Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
John This is the only 1975/76 Topps Hockey cack case I can recall ever seeing.
Mastro Auctions offered it in their April/May 2008 Sports & Americana Catalog. The case has three 24-count rack-pack boxes, each holding 42 cards.
BBCE Auctions sold this single 1975/76 Topps Hockey rack box for just under $15k in November 2023.
Here’s the original 5” x 7” pen and ink artwork used for Ted Williams’ 1969 Topps card.
Here’s the front of the card for reference.
Here’s a gem from the past: a 1952 Topps Baseball High Numbers Partial Uncut Sheet featuring Eddie Mathews in the lower right corner. It’s been a while since I’ve spotted this beauty in the hobby.
While just a partial sheet, it’s pretty rare to find 25 1952 Topps high-number cards together, let alone in an uncut 5×5 grid! The sheet’s overall condition was described as “Very Good” in the lot’s description in Mastro’s November 2000 Fine Sports Auction catalog.
Over my years studying the post-war hobby, I can’t recall ever reading about the 1961 National City Bank Cleveland Browns set. The priciest card to sell from it is this PSA 9 Jim Brown, which sold for just over $20k in Memory Lane’s Summer 2022 Auction.
National City Bank released the 36-card set in sheets of six to depositors in the bank’s Quarterback Club.
Besides the Jim Brown, the set’s most desirable cards include the Quarterback Club Membership Card, Len Dawson, Lou Groza, and Bobby Mitchell.
Naturally, since drafting this post, I’ve been seeing these cards everywhere!
Here’s some hobby-show history from March 1982, when you could get a Hank Aaron autograph for $5!
The advertisement for the “East Coast’s Newest and Largest Show..Sports & Paper Collectible Show and Sale” in White Plains, NY, was scanned from the February 1982 issue of Trader Speaks.
And here’s what may be the coolest Hank Aaron signed items in the hobby: a signed ticket stub from the game where he hit his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth.
I recently discovered that this 1961 Post Cereal baseball advertising display sign existed when I found it inside an auction catalog from April 2000.
The cardboard sign was described as being a 28” circular heavy cardboard sign with blow-up pictures of nine 1961 Post Cereal cards, including Willie Mays (autographed) Whitey Ford, Nelson Fox, Roy Face, Pete Runnels, Lew Burdette, Ken Boyer, Jim Gentile, and Jim Lemon.
The auction presumed that some printed advertising in the center was probably missing.
It appears that Collect Auctions re-sold the same sign in November 2018 for $1160. They included this close-up of the Mays card (with a Beckett Authentication Service endorsement).
How cool is this giant vintage Wonder Bread cardboard sign? It’s dated to the late ‘50s and pictures eight of the era’s biggest stars in “floating” headshot style, including Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Elston Howard, Warren Spahn, Stan Musial, Paul Hornung, Del Shofner, and Sam Huff.
The December 2001 auction lot described the cardboard display as “thick” and 46 x 34 inches.