Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
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!
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!
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!
Baseball Cards Magazine set the standard for hobby writing; here’s a piece by Tom Lamarre, published in December 1986, about the 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats set.
While Set Registry competition has driven up the prices of high-grade examples for some of the set’s key cards, complete raw sets in decent condition remain surprisingly affordable.
For example, Huggins and Scott sold an Ex to Ex-Mt near set of 152/154 cards for $390 in December 2023.
And Collect Auctions sold a similarly conditioned complete set for $566 in March 2022.
Happy collecting!
Here’s an incredible piece from Mastro’s December 2007 Sports & Americana catalog: the Inside Baseball 1953 cover art featuring William Jacobellis’ stunning photographs of Jackie Robinson.
26) Eye-Popping 1953 Jackie Robinson “Inside Baseball” Cover Art
Noted baseball photographer William Jacobellis is responsible for the images within this three-shot collage that centers on Jackie Robinson. This collage cover originally appeared on the February 1953 issue of Inside Baseball, an issue that spotlighted an article that was entitled “Is Jackie Robinson a Quitter?” The large cover portrait is amazing in the depth of its hues, with strikingly rich skin tones and lush Dodger blues! This is one of the final mechanicals, shot from a physical collage of three mounted images and then printed on one photographic sheet. This very sheet is the one that was then used to produce the cover, after the addition of clear plastic overlays that contained all of the cover’s text. These overlays are long gone, leaving only the brilliant color image of Jackie in his prime. The usual production effects such as mounting holes and tape residue and effects of its removal allappear in the outer areas that lie beyond the print guides, far from the beautifully preserved image area. The 13-9/16″ x 17″ finalized photo work is referred to as “cover art” as an industry term that harkens back to the pre-photography days when all covers were actually hand-illustrated by artists. In truth, it’s hard to imagine any laborer in paint and brush ever being able to match the quality of this Jacobellis work. An attractive copy of the magazine that first carried this image is also included. Minimum Bid $500
Today, the magazine itself is relatively affordable, with moderately worn examples typically selling for $25–$30, though this one sold for $50 on eBay in January 2025.
I only recently learned about this 1973 Topps-style Joe Garagiola card from the April 1986 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine. They wrote that Joe used it as his business card, but there’s a little more to it than that!
The Topps Archives has a series of posts about the card; the first, from February 2009, identifies it as part of “a small but distinct list of baseball issues from Topps that consist of a single card. The most famous of these is Joe Garagiola’s 1976 NBC Business Card that is a dead ringer for a ’73 Topps baseball card.”
Then, in June 2009, The Topps Archives connected the card to Joe Garagiola’s Bazook Big League Bubble Gum Blowing Championship that gave us the classic 1976 Topps card of Kurt Bevacqua!
And from a photo from the event, The Topps Archives pointed out the uncut sheet behind Joe G., writing, “That, ladies and gentlemen is Garagiola’s ersatz 1973 Topps business card. I think it highly likely said pasteboards were created for him to hand out at this event. The card does have a 1976 copyright on it and I have to think the contest was held after the end of the ’75 season based on the Joe G. card copyright date.”
A pair of articles from the Baseball Hall of Fame explain the competition further. You can also watch the event on YouTube, which originally aired on October 14th, 1975, before Game 3 of the 1975 World Series.
The Topps Archives then shared a few photos of Garagiola’s card as reprinted in 1991.
BaseballCardPedia summarizes the entire story of the card as follows:
Sometime in the mid-1970s, Topps produced for former Cardinals catcher and then-current NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola a business card done in the style of a baseball card. The front of the card has the design of the 1973 Topps set, while the back is set up like a 1976 Topps card.
It is unknown exactly when this card was produced; however, a framed uncut sheet of the card was seen in the background of a 1975 made-for-TV bubble gum blowing contest hosted by Garagiola for NBC. The contest was sponsored by Topps and was commemorated with a card (#564) of winner Kurt Bevacqua in the 1976 Topps set.
A second run of this card was produced in the early-90s, to coincide with Garagiola’s appointment as co-host of NBC’s Today Show. This card is identical to the 70s card, with the addition of both a Topps and Today Show logo to the front.
However, there’s still one more mystery. You can see up above the back of the variation I shared above has a 1976 copyright and Garagiola’s phone number on the back. There’s another version with a different phone number and 1976 copyright along with the 1991 reprint!
Happy collecting!
The Fall 1992 Issue of Topps Magazine featured a great competition. The grand prize was an autographed copy of the 9th Topps Magazine’s centerfold illustration featuring Mays, Mantle, and Snider.
This copy was sold by Collect Auctions for just $264 in July 2021.
I presume this was the Grand Prize for the “In The Ball Park” Game Time competition pictured below.
I guess a collector could have removed the centerfold from the magazine and had the players sign it, but the Beckett LOA and the auction description don’t specify whether this was the case.
This Topps Magazine centerfold features Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider and Willie Mays, with signatures from each. Each signed in fiber-tip marker over their images, with each signature authenticated by BAS with a full LOA.
Collect Auctions Description
Happy Collecting!