Baseball Cards

1977 Beckett Price Survey Results

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Here’s a scan of Dr. Jim Beckett’s first report on baseball card prices from the April 1977 issue of The Trader Speaks.

The survey he referenced was distributed across multiple hobby channels, but in keeping with The Trader Speaks theme, here’s the one from their January 1977 issue.

And here’s Part 2 of the Price Survey Results from the May 1977 issue of The Trader Speaks.

As I said, Beckett distributed the survey and results across multiple hobby channels; David Kathman provided a nice overall summary on the net54 boards, including when Dr. Beckett printed details in Sports Collectors Digest.

In the fall of 1976, Jim Beckett, then a professor of statistics at Bowling Green State University as well as a collector and dealer of baseball cards, got the idea of doing a survey of other collectors and dealers in order to determine the market value of various cards and card sets. He wrote up a survey, and the September 30, 1976 issue of Sports Collectors Digest announced his project, and his intention to distribute the survey at various card conventions and by mail. The October 31, 1976 SCD had a status report by Beckett, clarifying what he hoped to achieve with the survey, and the January 15, 1977 SCD printed the survey itself. The results of this first survey appeared in SCD in two parts: in the March 31, 1977 issue for Topps and Bowman cards, and in the April 30, 1977 issue for all other card sets.

Hobby History!

1952 Topps Color Process Proof Cards

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The other day, I published a piece about the 1952 Topps baseball progressive proof uncut sheets. I shared that, after buying all seven of them from Sotheby’s in 1992, it looked like the owner trimmed the full-color process proof sheet before reselling the full series of seven sheets at REA in 2006 (they very well could have changed hands a few more times over the years, I have no idea). The next owner saved the final color-process proof sheet but cut up the other six progressive proof sheets and slabbed each card with SGC before reselling them all with REA again in 2009.

The final color-process proof sheet sold for $18,800 in that 2009 REA auction. In the description, REA wrote “The final sheet was originally accompanied by six color process proof sheets, which have since been perfectly cut and organized by player, and are represented by the twenty lots that follow this one.”

Each of the twenty 1952 Topps proof card groups included the following color processes: 1) Red, yellow, and blue printing. A card which is very close in appearance to a final process card, but with the black printing missing. 2) Yellow and red printing.  3) Yellow printing. 4) Red printing. 5) Blue printing. 6) Black printing.

The two priciest groups of six color-process proof cards sold belonged to Andy Pafko ($3,819) and Warren Spahn ($2,644).

The other 18 lots of six cards sold for between $470 and $1,763.

If you search other auction house archives, you’ll find that many have been resold over the years. For example, MHCC sold the Runnels cards for $840 in March 2019, Brockelman sold the DiMaggio cards for $2,085 in June 2018, and REA re-sold the Pafko cards for $3,120 in their 2023 spring auction.

Dynamite Magazine Number 2 With A 1974 Topps 6-Card Panel And A Story Of 1973 Topps Airbrushing

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I’ve been sharing my collection of Dynamite and Hot Dog Magazines on X, highlighting those with 6-card baseball and football panels. Issue two included 1974 Topps baseball cards, but there’s more; it also included a great article called The All-American Card Game. 

Before I share more about this specific release, here’s a bit of a Dynamite Magazine 101 that I had shared in an old article I had written about Dynamite Magzine Issue 47 that included a panel of 1978 Topps baseball cards: 

Scholastic Inc.’s Dynamite Magazine launched in March 1974 and continued to be released through March 1992 (165 total issues). It was Scholastic’s most successful publication and inspired four other magazines you might be familiar with if you were a kid aged ~8-14 at the time; Bananas, Wow, Hot Dog!, and Peanut Butter. It was a bit of a pop culture update and included articles, comics, puzzles, and other interactive content like puzzles, games, masks, etc. They’d often contain inserts like stickers, glow-in-the-dark items, 3-D posters with glasses, and of course, baseball cards.

Ok, back to Dynamite Magazine Issue Two. First, here’s the cover.

Next, here’s the table of contents, with the top two 1974 Topps cards from the six-card panel.

Notice what’s on page 30; it’s the article I referenced, The All-American Card Game: Press runs big hits and some errors in the Baseball Card Series. Page 30 was the visual (first scan in this blog post), and the following page, 31, had the text.

It’s interesting particularly because in it, Sy Berger highlighted to the author that when Topps would send out photographers to take pictures of players for cards, they would snap a few in full uniform and a few others that could be used in case the player got traded, “just-in-case,” like Ken McMullen’s 1973 Topps card that was taken when he played for the Angels. However, Gary Gentry’s cap had to be airbrushed by Topps artists. 

Here’s the next page with the bottom four of six 1974 Topps cards included with the magazine.

LA’s The Place And Darryl Strawberry’s Topps Traded Rookie Card

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Terry Melia’s Editor’s Game Plan intro to Trading Cards Magazine’s June 1992 issue reminded me how elite Darryl Strawberry was and how much hype Dodgers’ “Outfield of Dreams” had at the time.

Since Melia wrote that Strawberry’s card was fetching $100 in the summer of 92 (I presume mint copies), I was curious how the market is pricing them today. From a graded perspective, only the 10s are >$100 cards. PSA 10s with 10s autos are pushing $500, PSA 10s go for between $350 and $415, 9s are $60-70ish, and 8s sell for between $30 and $40.

1952 Topps Progressive Proofs Uncut Sheets

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Sotheby’s offered an incredible series of 7 1952 Topps Progressive Proof Uncut Sheets in their 1992 Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia Auction…But I have a bad feeling the buyer trimmed this one.

