Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
If you read modern hobby guides about the 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee set, most will say that the cards were available from the artist for $3.50. Well, here’s an ad from the March 1977 issue of The Trader Speaks proving it!
Note that not only were sets advertised for $3.50, but you could get “2 sets for $6.”
Laughlin described the set as 32 cards based on baseball’s most memorable moments, like Hank Aaron’s 715th home run.
I ran across this raw T206 Honus Wagner in Christie’s October 1992 Sports Memorabilia catalog.
I’ve been enjoying tracing T206 Wagner’s sales history lately (number 28 and the Frank Nagy Wagner). Thanks to the Wagner Sales History page and Wagner Gallery on T206Resrouce.com, it’s been made a lot easier. They label this particular example as number 45.
Like I said, Christie’s offered this one raw back in 1992. They provided the following description:
Front depicts Wagner in a color lithograph against a warm orange background with white border, the bottom stating “WAGNER, PITTSBURGH.” The reverse reads “SWEET CAPORAL CIGARETTES, THE STANDARD FOR YEARS” trimmed in red-lined border-2 5/8 x 1 7/16 in.-good to very good.
The T206 Wagner card is the most sought after and avidly pursued collectible card in the hobby today. It has been widely reported that Honus Wagner was vehemently against smoking and therefore requested the withdrawal of his card.However, according to his granddaughter, Ms. Leslie Blair, Wagner objected to the fact that children would have to purchase cigarettes in order to obtain the card; actually, Wanger himself chewed tobacco. To date, fewer than 40 T206 Wagner cards are known to exist.
The expected sales price was $100,000-125,000, but I have yet to confirm what it actually sold for.
The next public sale I have data for is when Heritage Auctions sold the card, now graded Fr 1.5 by PSA, for $2.28M in May 2021. Unfortunately, they didn’t include any information about this Wagner’s provenance.
Goldin then re-sold the card a little over a year later, in October 2022, for $3.72M (a nice 17 month ~$1.5M flip).
Please let me know if you have any more info about Wagner number 45.
I quickly snapped this photo while scurrying about the 2024 National Sports Collectors Convention because it looked familiar.
Once I got home from the show, I remembered the logo was also on the back of 1950 Bowman baseball and football cards.
Details are super scarce, so please contact me if you have more info, but in the early 50s, I remember collectors mentioning that Bowman tried having a collectors club akin to Topps’ Trading Card Guild (Picture Card Collectors Club). The Topps Archives mentions it in a piece titled Re-Rack. Given the boxes below, it could have been how Bowman re-packed unsold cards.
I found that Lelands has sold a pair of these boxes. This first one was titled 1953-54 Bowman Television & Radio Stars/Power For Peace Partial Cello Box (27/36).
It sold for just under $2k in February 2019.
This second example is a 1953 Bowman Power For Peace/NBC Radio & Television Stars Cello Box with 14 Packs. It sold for $879 in March 2022.
The BBCE website has an out-of-stock 1953 Bowman TV & Radio Stars Cello Box that they had offered for $8k.
I also had the following early Bowman cello box in my photo archives; REA sold it in 2021 for $3,960. They resold the same box in August 2024 for $6,900.
Again, please let me know if you have more information about Bowman’s 5-Star Series Picture Card Collectors Club.
Here’s a nice mid-1920s wooden exhibit card machine with two little signed cards showing a 1928 Blue Series Babe Ruth and Grey Tint Lou Gehrig exhibit. Sotheby’s offered the item in their April 1994 Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia auction.
