Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
John The February 1993 issue of Baseball Cards feature called Readers’ Choice not only had a reader call (incorrectly, IMHO) the 1951 Bowman Paul Richards card the worst baseball card of all time, but it also featured this gem from Dan Tisdale about a pair of 1974 Topps football cards.
Here’s each card in full color. What do you think? Are these the worst football cards? Lineman didn’t get the love from Topps in the ’70s!
Here’s an example of a 1935 R321 Goudey Puzzle Series window sign that was auctioned off in April 2003. The sign promoted the premiums collectors could redeem wrappers for.
The catalog described the sign as 9 1/2” x 11”, coming from the great Goudey find of the early 1970s. The sheet is blank-backed, printed on off-white stock, and described as being in near-mint condition despite the sheet’s original glue strips along the top and bottom edges and a single mailing fold at the center.
REA sold what looks like another example of the sign in April 2014 for $415.
They wrote, “The 1935 Goudey “4-in-1” card wrapper offered kids two types of premium redemption, both of which are clearly described here: The coupon portion of the wrappers could be saved and redeemed (through the mail) for an assortment of premiums, including membership to the Knot Hole League, a glove, a cap, or even a “Dizzy and Daffy baseball suit.” The remaining portion of the wrappers could be saved up for a photo, which could be obtained directly from the local storekeeper.”
Here are four different 1935 Goudey baseball wrappers (White & Small Serrated and no Lines, White & Serrated with Lines, Large Clear Lines & Large Clear No Lines) that Memory Lane Inc. sold in August 2017 for $565 so you can read the coupon details.
I’ve shared this photo of “The Topps 10” 1991 Topps baseball cards before, and I’ll do it again because the photography in this set is top-notch; some say it’s the best of any Topps set ever.
I may not order them the same way the readers of Topps Magazine did since I think the image of Cecil Fielder barrelling toward Carlton Fisk is a true classic, but that’s ok.
In addition to these ten, you could argue for the inclusion of many others, like the Sandberg or Ripken record-breaker cards, any of the White Sox cards with the 1917 throwback uniforms, some of the great landscape shots like Shane Mack’s, or portraits like Mariano Duncan. And lastly, let’s remember this fellow, Chipper Jones!
A lot of people remember the April 2004 Mastro auction for the incredible unopened material they sold from, I believe, OPC’s archives. Perhaps overlooked a bit were all the empty vintage Bowman and Topps football display boxes they sold a few years later in 2008.
It’s tough to put prices on items like these today in 2024, given the run-up in vintage unopened/display items, but here are a few sales:
I first discussed the 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken #616 FF Error card in an article about expensive baseball card printing errors that was focused on modern cards. In it, I wrote that “Fleer didn’t notice that the Bill Ripken card they released had an obscenity written on the bottom of the bat he was holding. It spelled out, “F**k FACE.” After the company became aware of the error, they released subsequent printings with the words obscured. First, they had a blob of what appeared to be White-Out, then a pen scribble, and finally a black square. Ripken admitted that he wrote the words on the bat to spot it easily as his batting practice bat. Ripken also believes that Fleer couldn’t have missed the error and suggested that they enhanced it to generate extra publicity.”
The 5 Bill Ripken #616 cards have the following populations and approximate prices:
Now, if you want to pull a 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken #616 FF Error card from a pack, you need to buy a case or an authenticated box from a trusted source with the right provenance.
There is a 5-digit number printed on 1989 Fleer cases. The case you buy needs the right numbering on it, or the box needs to list the 5-digit number of the case it came from. In the picture that follows, 83422 is printed in black ink on the lower right side.
The first digit is the print year, 9 for 1989, and 8 for 1988. The next three numbers represent the day of the year. 001 is for January 1st, 004 would be January 4th, and so on. The last digit is either a location or a shift.
Digits before 90171, January 17th, 1989, have the Bill Ripken FF error inside. I’ve been reading that the error has been verified in cases up to 90191, but I haven’t seen that myself.
The next two pictures and the case above will have the FF error since their codes are under 90171.
This 1989 Fleer Wax Box, authenticated by the Baseball Card Exchange, came from a case with code 90122; therefore, it may have a FF error inside.
The next two pictures are of cases that will not have the FF error since their codes are above 90171.
If you pull a 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken #616 FF error from a pack, let me know in the comments.
Non-sport seems to be getting a lot of hype these days, so I thought I’d share this cool auction from April 2004 of a 1969 Topps and O-Pee-Chee “Man on the Moon” wax boxes! As the lot said, space exploration was at the forefront of the nation’s consciousness during the late 1960’s.
The 1969 Topps Man on the Moon 24-count display box contained 24 ten-cent wax packs, while the 1969 O-Pee-Chee Man on the Moon box originally contained 36 5-cent packs (the box in this auction was incomplete with just 30 packs).
“Real Photos Of Men On The Moon!”
Mastro’s April 2004 catalog featured this “only known example” 1966/67 USA Test uncut display box. It was described as an ex-Topps Vault item and was accompanied by that company’s LOA.
The 18” x 25”’ blank-backed sheet, printed in the US on regular cardstock, bears the unfolded, central rendering of a 24-count, 5-cent wax pack counter-sales box. Masto wrote that small proofer’s notes and printing alignment marks appear in the periphery of the sheet.
Lelands first sold an assembled 1966-67 Topps USA Test Wax Display Box (pictured below) in October 2017 for $8070 before selling another for $4555 in February 2019.
And for completeness, here’s a 1966 Topps Test hockey “cello” wrapper. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I found this one to credit the source.