First, here’s the lot’s description from the ’92 catalog. They mentioned the series of sheet colors and conditions and that it was the only known series of progressive sheets of this series.

Things get interesting in 2006 when REA auctioned off a lot, which sold for $16,240, of “1952 Topps Series 1A Uncut Color Process Proof Sheets (7), The First 1952 Topps Ever Printed!” They included photos of each sheet; here are a few of them:

But do you notice anything about the full-color one? The more extensive borders from the one pictured in the Sotheby’s auction are missing!

REA re-sold the final color process sheet in May 2009 for $18,800, however they noted that, “The final sheet was originally accompanied by six color process proof sheets, which have since been perfectly cut and organized by player, and are represented by the twenty lots that follow this one.”

In both auctions, REA wrote, “The offered sheets are the only 1952 Topps color process sheets known to exist.”

I reached out to The Topps Archives (my favorite hobby blog) since he wrote a great piece inspired by the second REA auction, sharing my concerns. He wrote that the line between Pesky and Groth is on all the examples, so they could be the same. He also hoped there was no cut-down but acknowledged it seemed like there was.

Considering that it was unlikely Topps would need multiple printings of these proofs, the visual similarities, and auction descriptions, it seems likely someone trimmed (and cut up individual cards from) a true hobby one-of-one.

Please let me know if you have any more intel on this one.

The Original Image Used for Lou Gehrig’s 1933 Goudey Cards

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When Mastro Auctions sold the following Lou Gehrig new-service photograph in May 2008, they described it as being from the 1930s.

They described it as a 6-1/2″ x 9-1/8″ photo of the Yankee great in pinstripes with a look of “fierce determination” and described the card as the model for cards #’s 92 and 160 in the vaunted 1933 Goudey set; here are a pair of examples from Robert Edward Auctions.

Mastro Auctions wrote that the image was in EX condition with good image clarity and contrast. They mentioned, but didn’t show, that the reverse had handwritten editorial notations accompanying a copyright stamp for the esteemed Underwood & Underwood photography studio.

I found some more information from Heritage Auctions’ sale of the following Gehrig Original Photo.

They titled the lot a “1927 Lou Gehrig Original Photograph by Charles Conlon” and wrote that it’s a “Splendid and important image from Gehrig’s 1927 MVP and championship season was used for the Iron Horse’s 1933 Goudey cards #92 and #160. Taken by legendary baseball photographer Charles Conlon for Underwood & Underwood. Measures 7×9.” It sold for $60k in May 2017.

The image dating to 1927 doesn’t mean the Mastro copy isn’t from the 1930s; I believe Underwood & Underwood operated through the 1940s and likely reproduced many of their images. But please let me know if this is an incorrect assumption.

During the auction, Heritage provided this update: “Please note that this is a photo that came directly from the Underwood & Underwood archives and therefore has the original embossed “Do Not Remove, File Copy” raised blindstamp, which can be seen on the front of the photo in two locations.”

Uncut Sheet of Unissued R327 Diamond Stars

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Sotheby’s offered this circa 1935 uncut sheet of Diamond Stars when they sold Copeland’s collection in 1991. The cards were meant to be the high numbers for the R327 set issued by National Chicle Gum Co.

In the lot’s description, Sotheby’s wrote, “This sheet turned up in a discovery of material from the relative of a printer for The National Chicle Gum Co. which included a few uncut sheets and several pieces of original artwork (issued and unissued). The offered sheet is the only known copy.”

When SCP auctions resold the sheet in April 2016 for $62,256, they included the following photos for the lot, including the back (Sotheby’s sold the sheet framed).

Here’s the full description from the 2016 SCP Auction:

The 1934-36 R327 Diamond Stars Baseball set is one of the most beautiful ever produced. Its unique art deco renderings, player selection, and other eclectic nuances have captivated generations of collectors. Although the final checklist for the multi-year set reaches as high as #108, apparently there were plans to take it higher. The proof lies in this lone surviving copy of a 1936 R327 Diamond Stars Baseball uncut sheet showing 12 more cards that made it to the drawing board and beyond.

This spectacular uncut sheet turned up in a discovery of material back in the 1980’s from a relative of a printer for the National Chicle Company, producers of the Diamond Stars series. Also included in the find were a few regular issue uncut sheets and some baseball original artwork (both issued and unissued). The magnificent piece offers 12 art deco images of 13 players, including one featuring Hall of Fame St. Louis Browns teammates Rogers Hornsby and Jim Bottomley, one of the first multi-player cards produced in a major card issue in the 1900’s. Also included on the sheet are Hall of Famers Vernon “Lefty” Gomez and Goose Goslin plus Phil Cavaretta, Lon Warneke, Mel Harder, Benny Frey, Pete Fox, Linus Frey, Rip Collins, Roger Cramer, and Gene Moore. All have crystal clear images with outstanding color and detail. This is the only Diamond Stars high series sheet and cards known to exist. Sheet has full production front with printer’s marks and a blank back. One very slight crease crosses the lower right corner in the white outside of the card images. This unique sheet was originally offered in the 1991 Sotheby’s Copeland Collection Auction. A few years later it sold for an amazing $75,000. In 1997 it was displayed at the National Sports Gallery in Washington, DC. One of the finest known uncut baseball card sheets in the hobby in beautiful high grade condition.

Absent from the hobby for almost 20 years the time has come for another collector to become the steward for this extraordinary one-of-a-kind rarity. In an era of collecting where the hunger for rarity, “low-pops” and 1 of 1’s is ever increasing, this historic pre-war “cardifact” is sure to whet some appetites. SCP Auctions is honored to present the one and only 1936 R327 Diamond Star uncut sheet of never issued high numbers.