Baseball Cards

A Complete SGC-graded 1967 Topps Venezuela Retirado Series Set

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Putting together a complete run of 1967 Topps Venezuela Retirado cards is pretty hard, particularly ones in decent condition, making this complete set of 50 that were auctioned off together in April 2006 all the more impressive.

The lot description noted that Pat Quinn assembled the set one card at a time and upgraded it during his half-dozen 1980s buying trips to Venezuela. This set’s makeup included three cards graded as sevens, four sixes, four 5.5s, 14 fives, 19 fours, and six threes.

PSA’s Pop Report shows around 15-35 graded samples of each card in the set, with the majority graded in the 1-2 range. SGC has graded around ten of each of the 50 cards in the set with similar results.

Hake’s auctions sold a lower-conditioned set of 50 SGC-graded Retirados, from Richard Merkin’s collection, for $7,843 in June 2011. I can’t fathom how much they’d sell for today!

Here’s PSA’s 1967 Venezuelan Retirado set profile:

The 1967 Venezuelan Retirado baseball set is the second segment of a three-part set that also includes the Venezuelan League (#1-138) and the Venezuelan Topps (#189-338). These three sets run contiguous numbers through all three with the Retirado numbering from 139-188. While the first group features the players of the Venezuelan League and the third group consists of Major League Baseball’s stars, the Retirado portion highlights Hall of Famers dating back to the first induction class as well as a handful of more recent stars and potential future inductees. Each card boasts a player portrait in sepia-tone against a blue background with the player’s name printed at the top and “RETIRADO” boldly printed in red at the bottom of the photo. The backs show the player’s personal statistics and a brief biography printed horizontally. Because the set was printed on crude stock paper/cardboard, coupled with a likelihood that many may have been pasted into a scrapbook, the 1967 Venezuelan Retirado set can be difficult for find in high quality. This set is anchored by the likes of Walter Johnson (#139), Lou Gehrig (#141), Honus Wagner (#143), Joe DiMaggio (#145), Ty Cobb (#146), Babe Ruth (#147), Ted Williams (#148), Christy Mathewson (#151), Stan Musial (#157), Sandy Koufax (#162), Satchel Paige (#177) and Jackie Robinson (#184). 

1933-36 Zeenut Pacific Coast League Joe DiMaggio

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Here’s a card I only recently learned about, a 1933-36 Zeenut Pacific Coast League B&W Joe DiMaggio “Minor League” card.

I put “Minor League” in parenthesis because, while the PCL was a minor league, the play was nothing but.

Anywho, I learned about this card after I saw it in a June 2005 catalog. It was a Mastro Classic Collectors Auction, so it didn’t include a description in the catalog. However, PSA has this synopsis on their site:

Produced between 1933 and 1936 by the San Francisco-based Zeenuts Company, this set consists of 166 cards, each approximately 1-3/4” by 3-1/2”. Card fronts bear clear, borderless images of its subject with a right text box boldly identifying (in white-on-black type) the league, player, and team. Card backs are blank. These cardboard classics were originally issued with coupons at the bottom meant to be cut and redeemed for items. The images remained unchanged during the production run, with the expiration dates on the coupons the only way to distinguish their issue year. This set is anchored by two appearances from Joe DiMaggio during his early career with the San Francisco Seals. Card #108 pictures him throwing and card #109 shows him batting. The set is also highlighted by Jimmie Reese (#10) and Vince DiMaggio (#100). Cards that have retained their coupons through the years are highly coveted artifacts. 

Obviously, the pictured card above is a DiMaggio (misspelled DeMaggio on the card) throwing variation without the coupon. Here’s a graded example that includes the coupon. Goldin sold it for $51,660 in May 2021.

Each variation is relatively low-pop. PSA has only slabbed 12 DiMaggio Batting copies, plus three more with coupons, and 17 examples of him throwing, plus five more with coupons.

Update 27 October 2024: On 26 October 2024, Heritage Auctions sold the lone authenticated, signed copy of the throwing variation for $37,200.

The hobby has so much breadth and depth!

Frank Nagy’s Signed 1933 Goudey Mel Ott Card

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I ran across this super cool signed 1933 Goudey Mel Ott card in Mastro’s March 2006 Classic Collector Auction catalog. Why so cool? It was part of Frank Nagy’s collection!

Unfortunately, it got reholdered without the Nagy designation before PWCC sold it for $2,212 in August 2019.

Given how hot on-card autos are getting these days, that price looks like a steal for a Pop 2 card.

An R327 Diamond Star Wrapper Hoard

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You’d think wrappers from the 1930’s would be super scarce and super pricey. You got the pricey part right, but they’re more common than you’d think; Mastro offered this lot of 11 together in July 1998.

Mastro wrote that it was the largest group ever made available at one time. A few months earlier, in March, they sold a single wrapper for just under $500. They described the wrappers as having a few wrinkles, but none were less than Ex to Mt condition.

They also explained that this blue and red variety was rarer than the yellow version, most likely because the blue wrapper was only used for Diamond Star’s high-number series. That said, 1) I’m not a pre-war expert, 2) I’ve read in a few vintage publications that at least eight different wrapper variations from this set were used between 1934 and 1936, and 3) Memory Lane Inc. has sold two lots of Diamond Star wrappers, which leads me to believe the Mastro lot may be dated to 1935 and that there are ten wrapper variations.

Memory Lane Inc., which has sold a lot of rare wrapper runs over the years, described this first lot of eight as being from 1934-35, with the blue wrappers with red stars described as 1935 variations.

The second lot was for four different “1936 Diamond Star Baseball Wrappers with 2 Candian Versions.” Notice the star is orange on these wrappers.

If you have more insight into these collectibles, leave a comment!

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

1952-1955 Red Man Tobacco Find of 768 Cards

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REA, then a division of MastroNetInc., offered this massive find of 768 1952-55 Red Man Tobacco cards (760 with tabs) in their July 2000 Baseball Cards and Memorabilia auction. The same auction included a lot of 1971 Milk Duds Giant Assortment of 661 Unassembled Complete Boxes.

They described the lot as the biggest group of Red Man Tobacco cards they had ever seen. It included four 1952 complete sets, six 1953 sets, four 1954 sets, and one 1955 set missing two cards (#AL15 and #AL18). 25% were Nr/Mt to Nr-Mt-Mt, 30% ranged from Ex to Ex-Mt, 35% were Vg to Vg-Ex/Ex, and 10% were lesser.

Here’s the auction catalog cover if you want to own a cheap piece of hobby history.

A 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee Ad

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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.

The PSA 1.5 1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal Honus Wagner’s History

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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.