Baseball Cards

1950 Uncut Sheet Full Menko Card Set With Babe Ruth

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The 1950 Japanese Menko baseball card set features 52 leading Japanese players printed as playing cards, plus a joker featuring Babe Ruth. This uncut sheet was offered for sale in August 2003.

It’s one of the few times that Babe Ruth appeared on a Japanese card. The sheet was described as being 15” x 10-1/4”, off-center left, printed on both sides with a slight darkening on the back at the bottom, and with minor soiling at the lower right on the front that doesn’t affect any cards; EX/MT overall.

I don’t know much about Japanese baseball cards, but I did pick up a few books for the Hobby Library by noted niche expert Gary Engel. 

Also, these sheets seem relatively common (Engel confirms this in the 6th Edition of his Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide, mentioning that this set is generally found as an uncut sheet), with recent prices averaging a few hundred dollars but trending up; there are a few outliers over $1k.

You can download a digital version of Engel’s guide here.

Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!

1960 Post Cereal Complete Set Of 9 Full Boxes

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The 1960 Post Cereal cards were issued on the backs of Grape Nuts Flakes cereal boxes and measure 7″ x 8-3/4″. The full-color cut cards are already pretty rare, but complete boxes that include side panels with player bios are like unicorns. After some research, I think just a single complete set exists in full-box form. I first came across it in Mastro’s April 2003 Catalog.

They described the cards, within the boxes, as being in Near Mint to Mint condition and offered the lot with a minimum bid of $2500. At the end of the lot’s description, though, they mentioned it as an “Ex-Copeland collection” piece.

So I pulled out Sothetby’s March 1991 catalog that presented The Copeland Collection of Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia, and there it was as lot 573, but it only included a photo of the Mantle box.

Then, in the fall of 2018, REA re-sold the set for $11,400. 

They included a more detailed condition description: Mickey Mantle (card area is Nr/Mt-Mt, light moisture stains very near edge of frame), Ed Mathews (card area is Ex due solely to tiny wrinkle extending from bottom edge), Harmon Killebrew (light mark on left side of frame, otherwise card area is Nr/Mt-Mt), Al Kaline (card area is Vg-Ex+ due to tiny wrinkles confined to the very perimeter of frame), Don Drysdale (card area is Vg+ due to creasing), Johnny Unitas (card area is Vg/Vg-Ex due to light wrinkles confined to the perimeter), Frank Gifford (card area is Ex due to tiny wrinkle extending from right edge and a bit of staining on the reverse), Bob Cousy (card area appears Nr/Mt-Mt from the front, with a bit of staining on the reverse), and Bob Pettit (card area is Nr/Mt). The grades listed above focus just on the card area and not the surrounding portions of the boxes. All the top flaps of the boxes are missing; all the bottom flaps were glued at one time then later opened causing paper loss and remnants of paper on those areas. 

A 1959 Topps #564 Mickey Mantle All-Star PSA 10

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Here’s a card you’re not going to see very often because there are only two 1959 Topps #564 Mickey Mantle All-Star PSA 10 cards in the Pop Report.

When Sotheby’s auctioned this one off in June 2005, it was the only example to earn PSA’s highest grade of Gem Mint 10. Looking at the certification verification information on PSA’s site, it looks like it’s still in the same case, and it’s also not part of any current PSA Registry Sets. And apologies for the jump at the bottom of the scan; that’s how it’s printed in the catalog.

Any guesses as to what it would sell for? Also, if you have a clue about where the other Gem Mint 10 is, let me know; I haven’t found any public sales for either one. Happy collecting!

Los Angeles Angels 1961 Club Falstaff Brewing Postcard Type Photo

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I’ve been getting into baseball postcard collecting lately; here’s one of my favorites, published by the Angels’ radio and TV sponsor, Falstaff Brewing.

I was attracted to this niche after I flipped through Tuff Stuff’s Baseball Card Postcard Collection by Ron Menchine and saw so many interesting items.

Here’s how Menchine described the Angels piece.

One could wonder if this one is really a postcard; it’s ~6 1/4” x 9”, but I’ve seen other postcards about that size. A collector told me it’s likely an unused, team-issued item to which a person would have either typed/written a shipping address or applied a delivery address label.

1991 Topps Desert Shield Soldier Stories

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Topps Magazine usually had a section up front called “Fans Notes,” essentially letters to the editor. The first “note” in the Summer 1991 edition was from a reader who read about the Desert Shield cards in the Winter 1991 issue and was frustrated because he had not seen any yet (he was a LCpl). He wrote that he searched and managed to buy a few and thanked the magazine for their contribution. 

The magazine then shared the following incredible story and picture from a GI who was a reserve nurse and Topps photographer:

If you’re interested in getting the issue with this picture in it, here’s the cover:

1872 Warren Studio Boston Red Stockings Harry Wright CDV

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I ran across this 1872 Harry Wright CDB (Warren Studio Red Stockings) in Mastro’s December 2001 catalog; it’s the same image that Old Cardboard and TCDB reference for the card.

The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards describes the set as follows, “The champions from the premiere season of baseball’s first professional league (some wearing their championship pins), are pictured on these cartes de visites. Members of the Boston Red Stockings were photographed at a local studio, most of them being pictured in coat-and-tie with only Harry Wright in uniform. The cards measure about 2-1/2” x 4-1/4” with sepia photos bordered in white. In the bottom border is the name and address of the studio; information which is repeated on the otherwise blank back. Player identification is not found on the card but can be deduced by studying contemporary team pictures.”

The example of Harry Wright pictured above has a heavy crease the center; despite this flaw, Mastro still graded the card Vg due to its visual appeal. I don’t know what it sold for, but my 2016 Standard Catalog gives it a book value of $10k in NM, $5k in E, and $3k in Vg condition. If this card came up for auction today, I’d guess it would easily double the NM value.

4 Of The 5 PSA Graded T206 Lenox Cigarettes Fred Payne Cards

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Here’s a T206 Lenox Cigarettes Fred Payne card that was offered for sale back in 1993.  

It was a part of Sotheby’s Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia auction catalog from March 1993. They described it as “one of the scarcest backs in exceptional near mint condition” and gave it an estimated final price of $500-600.

I’ve dabbled in T206 collecting in the past, but never very seriously. PSA says the extremely rare backs in the set belong to Drum, Lenox, and Uzit (the Ty Cobb back is the ultra rarity). Looking in their Pop Report, there are just five copies of Fred Payne’s Lenox-backed card: a PSA 5, a PSA 2, a PSA 1, and two graded PSA Authentic. 

I did some research and came across four of them.

PWCC sold the PSA 5 for $5160 in October 2023. It’s the same example that Sotheby’s sold. 

By the way, REA previously sold the PSA 5 for $3900 in the Spring of 2016. They also sold the PSA 1 copy in September 2021 for $2040.

Heritage has sold the nicer authentic copy twice: first, in June 2021, for $1500, and then, in May 2024, for just $630.

Heritage also sold the authentic altered copy for $666 in May 2023.