Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
Here’s page 5 of the December 1981 issue of Trader Speaks.
1933 Goudey Babe Ruth cards (#144 and #149) for $200 each! The Gehrig for $50 ain’t too bad either!
And in case you don’t remember, here’s what those Ruth cards look like (both photos are from Robert Edward Auctions).
The Spring 1982 issue of Baseball Cards has a great article by Bill Bossert called Uncut Sheets Tell the Untold Story. He shares this incredible proof sheet for Topps’ 1972 Candy Lids test issue in it.
Update 20 March 2025: After sharing A 1973 Topps Test Candy Lid Uncut Sheet From The Hobby Library Archives, Keith Olberman shared a nice point of clarification about its connection to the sheet pictured above:
FYI this sheet is the second version of what has mistakenly been labeled “1972 Topps Candy Lid Proof Sheet” – the one with the hockey team photos and other detritus behind larger versions of the photo used on the lids. These – and the “1972s” – are both from 1973. Look closely and you’ll see they’re the same player photos. Topps only made two “lids” sets, in 1970 (has team logos) and 1973 (all logos blacked out).
Here’s what Bossert wrote about the set and sheet:
I hope that sheet wasn’t cut up. However, I did find this 1972 Topps Candy Lid Test Proof Willie Mays card that was sold by SCP Auctions for $622 on January 29, 2008.
You can see that Topps printed the Mays card on previously used stock, and there are a few other proof’s out there.
Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!
The American Card Catalog is a foundational piece of the hobby. It was the first major attempt to categorize all known American card issues under a common numbering systems. So older American Card Catalogs are highly collectible, but this 1953 copy is special because both Jefferson Burdick and Charles Bray signed it.
Here are some later reprints from the hobby library (1960, 1967, and 1988).
Here’s a photo from Rosen’s book True Mint of his $75k deal for hundreds of low number, black back, 1952 Topps baseball packs.
Rosen wrote that he was at a show in Seattle in 1991 when, right before the show, a man walked in with hundreds of packs of 1952 Topps baseball cards cellophane-wrapped in bricks of six. And since the seller had opened a few, there were also five Pafkos and a bunch of other low-number cards.
The seller told Rosen he got the cards at a garage sale for $50 and didn’t have more, but Rosen wrote that the seller sold several more to other dealers and consigned several low-number boxes in an auction.
Check out The Unopened Archive for more!
A hobby library item I’d love to get my hands on is an 1880s Allen and Ginter Album, one of which you’ll see designated as “A16.” This 6” x 8” page, auctioned off in December 2001, is the most desirable from that album, featuring Cap Anson, King Kelly, Tim Keefe, and Charlie Bennett.
Robert Edward Auctions sold a mid-grade complete 1888 First Series Allen & Ginter “World’s Champions” premium album featuring all fifty cards from the N28 Allen & Ginter set in their Spring 2023 auction for $1380.
I’ll share more about the A17 album for the N29 issue another time.
The marketing blitz is on for this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention, but for a bit of hobby history, here’s an ad for the 4th NSCC show, held at the Holiday Inn O’Hare-Kennedy in Chicago from July 7 to 10, 1983.
The ad is from the April 1983 issue of Trader Speaks.
Here’s the program for the show. More scans from inside of it another time!
I know almost nothing about soccer cards, particularly vintage ones, but I saw this Chix Bubble Gum Football Picture album for sale on eBay and decided to pick it up; the price was right for the hobby library. Inside is a complete 1956-57 Chix Confectionary Famous Footballers Set.
After some research, the set appears to be considered a second series of Chix Famous Footballers following one dated to 1955.
There are quite a few variations to the cards in this set and the album as well; I found this one with a different cover and red text on the inside.
If you know anything else about this set or the albums, please leave a comment.