Updating the Provenance of the 1915 Cracker Jack Advertising Sheet

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

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?

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.

Just A Penny – 1954 Topps Baseball 1 Cent Packs

After REA sold a 1954 Topps One-Cent Wrapper for $480 last October, I wondered if there were any complete packs out there. Yup, here’s an example Mastro offered for sale in April 2006.

By the way, here’s the 1954 Topps One-Cent Wrapper from REA.

It turns out there are a handful of these packs out there, but the most interesting one of these dated varieties has Jackie Robinson showing on the back. REA sold it when it was in a GAI holder in the Spring of 2018 for $1,645.

The owner then crossed it to PSA before selling it with Memory Lane Inc. for $3,392 in May 2011 (this pack would have to be at least an order of magnitude more expensive if it came to market today)

Speaking of Memory Lane Inc., they have sold a few other copies: GAI 7.5 for $2,603 in December 2007, one in a PSA-8 slab (but without the one-cent designation on the flip) for $1,261 in May 2008, and another GAI 7.5 for $2,921 in January 2015.

And to satisfy my OCD, here’s a copy of the 1954 Topps One-Cent Dated Display Box.

A Rare Gem: The 1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra Promotional Card

There are a lot of unique sets in the post-war hobby, but many more exclusive releases exist, not entirely fitting the traditional classification of an oddball set like individual promotional issues. These cards are usually only known by folks who collect specific players but not the rest of the hobby. In this article, I’ll spotlight one such hidden gem: the 1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra promotional card.

The card itself is 5″ x 7″ and features a black-and-white photo of Berra in a squatting catcher’s pose. Along the bottom, an endorsement in white script reads, “Ride Shelby, The Winner’s Bike, Sincerely, Yogi Berra.” The back is blank. 

The following example currently sits in the current #1 Yogi Berra Master Set on the PSA Set Registry

1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra

The date of issue on this card is conjecture. The first driver is the familiar photo of Yogi Berra that Shelby used for this card. Robert Edward Auctions sold a circa 1949 Yogi Berra Original New York Yankees (their propriety stamp is on the back of the photo) PSA/DNA Type I image that was used for the Shelby Bicycles promo, his 1950 Bowman card, and his 1950 Drake’s card; it sold for $2880 in August 2023.

Here’s the front and back of the Type I photo.

Yogi Berra New York Yankees Type 1 Photo – Front
Yogi Berra New York Yankees Type 1 Photo – Reverse

And here’s Berra’s 1950 Bowman baseball card.

1950 Bowman #46 Yogi Berra

The second reason the hobby dates the card to around 1952 is from the advertisements featuring Berra promoting Shelby Bicycles. While you will see many of them referenced to 1954 and 1955, Shelby Cycle Company only manufactured bicycles in Shelby, Ohio, from 1925 to 1953 before being purchased by AMD in 1953. One specific advertisement features the Shelby Cycle Company name (and a Shelby, Ohio address) and features an illustration of the offered promotion card. It was free, along with a 16-page catalog, to anyone who requested it.

Shelby Cycle Co. Ad Featuring The 1952 Berra Card

That advertisement, along with three others (AMF moved bicycle production to Cleveland in 1953, which is where Shelby is addressed to in the next three ads) and a PSA 2.5 copy of the 1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra card, was sold by Robert Edwards Auctions in October 2015 for $1320. The card was part of Al Johnson’s All-Time Finest Yogi Berra Master Set, but that was retired in July 2017, so I suspect he purchased it.

Yogi Berra Shelby Ad
Yogi Berra Shelby Ad
Yogi Berra Shelby Ad
1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra – REA

At the time of sale, that PSA 2.5 graded Berra was the only one that PSA or SGC had graded. Its sales history after the initial REA auction and I suspect the retirement of the Master Set, is fascinating. 

Heritage Auctions resold the PSA 2.5 for $430.20 in November 2016. They noted that the card has a vertical crease.

1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra – HA

Memory Lane Inc. then got its hands on the item in August 2017, but it went unsold with an opening bid of $300. It was still described as the only example ever graded by either PSA or SGC. But today, PSA shows five cards and two autographed cards in their pop report, while SGC shows a single copy.

1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra – Memory Lane Inc.

Clean Sweep Auctions sold one of those signed PSA-encapsulated cards in February 2022 for $775.20.

1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra – Clean Sweep Auctions

The 1952 Shelby Bicycles Yogi Berra card is a particularly significant post-war collectible. It’s rare, features a Hall of Fame Yankee, and is directly connected to a classic American company and a post-war classic Bowman set.

Jack Wallin’s 1979 Diamond Greats Baseball Card Set

This 1979 Diamond Greats baseball card set advertisement published in the February 1980 issue of The Trader Speaks offers a fascinating look into Jack Wallin’s tribute to baseball’s icons.

First, Jack Wallin, a collector and dealer and later a Donruss photographer, produced the set, not TCMA. He focused the set on autograph collectors since each of the 400 players was living when he printed it, and he included home addresses for all of them. You’ll find a ton of signed examples across eBay and the major auction houses; for example, Leland’s sold a near-complete set of 380 in June 2021 for $4,041.

I presume this is why he printed the 2-1/2” x 3-1/2” black-and-white cards with blank backs; he wanted collectors to focus on player autographs on the front.

The ad shows that the complete set of 400 cards was available for $23.95, each lettered series (A, B, C, and D) was available for $7.50, and team sets were available for $2.50.

The set’s key cards include Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, Willie Mays, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Stan Musial, and you can find raw unsigned sets for a few hundred dollars.

While Wallin wrote in the ad that all the players were living at the time of printing, a few died in late 79/early 80, so I’m unsure if a complete signed set is possible.

I’d love to see the original address list, so if you have an example, please e-mail me.

It’s Like Deja Vu-Hoo: 1990s Yoo-Hoo Baseball Sets

I ran across the following promo for the 1993 Yoo-Hoo Baseball Legends set in the Summer 1993 issue of Topps Magazine. Berra had a promotional relationship with Yoo-Hoo dating back to the ’50s.

The ad covers most of the set’s basics, but after some research, there’s no difference between the design of the two series cards. However, the Standard Catalog says Series 1 had Yogi Berra, Joe Morgan, Duke Snider, Steve Garvey, Jim Rice, Bob Feller, Pete Rose, Rod Carew, Gaylord Perry, and Graig Nettles while Series 2 had Johny Bench, Lou Brock, Stan Musial, Willie McCovey, White Ford, Phil Rizzuto, Tom Seaver, Willie Stargell, Brooks Robinson, and Al Kaline.

There was another ’90s Yoo-Hoo set issued in conjunction with Rawlings in 1994.

Rawlings sponsored the Gold Glove award, so the set features past winners. The set is relatively common, but apparently, Yaz signed a few copies that were randomly inserted, though I haven’t found a copy, and apparently, they weren’t certified on the card in any way. BaseballCardPedia wrote that the 1994 set was released in two, 10-card series consisting of eight player cards and two fact cards which is backed up by this piece I found on eBay.

Also, note that since the set’s weren’t licensed so all the team logos were airbrushed out.