Baseball Cards

Trading Labels for Legends: How the 1954 Red Heart Baseball Set Was Advertised and Distributed

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Back in the 1950s, collecting baseball cards was all the rage with kids, and companies saw this as a perfect opportunity to promote their products, including the Red Heart Dog Food Co. They released a series of 33 stunning post-war baseball cards in 1954 featuring some of the biggest names in the game, spread across three sets with blue, green, and red backgrounds. To get your hands on each group of these coveted cards, you only had to send in two Red Heart labels, 10 cents, and a coupon for each item to Red Heart Baseball Pictures in Chicago, Illinois.

1954 Red Heart Dog Food Label Featuring Baseball Player Pictures Offer

Red Heart’s baseball card offer was heavily advertised in Sunday newspaper comic sections in 1954. Some collectors even claimed to have received cards from the company as late as the early 1970s, although the coupons showed an expiration date of January 1st, 1955.

Red Heart used at least four different advertisements to promote its mail-in offer for baseball cards. We don’t have any documentation on how to label them, so I’ll refer to them as Ad Format 1, 2, 3, and 4.

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 1

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 1

All four ads had essentially the same information, just formatted into different sizes and locations on the page. This format was unique because it also shared Red Heart’s offers for baseball caps, t-shirts, autographed baseballs, pennants, identification bracelets, charm bracelets, and cards.

Huggins and Scott auctioned off a Red Heart Order Sheet, offering a head scarf and pen and pencil set as well. It sold for $190 in December 2012.

1954 Red Heart Order Sheet – Side 1
1954 Red Heart Order Sheet – Side 2

The following comic page, which features the ad, is from the Washington D.C. Evening Star, June 20th, 1954.

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 1 On Comic Page

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2

Ad format two is cool because it lists all the players from each series. Maybe this is why the red-backed cards are a little scarcer today. You can see that the same information is organized differently in the space. I’ve found a pair of these formats that probably had different colorings based on the newspaper printer.

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2

This full comic page featuring the ad is from the Washington D.C. Evening Star from April 18th, 1954, the earliest ad I found for the set.

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2 On Comic Page

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 3

Ad format three also organized the same information a little differently. However, the images on the cards are a little more cartoony compared to format 2. Also, you’ve got to give Red Heart credit for securing rights to Stan Musial; Topps and Bowman couldn’t. The color ad is from a May 1954 San Francisco Chronicle. 

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 3

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4

Kudos to the collector who made a fantastic display with this ad and a quartet of cards.

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4

The two full-page comic ads are also from the Washington Evening Star; both were published in May. 

1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4 On Comic Page
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4 On Comic Page

Another item Red Heart used to drum up sales of its Dog Food via the Baseball Player Pictures was an advertising poster. This one features Stan Musial, Al Rosen, Hank Sauer, and Mickey Mantle and includes an original order blank taped to the front. Leland’s sold it for $477 in December 2013.

1954 Red Heart Dog Food Baseball Card Advertising Poster

To sum up, the ads that Red Heart used to promote their 1954 baseball cards (and dog food) were eye-catching and likely successful, as evidenced by the almost 12000 PSA-graded cards that exist today. The company’s marketing team showed creativity and innovation by using different ad formats in Sunday newspaper comics. If you happen to have a 1954 Red Heart Baseball set, adding a newspaper ad to your collection would be a great way to complete it! And it’s worth noting that Red Heart Dog Food Co. still exists today under Smithfield Foods, Inc.

Private Collections Reap Big Sales – A Sports Cards’ Auction Report From 1996

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Sports Cards Magazine & Price Guide had a great feature in the mid-’90s, providing “a wrapup of some of the country’s largest sports auctions.” This one from September 1996 was chockful of incredible items.

Larson highlighted the John F. Kennedy signed ball as the highlight of Mastro’s auction that topped $850,000 in sales. But I wanted to compare two of the cards to today’s prices. The PSA 8 graded 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle sold for $24,394; today, that’s probably a $1M card. And the PSA 8 1914 Crack Jack Joe Jackson, well, Heritage sold one nine years ago for $101k.

As for the rest of the article, half of that stuff won’t show up for sale again, but if any of it does, you can bet on it being a lot pricier!

The Bittersweet Tale Of Casey Stengel’s 1965 Dugan Brothers Baseball Card

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In the summer of 1965, Shea Stadium was buzzing with excitement as nearly 40k fans gathered to celebrate baseball legend Casey Stengel’s 75th birthday. Dugan Brothers, a New York area bakery, even created a baseball card to commemorate the event. Unfortunately, Stengel wasn’t there; he found himself grappling with a broken hip that morning that ended his managerial career. 

