I ran across this awesome point-of-sale sign featuring halfback Charley Trippi and QB Paul Christman of the Chicago Cardinals in Mastro’s December 2005 catalog; since Christman only played for Chicago until ’49, It must be from the ’40s despite being titled as a ’50s piece.
Here’s Mastro’s complete item description:
Check out this awesome display for “Wilson Sports Equipment!” Wilson has been a worldwide leader in the sports industry for decades due to the quality of their products and the effective promotion of their equipment. Years of using athletes and teams to endorse new product lines elevated Wilson USA into its unique, elite position in the sporting goods industry. Offered here is a football “cradle,” counter sign utilizing images of halfback Charley Trippi and quarterback Paul Christman of the Chicago Cardinals. Entitled “It’s a Wilson,” the 16″ x 14″ x 6-1/2″ display has a working stand-up back showing off the fantastic NM condition of the artifact. This 1940’s-1950’s point-of-sale advertisement possesses beautiful, bold colors and shows only the slightest signs of aging and use. What a spectacular piece!
I’ve been looking for other examples of this piece online or across The Hobby Library but haven’t seen another, so I thought it would be cool to look at the cards of the two “famous stars of the National Football League” instead.
Trippi, a Pro and College Football Hall of Famer, has the slightly more coveted cards and a deeper run of them since he played until 1955. He has two rookie cards from 1948, a Bowman and Leaf.
However, my favorite among his cards is the 1952 Bowman. However, his exhibit is fascinating in the context of the cardboard ad sign since the image is similar.
Christman, a College Football Hall of Famer, also has 1948 Bowman and Leaf rookie cards.
Scott Kelnhofer wrote an excellent article about World Series programs in the February 1997 issue of Sports Cards Magazine. The article referenced a “Market Report” later in the magazine, which included the following Top Ten list: cool, huh?
Here’s the article and the complete Market Report page. I’ve never been a program collector, so it’s interesting to me that pre and post-1974 issues separate the niche:
Now, let’s see what these programs cost today:
1927 Yankees vs. Pirates: ~$2k
1956 Yankees vs. Dodgers: ~$225
1969 Mets vs. Orioles: ~$200
1955 Dodgers vs. Yankees: ~$200
1973 Athletics vs. Mets: ~$25
1919 Reds vs. White Sox: ~$3k
1978 Yankees vs. Dodgers: ~$20
1975 Reds vs. Red Sox: ~$20
1959 Dodgers vs. White Sox: ~$50
1960 Pirates vs. Yankees: ~$30
My favorite is the 1965 ‘Out of this World’ Series program.
The Halper Collection is pretty legendary, but it’s also shrouded in controversy due to some fake/counterfeit items. I’ve hesitated diving deep into it for that reason. However, rediscovering a March 1997 Sports Card Magazine article on the collection gives me a great baseline from which to start on the blog moving forward.
SkyBox turned their cards into collectible T-shirts in 1992. Originally featuring 22 players, these sold out quickly—Today, if you’re lucky enough to find one, be prepared to pay a premium for this wearable slice of ’90s card culture.
I learned about these through the April 1992 issue of Trading Cards Magazine. Rick Celum used to write a piece called “Hot off the Presses,” where he shared current events about notable collectibles. Here’s an example image from the article and the words he wrote about them. I’d love to find a shirt with that Dee Brown card!
Unfortunately, I don’t know what 22 stars were first made available or who the list expanded to if you’re looking for a childhood favorite. But, as I said in the intro, no matter the player, these T-shirts aren’t cheap today.
This Larry Bird was listed on eBay in November 2024 for $120.
The seller of this XL Jordan T-shirt wants $600 for it on Etsy (and it’s missing a tag on the bottom front). I did find another example there for just $183, though.
This Magic Johnson Skybox shirt had an auction minimum bid of $150 with a buy-it-now option of $400.
And finally, and more reasonably, this Clyde Drexler shirt sold for $50 in October 2024.
If anyone’s got a stash of these shirts, fresh in the box, congrats—you’re sitting on a cotton goldmine!
Sports Cards Magazine & Price Guide had a great feature in the mid-’90s, providing “a wrapup of some of the country’s largest sports auctions.” This one from September 1996 was chockful of incredible items.
Larson highlighted the John F. Kennedy signed ball as the highlight of Mastro’s auction that topped $850,000 in sales. But I wanted to compare two of the cards to today’s prices. The PSA 8 graded 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle sold for $24,394; today, that’s probably a $1M card. And the PSA 8 1914 Crack Jack Joe Jackson, well, Heritage sold one nine years ago for $101k.
As for the rest of the article, half of that stuff won’t show up for sale again, but if any of it does, you can bet on it being a lot pricier!
