Hobby Library

Topps in the Field: The Rare 1910 Hermes Ice Cream Honus Wagner Pin

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Topps Magazine had a feature called Topps In The Field dedicated to news from around the collecting world; in the summer of 92, they included this piece about collectible pins, specifically the Hermes Ice Cream Honus Wagner from the Copeland Collection!

I’ve only started learning about sports pins, so I’m not an expert. Luckily, I do have Sotheby’s Copeland Catalog Topps was referring to. Here’s a scan of the pin from the catalog.

And here’s how Sotheby’s described the Hermes Ice Cream Pin lot that included the Wagner:

Hermes Ice Cream Pins, 1910, lot of 4 different pins, set features the 1909 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, black and white portraits, yellow border with a blue flag “Pittsburgh” and yellow skull and cross bones at bottom, Hermes logo across the top, players not identified, unnumbered, made by Whitehead and Hoag, the lot includes Leach and Abstein (both only good condition due to excessive surface wear), Clarke-Manager and Hall of Famer (near mint) and Honus Wagner (minor edge stains near the word cream on the right—also minor surface scratches) still a very significant pin and at least excellent condition. 1¼ in. diameter (4) Hermes Ice Cream pins are very rare. Honus Wagner is one of the finest early pins and is highly coveted by collectors.

The expected sales price in the catalog was $2,000-$2,500; Topps wrote that it sold for $2,975.

Regarding the Wagner pin specifically, PSA has only encapsulated two examples and graded one a seven and the other a three. And neither looks like the Copeland pin to me.

Here’s some of the sale’s history: Heritage sold the seven for $6,120 in December 2019. REA then resold it for $9k in the Summer of 2021. REA sold the three for $2,160 in the Spring of 2019 before reselling it in the Fall of 2024 for $3,840.

Happy collecting!

Baseball’s Top Ten Most Sought-After Cards (In November 1994)

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Here’s a great piece put together by Jon Brecka for the November 1994 issue of Trading Cards magazine, ranking baseball’s top ten most sought-after cards. Thirty years later, it’s hard to argue against! Would you trade any out?

Here are cards 6-10.

How many people do you think have all ten “All-Time Greats?” What a collection that would be!

Happy collecting!

TCMA’s Early Days: A Look at Their 1972 Advertisement in The Trader Speaks

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Here’s a historically significant ad TCMA placed in the April 1972 issue of The Trader Speaks—one of their first as a newly incorporated company that year.

Unfortunately, I’m unaware of a definitive source of TCMA sets and checklists; the major catalogs are all missing at least a handful. That said, The Standard Catalog does include the 504-card 1972 TCMA The 1930’s set. Here’s what they wrote about it:

Extending to over 500 cards, this was one of TCMA’s first ventures into the business of creating collectors’ edition card sets of former players. Over the length of the series there were a number of style differences. The set was issued in 21 series of 24 cards each. All cards were printed in black-and-white (except for Series 18-19 printed in blue) and feature player photos on usually borderless fronts. Dimensions were about 2” x 2-3/4” for most series, with Series 15-16 in a 2-1/2” x 3-1/2” format. Except for a TCMA copyright line on some of the earlier cards, there is no other printing on the front. Back have player identification, team affiliations, TCMA copyright and, after #72, a card number. Production is reported as 1,000 sets. Blank-back version and uncut panels of 12 exist.

But there’s another great source of information for the 1930’s and reprint sets from TCMA’s ad, and that’s Bert Sugar’s 1975 The Sports Collectors Bible.

And why is that? Well, Mike Aronstein wrote the section on “Collectors’ Issues!” 

He’d have had a good idea three years later what he printed! Here’s the intro that he wrote:

Next, in the first two pages of the 1930s set, notice that the first three are described as unnumbered, and Aaronstein included information about distribution. Series No. 1 was issued separately, with 2 through 19 issues in pairs.

A few pages later, on the bottom of page 346, Aronstein included information about the company’s reprint sets. Some of these are mentioned in The Trader Speaks advertisement.

Happy collecting!

The Backbone Of The Amusement Arcade Business: Exhibit’s Cards For 1955

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Here’s another cool item from Mastro’s June 2008 Classic Collector Auction: a 1955 Exhibit Card Catalog.

The only other copy I’ve seen (which could be the same as Mastro’s) is on Adam Warshaw’s Exhibit Supply Company Page.

The full text of the cover says: Exhibit’s Cards for 1955: Sportlands, Amusement Parks, Carnival Operators. The Backbone of the Amusement Arcade Business. Exhibit Supply – 4218 30 W. Lake St. Chicago 24, Ill., Est. 1901.

From the ad’s appearance, the slicks along the top appear to feature Exhibit’s Art Model Cards.

Happy collecting!

World Series Special – Topps Captured The Moments

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Every ’90s hobby magazine wrote a feature on Topps World Series cards; in October 1995, it was Trading Cards Magazine’s turn!

Here are the links to the pieces about Topps World Series cards that were published in Topps Magazine (Fall 1990) and Sports Cards Magazine (April 1995).

Happy reading and happy collecting!

The 1934 Gold Medal Foods Set And Its Original Envelope

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I don’t often dive into pre-war sets—they’re not my specialty. But when I spot an elusive premium issue in an old catalog with a ‘hobby-library adjacent’ aspect, it’s hard for me to ignore. Here’s a 1934 Gold Medal Foods set and its original envelope from Mastro’s December 2007 catalog.

Per The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards, the set was issued by Gold Medal Foods (the parent company of Wheaties) to commemorate the 1934 World Series. It includes six members of the Detroit Tigers and six members of the St. Louis Cardinals. The cards are blank-backed and 3-1/4” x 5-3/8” in size. The key card belongs to Dizzy Dean.

Here’s an SGC-graded Dizzy Dean card that REA sold for $300 in February 2022.

The set sold by Mastro included nine cards slabbed by SGC, and three more (Dizzy Dean, Goose Goslin, and Joe Medwick) were ungraded and labeled “factory miscut” by SGC.

The set’s history is a bit complicated, so I recommend checking out these two threads on the net54 forums for more information.

Happy collecting!

Baseball Cards Magazine Advertised in The Trader Speaks!

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It’s always amused me how hobby periodicals advertised on each other’s pages, almost like an endless loop of cross-promotion. So, I wasn’t surprised to find this Baseball Cards Magazine ad in the May 1982 issue of The Trader Speaks.

Baseball Cards Magazine launched in the Spring of 1981, and I’ve long argued that its first few years offered the finest hobby writing ever produced. While it’s cost me more than $2.25 an issue to piece my collection together— it’s a steal for a magazine packed with top-notch articles, checklists, and hobby insight.

Back issues of The Trader Speaks are packed with valuable writing, too, but the advertisements for iconic collectors’ issues, card shows, and vintage pricing information are particularly valuable to me. Adding copies of either publication to your collection is a fantastic way to kickstart a hobby library!

Happy collecting!