The Society For American Baseball Research wrote an excellent piece explaining Stengel’s unexpected goodbye, but here’s the 101. On July 24, 1965, 36,921 fans visited Shea Stadium for a doubleheader that also included a two-inning Old-Timers Day game between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. But the second game of the doubleheader would become historic as Stengel’s last, a 5-1 Mets loss to the Phillies.

After the loss, Stengel joined a few friends who were back in town, some for the old-timers’ celebration, at Toots Shor’s restaurant. After the early morning departure, Stengel went to the home of Mets comptroller Joe DiGregorio, where, ten years later, we learned he had fallen in the bathroom and broke his hip. He went to the hospital the morning of July 25, where he remained for almost a month, after which he confirmed his retirement, which the Mets made publicly official on August 30.

Now, back to the planned July 25 event. Stengel’s birthday was July 30, but the 25th was probably chosen since the Mets were about to go on the road for games against Chicago and Philadelphia from July 28 through August 1. The planned party included a cake from Dugan Brothers, a New York Area bakery known for their drivers (The Dugan Man) who would deliver items to your home until they went out of business in 1967.

Dugan Bros. Truck

The company also made a one-off card to celebrate Stengel. It’s one of the tougher-to-find 1960s cards.

1965 Dugan Bros. Casey Stengel – Front
1965 Dugan Bros. Casey Stengel – Reverse

The 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″ card was given to each fan in attendance. The front features Stengel in a Mets uniform, while the back has basic biographical information.

PSA has graded a few examples, a PSA 2 and a PSA 3, along with one PSA/DNA copy. SGC has a single 1965 Dugan Bros. Stengel in their pop report, a 5.5. Pricing varies; a slabbed signed copy from Beckett sold on eBay in November 2024 for $659.99; the PSA 2 pictured above has also been on eBay for a while with a $249.99 (or Best Offer) price; it was recently discounted to $199.99. Brockelman Auctions sold the following raw example for $222.75 in February 2021, but you can probably pick up a raw copy for between $50-100 with a bit of patience. 

1965 Dugan Bros. Casey Stengel

Now, to finish the story. The Mets still said farewell to Stengel at Shea Stadium on September 2, 1965. Here’s an original 7.5″ x 10″ photo of the event showing Stengel walking across the field with a cane.

Casey Stengel Says Farewell To Shea Stadium

The Mets finished the 1965 season with a dismal 50-112 record, but the Mets retired Stengel’s #37 before the season was over, and the Yankees followed suit, making Stengel the first person to have his number retired by both teams!

Amazing Auction History – Eight Uncut 1933 Goudey Proof Sheets

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How about this for some amazing auction history: A group of eight uncut 1933 Goudey proof sheets from The Official 13th Annual National Sports Collectors Convention Auction, July 8-10, 1992.

Here’s the lot’s description, courtesy of Superior Galleries:

1933 Goudey Proof Sheets. This lot contains eight uncut proof sheets. When cards are printed in color, the printer checks each color process to make sure the presses are working properly and the colors are coming out as desired. This procedure has resulted in the color process such as the Goudey color process sheets. These sheets were not meant to be cut up and distributed-their purpose was to help the printer ensure that all was correct before full production be-gan. These are truly the first cards produced for the issue and are “proofs” in the true sense of the word, as they are meant to be ‘proofread.’

There are exactly two groups of complete Goudey proof processes known and this is one. Two different complete groups of eight process sheets, plus two process sheets of a third group of 24 Goudeys, which since had been cut up for individual sale. Notes from the original Goudey file indicate they were removed in 1943. The punch holes on the left side of each sheet were put there by the printer for the purpose of binding the sheets together with the aim to create a “book” of color proof processes. The same binding process, such as this or staples, is a common practice so the proof processor can keep the sheets neat and orderly for future reference, and separate from other printing jobs.

These sheets were originally taken from the Goudey Company in 1943 and were later discovered in the early 1970g. These are perhaps the most historic and unique uncut sheets ever to be offered for sale. The sheets have been framed and matted. Overall condition is Excellent to Mint.

Estimated value in 1992: $175,000-250,000.

Happy collecting!

Updating the Provenance of the 1915 Cracker Jack Advertising Sheet

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It was a big-time hobby event in the spring of 2009 when REA sold the nicer of the two known 1915 E145 Crack Jack Advertising Posters for $152,750. The lot’s description said it had never been sold before at auction, but Goober’s seems to have offered it in their September 1991 catalog.

Here are the photos of the sheet when REA offered it in 2009; it’s definitely the same item Goober’s offered.

