Hobby Library

Topps’ Little Cracker Jack Idea

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Topps used its early 90s magazine to advertise many of its own releases, including its partnership with Crack Jack in 1991.

This partnership was included in a section of the magazine called “Topps in the Field: News From Around The Collecting World” and shared the page with a few words about Topps’ partnership with Bazooka and Nintendo Systems Base Wars game. 

Here’s the text accompanying the “Little Cracker Jack Idea” image.

The promotion must have been successful because a second Series was eventually released, making the set a total of 72 approximately one-fourth-scale cards. 

And don’t worry, the cards weren’t thrown in loose with caramel corn.

1991 Classic Basketball Draft Picks – The Premier Edition

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This 1991 Classic Basketball Draft Picks advertisement takes me back.

We all wanted that Larry Johnson card, thinking it’d be worth a million bucks, but it turns out they printed 450k sets (not exactly a limited production, eh?)!

PS: Here’s the cover of the September 1991 edition of Baseball Cards Magazine, from which I scanned the ad. 

1952 Parkhurst Hockey Set And Album

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As the hobby library guy, I love seeing vintage sets bundled together for sale with the albums manufacturers produced for them. The 1952 Parkhurst hockey album is a tremendous post-war example; Mastro offered this one with the complete set of 105 cards in May 2000.

Albums were available to collectors as a 25-cent mail-in offer on the back of the cards. Here’s an example from Tim Horton’s card #58 (photo from Robert Edward Auctions).

The album measures 9” x 11′ and includes 13 pages, each with slots for eight cards via corner mounts. While 13 times 8 is only 104, short of 105, there is a paste-in space for “My Favorite Hockey Star.” 

These days, empty albums can be found for a little over $100, while complete sets are $2.5k++.

ACU-Card – America’s First Independent Sports Card Grading Service

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I scanned this ad for ACU-Card from the Spring 1990 issue (Edition 2) of Topps Magazine. 

Frankly, dozens of third-party authenticators have come and gone. You can see a great list of them here on the Collectors forums. What I’m more interested in is where that 1952 Topps Mantle card is today (by the way, there’s no way it’s real).

I’ve read that a coin dealer named Alan Hager started the company. Many collectors have shared that he wasn’t really a high-integrity character. But If you want to add a piece of hobby history to your collection, you can still find a bunch of ACU-Card slabs on eBay.

The December 1981 New York 1 Show Featuring Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider

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I ran across this advertisement for “The Largest Show Ever Held in New York” in the December 1981 issue of Trader Speaks.

Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider were probably decent draws to a show offering free admission! And they appeared on both days of the show.

I’m curious about which items made up the display of the hobby’s ten most valuable cards. If you know, drop a comment. By the way, many collectors used to order from Gelman’s catalogs. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of them in the Hobby Library to share yet.

The Worst Football Cards?

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The February 1993 issue of Baseball Cards feature called Readers’ Choice not only had a reader call (incorrectly, IMHO) the 1951 Bowman Paul Richards card the worst baseball card of all time, but it also featured this gem from Dan Tisdale about a pair of 1974 Topps football cards.

Here’s each card in full color. What do you think? Are these the worst football cards? Lineman didn’t get the love from Topps in the ’70s!

The Favorite Cards From The 1991 Topps Baseball Set By The Readers Of Topps Magazine

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I’ve shared this photo of “The Topps 10” 1991 Topps baseball cards before, and I’ll do it again because the photography in this set is top-notch; some say it’s the best of any Topps set ever.

I may not order them the same way the readers of Topps Magazine did since I think the image of Cecil Fielder barrelling toward Carlton Fisk is a true classic, but that’s ok.

In addition to these ten, you could argue for the inclusion of many others, like the Sandberg or Ripken record-breaker cards, any of the White Sox cards with the 1917 throwback uniforms, some of the great landscape shots like Shane Mack’s, or portraits like Mariano Duncan. And lastly, let’s remember this fellow, Chipper Jones!