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.
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.
In the world of baseball collectibles, few items hold the mystique of the elusive 1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard, a collectible so scarce that most collectors won’t ever lay eyes on one in person. Luckily, for avid fans of Willie Mays seeking a connection to the baseball legend’s collaboration with ALAGA, there exists a moderately more accessible treasure — an advertising poster. In this piece, I’ll chat about the details and scarcity of both items while also discussing a few of ALAGA’s magazine and newspaper ads featuring Mays and another baseball luminary, Hank Aaron.
The Alabama-Georgia (ALAGA) Syrup Company
According to their website, the Alabama-Georgia (ALAGA) Syrup Company was established by Louis Broughton Whitfield, Sr., along with his wife, Willie Vandiver Whitfield, in 1906. The first can of ALAGA syrup was packed in January 1907, and by 1920, “Alaga Syrup had grown into a national brand thanks to the revolutionary manufacturing methods which brought ALAGA syrup to customers throughout the country in metal cans, a remarkable packaging and distribution feat for its day.”
ALAGA Truck
WSFA News 12 published a piece about the company in celebration of it being over a century old. In it, they mention that the company has had some pretty big names endorse the product over the years, including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Clark Gable, Bear Bryant, Shug Jordan, and Nat King Cole.
1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard
The year of issue of the 1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard is approximate. Mays is pictured in a New York Giants cap (they moved to San Francisco in 1957), and ALAGA syrup ads featuring Mays started showing up in 1955 in Ebony Magazine, among other publications, making a 1954 date seem reasonable.
The front of the 3-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ postcard features a borderless black-and-white portrait with a facsimile autograph.
1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard – Front
The back has an advertisement for ALAGA syrup, which states, “Willie Mays says, ‘I was raised on ALAGA Syrup’ on the left side with a postage stamp square on the upper right and space to write a note to the right of the ad.
1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard – Reverse
PSA has only graded the previously pictured example (it resides in the current number 1 ranked Willie Mays Master Set on the registry), and unfortunately, I can’t make out any postage cancels for dating. While the SGC Pop Report doesn’t include the card, and I haven’t run across any Beckett-graded examples, the Trading Card Database includes the following example:
1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard – TCDB
Given the postcard’s rarity and Mays’s popularity, I couldn’t even begin to estimate its price.
Now, if you’re a Willie Mays fan and enjoy having syrup with waffles (order intended) as much as I do, you might want to try and grab one of the 1960s Willie Mays ALAGA syrup Advertising Posters for your collection. They’re approximately 10″ x 20″ and one-sided; it reads ALAGA Syrup along the top, followed by a picture of Mays in the middle with a quote from him reading: “Say hey! Love that real ribbon cane flavor”, followed by a bottle of soup with waffles along the bottom. Goldin sold the following example in April 2017 for $255.
The posters aren’t super common, but they aren’t as scarce as the postcard. There was a single copy on eBay in Nov 2023 for $539.99 (it was framed and JSA authenticated), and besides the Goldin copy I already mentioned, there have been a few other sales over the years, too. For example, SCP sold a framed copy in November 2010 for $428. Heritage has sold a handful of them, including a framed copy in October 2020 for $192, a lot of three in 2019 for $264, a single copy for $120 in October 2017, another for $199.50 in December 2016, and another in June 2016 for $203.15.
Willie Mays and Hank Aaron ALAGA Syrup Newspaper and Magazine Ads
I mentioned earlier that ads featuring Mays and ALAGA started appearing around 1955; they had quite a nostalgic appeal. In two of the following examples, Mays says he was “raised on Alaga Syrup.” And one says, “It brings back bright memories every time I taste it.”
ALAGA Ads Featuring Willie Mays
I believe the ads ran for about ten years, starting in the mid-50s; the rightmost Mays Ad, dated to 1963, uses the same image of Mays but includes french toast instead of waffles.
Hank Aaron was featured in various similarly written ads for ALAGA syrup, and the right most of the following four was published in 1966. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any Hank Aaron postcards featuring the ALAGA brand. Also, the third Aaron ad may actually be a poster.
ALAGA Ads Featuring Hank Aaron
This ad featuring Mr. and Mrs. Aaron is my favorite; those pancakes look delicious!
ALAGA Ad Featuring Mr. and Mrs. Hank Aaron
Conclusion and Further Reading
I actually didn’t know the 1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard existed until I stumbled upon it while flipping through the first few pages of the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards. Though ownership remains a distant prospect for almost everyone, the poster is a more attainable quest—a cherished piece rumored to have found favor with Mays. I also love it when there are items that bridge the gap between collecting, baseball history, and Americana!