The discrepancy comes in the fourth paragraph of the auction’s description:

There is very little pricing history on the 1915 Cracker Jack Poster due to its extreme rarity, and no sales ever at auction. In years past, Robert Edward Auctions has handled the private sales of both 1915 Cracker Jack posters known to exist. The restored example appeared as Lot 2 in Robert Edward Auctions’ September 1994 auction, but due to the restoration on that example, it failed to receive the minimum bid of $25,000. It was sold privately immediately following the close of the auction for an offer of $20,000. The poster offered here was long ago personally owned by REA president Robert Lifson. He purchased it from Herman Kaufman, one of the hobby’s great and most knowledgeable longtime collectors and dealers, in the mid-1980s for the then princely sum of $8,000. At the time, $8,000 could buy a T206 Wagner. Herman Kaufman had just purchased it days earlier at a lower level from another hobby legend, Josh Evans. In retrospect, all of them knew it was a great item but none of them realized the magnitude of the piece. This was unchartered territory in terms of quality and rarity, and these sales occurred long before the Internet, full-color baseball memorabilia auction catalogs, or the explosion in values that occurred over the next few years. In 1989 Lifson was offered $35,000 to sell the Cracker Jack poster in a direct sale, an offer which he accepted. At the time, $35,000 was more than the value of an entire high-grade Cracker Jack set or a T206 Wagner. The buyer has had it hanging on his wall ever since. After twenty years he has decided it is time to allow someone else the opportunity to enjoy it, and has consigned it to this auction. He’s asked us what we think its worth, and we just can’t tell him. We didn’t know the true value of the Cracker Jack poster in the 1980s, and we still don’t know how to value this piece twenty years later. After this auction, we’ll know!

It is possible that the person who bought the sheet for $35k in 1989 tried to sell it via Goober’s, but the sale fell through, a buyer’s premium wasn’t met, or that REA missed this part of the advertising sheet’s history, I have no idea.

Also, in August 2017, Heritage tried to sell the slightly refurbished poster, but the item’s page says “not sold.”

The 1950 Pittsburgh Pirates Photo Pack: A Rare Team-Issue Set with 1951 Bowman Connections

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One of the rarest team-issued photo sets, the 1950 Pittsburgh Pirates Picture Pack is a 26-photo gem, with several images used as the basis for 1951 Bowman cards. Kiner is the set’s highlight, but its original envelope is rarer and nearly impossible to find.

Mastro and Stenbach’s August 1997 Fine Sports Auctions Catalog offered this example.

The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards describes the 26-card 1950 Pittsburgh Pirates Photo Pack as follows:

The player photos in this picture pack that was sold at Forbes Field measure 6-1/2” x 9” and are printed in black-and-white on heavy, blank-backed paper. A facsimile ‘autograph’ is printed on front of each picture, though all were written in the same hand. Several of the photos from this set were the basis for the color paintings found on 1951 Bowman Cards. The unnumbered pictures are checklisted here alphabetically.

A few past auctions have said that perhaps the set only has 25 photos, noting that maybe the Dillinger didn’t exist. However, the Standard Catalog includes it, and I found the following photo of one on eBay as part of a complete set that was listed for $160 in November 2024.

The eBay asking price of $160 is reasonable considering how few set sales I managed to track down and because Huggins and Scott sold a partial set of 20 for $172 in August 2022.

Also, contrary to the standard catalog, some auctions mentioned that the photos are on thin stock, not heavy-backed paper.

Finally, here are two photo pack images, Bell and Law, that were the basis for the ’51 Bowman cards.

I believe Pete Castiglione, Cliff Chambers, Murry Dickson, Vic Lombardi, Bill Macdonald, and Clyde McCullough are the others who match.

Update 16 December 2024: After I shared the article on my socials, SABR Baseball Cards shared the following photo of Pirates GM Joe L. Brown with a stack of the photos!

Unopened Packs – To Open Or Not To Open?

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Here’s another great mid-90s article from Sports Cards Magazine about the unopened collecting niche; this one from Doug Koztoski includes info from Mark Murphy, the Baseball Card Kid.

Here are a few key takeaways:

  • “For every pack that is opened from a particular year, all remaining packs are that much rarer.”
  • Doug interviewed Mark Murphy, the Baseball Card Kid, for insights; he was the Steve Hart (The Baseball Card Exchange) of the hobby then.
  • Murphy said that Wax was the pack of choice with unopened collectors; I think that’s still true.
  • At the time, a 1-cent 1933 Goudey Sports Kings pack was ~$600
  • The article highlighted that ’59 football penny packs were pretty common, but a penny pack from ’60 is tough to find.
  • A run of 1950s baseball nickel packs was estimated at $61,500 in the mid-’90s.
  • Fake packs were already very commonplace at the time.