black and red autographs. Apparently, Topps wanted to see which color looked the most realistic. By the way, the O-Pee-Chee deckle cards used black ink for autographs. Interestingly, the proof sheets contain nine images, only one of which was used in ‘69: Carl Yastrzemski. The rest of the players (Dave Adlesh, Hank Aguire, Sandy Alomar, Bob Johnson, Claude Osteen, Juan Pizzaro, Hal Woodeschick and Sonny Jackson–who is depicted on the Colt ‘45s) appear to have been randomly selected. Only Osteen could have reasonable been considered a star in 1968.”

For reference, here’s a proof sheet of 1969 Topps Deckle Edge cards, representing two complete 33-card sets, that REA sold in the spring of 2021 for $600.

Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!

1921 W551 Babe Ruth/Ty Cobb Strip Card Pairing

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The awesome thing about flipping through old catalogs is running across random cards and sets that pique your curiosity and make you learn more about the hobby; that’s precisely what happened when I saw this 1921 W551 Babe Ruth/Ty Cobb Strip in Mastro’s August 2006 catalog.

This example is graded 88 NM/MT 8 by SGC, but I found the 1922 date on the slab and the auction’s title interesting. I used to collect Babe Ruth strip cards and swore this was a 1921 card. So I double-checked Old Cardboard and PSA, and they both date the W551 set to 1921, and it turns out SGC does now as well. Weird…

After some more research, I learned that, if anything, someone could reasonably confuse these W551s with W514s since nine of the 10 baseball player strip card poses are the same. However, the text below the picture is a little different, and Ruth’s picture is entirely different.

Anywho, back to W551, here’s PSA’s set profile: 

The 1921 W551 baseball card set consists of 10 cards, each measuring approximately 1-3/8” x 3-1/4”. The unnumbered cards were printed in strips, with each front revealing a color drawing of a National Pastime hero. The player’s name and team name are printed in the bottom margin. The backs are blank. The W551 set is made up of Frank Baker, Dave Bancroft, Jess Barnes, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Wally Pipp, Babe Ruth, George Sisler, Tris Speaker, and Casey Stengel. Ruth’s example is by far the most desirable item.

And here are a few more W551 fun facts:

  • The cards are 1 3/8″ x 2 1/4″ (but vary drastically from hand cutting).
  • The set has 40 cards (boxers, other sports, movie stars) but only ten baseball cards, but it does have Gene Sarazen (golf) and W. Tilden’s (tennis) rookie cards, which are pricier than you’d think
  • 8/10 of the baseball players are Hall of Famers
  • There are really good reprints with blue labeling; there are also a lot of fake two-card strips (including fake Ruth/Cobb pairs)
  • The cards came in strips of 10

Also, despite there being a ton of them out there, including 13 Ruth/Cobb Panels from PSA and 8 from SGC, 168 PSA and 91 SGC Ruth strips, and 139 PSA Cobb and 76 SGC strips, these cards aren’t cheap. Happy collecting!

1903 Christy Mathewson Major League Player’s Contract

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Here’s Christy Mathewson’s official National League Player’s Contract for the 1903 season, dated September 15, 1902.

Robert Edward Auctions (then a division of MastroNet Inc.) & eBay presented the item in their July 2000 Baseball Cards and Memorabilia auction. Here’s the lot’s description:

Official National League Player’s Contract for the season of 1903 has been signed by Giants owner John T Brush (10/10), Christy Mathewson (signed “Christopher Mathewson”, 10/10), and manager John McGraw (signed “John J. McGraw, 10/10) as a witness. The contract is dated September 15, 1902. When this contract was signed Mathewson had a 34-37 lifetime record and had just finished a 14-17 season. In 1903 he pitched the first of three consecutive 30 game winning seasons, and 12 consecutive seasons of winning between 22 and 37 games per year, including four seasons of thirty or more victories. It is especially significant that then rookie manager John McGraw (who was just about to embark on his first full season as the Giants manager) served as the witness to this signing. McGraw managed Mathewson’s entire career with the Giants and the two are forever linked as the heart and soul of the glory days of the Giants’ Dynasty years during the early twentieth century. An extraordinary document from one of the game’s greatest stars. Very Good to Excellent condition with flawless signatures. LOA.

The contract’s reserve was set at $10,000.

I’m unsure what it sold for, but REA sold Mathewson’s 1902 player’s contract for $41,125 in the spring of 2011, which RRAuction resold in February 2019 for $68,482. Also, Heritage sold Mathewson’s New York Giants rookie contract for $72,000 in August 2020.

1950-1951 Junge’s Bread for Energy Advertising Poster

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Christie’s offered this incredible Junge’s Bread For Energy advertising poster in their October 1993 Sports Memorabilia catalog auction. These are some of the toughest cards to find in the hobby.

Christie’s described the Bread For Energy Label Advertising Poster as follows:

The scarcest of all sports bread end label sets is the 48 label “Bread For Energy” set. It includes 16 Movie Stars, 16 Western Stars and 16 Sports Stars four each of boxing, basketball, wrestling, and football. This rare advertisement for Jungle Bread contains an uncut sheet of 16 labels in color including the following sports subjects, Johnny Lujack, Buddy Young, Kid Gailan, Joe Fulks, Gene Stanlee and the very rare Rocky Marciano. In excellent to mint condition.

The expected price was $1,800-2,200.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much information available about the set. While Christie’s said the set has 48 labels, Beckett’s online directory says the set has 44 cards, while the seller of the following sheet on eBay says 42. And if this is the D290-12 set, my American Card Catalog says there are 64 cards.

That seller on eBay wrote,

This 14 inch by 22 inch magnificent piece of sports and movie nostalgia is the only known, uncut bread-end label sheet and advertising poster for the 1950-51 D290-12 “Bread For Energy” series of 42 different multi-sport and Hollywood celebrities.  The labels were distributed on the ends of loafs of various brands of breads & bakeries. Junge’s Bread was not previously known as a D290-12 bread label bakery brand and this advertising poster is as fresh and beautiful as the day it was printed and prepared in 1950.  

A 16-card, 11 inch by 11 inch, uncut sheet of 16 different bread labels, which were originally exclusively identified with Fischer’s bread, have been affixed to a cardboard poster.  These Junge’s Bread, “Bread for Energy labels” are brand new except for a slight crease that runs from Bing Crosby’s head to the bottom of the William Bendix label. The Kid Gavilan, Edgar Bergan, Joe Fulks are all affected. The sheet contains 3 of the 5 keys to the set including Johnny Lujack, Joe Fulks, and most importantly, a rookie issue of Rocky Marciano.  

Curiously, they wrote that their poster, with an asking price of $10k, is the only known piece, when there is another one on eBay with an asking price of $6k, and none of the three, compared to Christie’s, look the same.

Also, Leland’s has sold three of these Junge’s Bread-style posters. The first two have the same look as the previous three I’ve shared; the first sold for $1,364 in December 2020, and the second sold for $1,240 in February 2021 (this appears to be the $10k eBay one).

However, Lelands also sold this Junge’s Bread for Energy poster for $1,364 in April 2021. Notice that it has a few different cards on it!

If you want to see more examples of the cards, BMW Sports Cards has a nice directory. If you know anything else about them, please get in touch with me.