Here’s the lot’s full description:
Early Exhibit Card Machine with Autographed Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Exhibits, mid 1920s wooden exhibit card machine made by Metropolitan Coin Machine Inc. of Brooklyn, N.Y., holds two autographed exhibits of Ruth and Gehrig, the Ruth exhibit is a 1928 blue tint series with the Babe in quotes, a strong bold black ink signature, the Gehrig is a 1926 grey tint exhibit with the signature in the back-ground, “Lou” is a bit light but the “Gehrig” is bold and clear, overall condition of both cards is excellent to mint, with minor corner wear, the machine itself has a glass front and has been refinished, lock and key back, blue lettering “Novelty Card Vendor,” height 13 inches, width 7 1/2 inches, and depth 7 inches, at least near mint condition, wooden exhibit card machines are very rare, very few have survived and the autographed exhibits displayed of Ruth and Gehrig just add to make it a top shelf collectible.
It’s not the exact same card (auto location), but REA sold a signed 1928 Babe Ruth Exhibit card for $5,875 in 2008; it would be just a touch (ok, A LOT) pricier at auction today.
Also, FWIW, I think the Gehrig exhibit might have been a 1928 release as well, but I’m no expert on pre-war exhibit cards.
1954 Topps baseball boxes are extraordinarily desirable (Hello Ted Williams!); Ron Oser Enterprises sold this one in December 2000 with three wrappers.
The lot’s description mentioned that the box had been repaired and glued but was otherwise in VGEX condition.
Rockhurst Auctions re-sold the exact same box in April 2024 for $8,050.
If you’re a vintage display box collector, I’ve seen the following 1954 Topps baseball box variations:
This advertisement from the back cover of the February 1977 issue of The Trader Speaks highlights the most gorgeous cards ever produced: 1976 SSPC!
Why would someone call a collector’s issue one of the most gorgeous sets ever produced? Well, because of the set that influenced its design…
1976 SSPC is a 630-card “collector’s issue” released by TCMA. Dubbed the “Pure Card” set, the design was based loosely on the 1953 Bowman set. The set was available exclusively via mail order and was advertised in the nascent Hobby Media, such as it was in the mid-70s.
Despite the cards bearing a 1975 copyright, the set is considered a 1976 set as it was not released until then.
SSPC was not licensed by either MLB Properties or the MLBPA, and shortly after its release, was sued by Topps. As part of the settlement, SSPC agreed to never reprint their 1976 set, and to never attempt to produce a similar product ever again.
Keith Olbermann, then still in high school, edited the copy on each card.
BaseballCardPedia
Dean’s Cards added that it was the only full baseball card set ever issued during the Topps monopoly, so the hobby saw it as a refreshing change of pace from the predictable Topps issues.
And lastly, if anyone has any other advertisements offering these cards, please get in touch with me.
How many complete 1973 Topps Test Comics complete sets do you think exist in the hobby? My guess is under a dozen.
These nine were part of a complete set of 24 that Mastro Sports Auctions offered for sale in December 2004.
Sports Collectors Digest wrote an excellent and detailed overview of the set in an article titled 1973 Topps Comics “Test” Set an Unreleased Rarity. But PSA, who have only graded 191 total comics across the set, has this shorter profile on their site:
Unique among baseball collectibles, the 1973 Topps Comics set was designed as a “test issue” and is never known to havebeen distributed to the public. The item was originally designed to wrap around bubblegum pieces. These thin, wax paper pieces measure 3-7/16” x 4-5/8” and carry gum-wrapper graphics (with a Johnny Bench “teaser” design) on one side, and the featured-player “Comic” on the reverse, along with a facsimile signature. The 24-piece full set consists of Hank Aaron, Dick Allen, Johnny Bench, Steve Carlton, Nate Colbert, Willie Davis, Mike Epstein, Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Lolich, Mike Marshall, Lee May, Willie McCovey, Bobby Murcer, Gaylord Perry, Lou Piniella, Brooks Robinson, Nolan Ryan, George Scott, Tom Seaver, Willie Stargell, Joe Torre, Billy Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski. The 1973 Topps Comics set is among the toughest of all Topps Test issues to achieve in complete set form and are rarely offered on the secondary market.
Here are a few historical set/near-set sales:
As for unopened gum packs, a dealer named SportsInvestments has this one for sale (August 2024) with an asking price of $7,500.
