Non-Sport Cards

1967 Topps Who Am I Proof Of Paul McCartney

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I ran across this 1967 Topps “Who Am I?”-style test proof card of Paul McCartney in Mastro’s American Premier Catalog Auction that featured the “Topps West Coast Archive.”

You can see that GAI graded the card as Mint 9 and added the “1st Graded” notation. Goldin sold another McCartney proof card with a “1st Graded” notation in January 2021 for $540, but curiously, it’s graded NM-MT 8. I suppose there are subtle differences in the quote block (like the Fred Newman cards pictured below).

The set’s checklist ended up at 44, but Topps did a lot of experimenting. In the spring of 2017, REA sold an uncut sheet of the test issue for $1680. In the description, they wrote, “Presented on this sheet are twelve cards (printed twice) which were not included in the final production of the set, and were created by Topps specifically as test proof cards. These twelve cards never saw public distribution, and were produced utilizing materials for internal use only, as a test design concept for a set that was, of course, fully executed.”

Notice the 1967 Topps Baseball cards?

The sheet features Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, two different poses of Lyndon B. Johnson (one as Senator and one as President), Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Bob Bruce, Dean Chance, Al Dark, Jimmie Hall, Lee Elia, and Fred Newman.

REA has also sold a handful of GAI-graded proof cards with the same GAI notations as the McCartney and a pair in Topps Vault cases.

1969 Topps And O-Pee-Chee Man on the Moon Wax Boxes

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Non-sport seems to be getting a lot of hype these days, so I thought I’d share this cool auction from April 2004 of a 1969 Topps and O-Pee-Chee “Man on the Moon” wax boxes! As the lot said, space exploration was at the forefront of the nation’s consciousness during the late 1960’s.

The 1969 Topps Man on the Moon 24-count display box contained 24 ten-cent wax packs, while the 1969 O-Pee-Chee Man on the Moon box originally contained 36 5-cent packs (the box in this auction was incomplete with just 30 packs).

“Real Photos Of Men On The Moon!”

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

1949 Bowman America Salutes The FBI Wrapper

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The 1949 Bowman America Salutes the FBI set is one that I only recently discovered while browsing an auction catalog from November 1998 and ran across a photo of the wax wrapper.

Here’s a photo of the front and back of the first card in the set that I grabbed from PSA’s Gallery.

Isn’t it interesting how closely the back resembles its baseball cousin?

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

1978 Donruss KISS Series I and II Unopened Wax Cases

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I’d love to see what a pair of 1978 Donruss KISS Series 1 and II Unopened Wax Cases would command together at auction today!

These were offered in 2002 by Mastro, so who knows how legitimate they were. The Series 1 case was described as opened but untouched, with a few boxes showing rippling from exposure to dampness at some point. The Series II case was described as unopened.

Heritage did sell this 1st Series case for $25,200 in February 2022.

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

1934 R135 National Chicle Skybirds Amelia Earhart Original Artwork

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Here’s the original artwork used for the 1934 R135 National Chicle Skybirds #48 Amelia Earhart card.

Mastro auctioned it off in their April 2004 catalog. The painted piece was described as rendered on the 4-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ lower-left area of a 6″ x 7″ artists’ board with handwritten editorial notes in the margins. The back is blank and has some adhesive residue on it.

After I shared the piece on social media, Number5TypeCard shared the following photo of the collectible from the 2015 National, which was for sale for $15k.

Check out The Original Artwork Archive for more!

1984 Fleer Dune Wax Cases

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With ‘Dune: Part Two’ having just been released in theaters, I’d be remiss not to remind everyone of the 1984 Film and that Fleer, of course, made a set of cards for it.

Collect Auctions sold this 12-box sealed case of the 1984 product for $566 in November 2020. 

However, one of the bottom seals (where the bottom meets the side) of the tape was torn, and the case had some significant handling wear.

Last week, a collector sold another full case on the Facebook ‘Vintage Wax and Packs’ group, this one with very dried tape, and hence not sealed, for $1500 (the boxes looked super clean and untouched).

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

1937 Warriors and their Weapons Picture Album

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New to the hobby library. A 1937 D. C. Thomson & Co. Warriors and their Weapons Picture Album.

You could get a pair of free football boots when you saved up 70 different warrior cards, stuck them in the album, and sent them to Fleet Street in London. The back cover says the boots would be sent free of charge AND the album would be returned too.

Here’s a pair of interior pages.