Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
How many of you used a tool like ‘The Judge’ in the early 90s as a Mintfinder?
The cutout pictured above is from the following larger ad that was placed in Allan Kaye’s Sports Cards News & Price Guides December 1991 – January 1992 release. You’ve gotta appreciate the directions at the bottom, “Here’s How The Judge Works:”
Just $4.95 plus $1.50 for postage and handling.
Here’s a neat piece of hobby history: Reggie Jackson’s signed Topps Baseball Card Contract from August 1971.
The piece was available in Ron Oser Enterprises’ December 2000 catalog and was described as follows: “Very desirable contract for his appearance on bubble gum cards signed in blue ink ‘Reggie Jackson.’ Also signed by Sy Berger, the famous President of Topps Chewing Gum. This August 14, 1971 contract extends for two years the existing contract that Topps had with Reggie. He raked in a whole $75 for this transaction. Signed baseball card contracts are quite sought after, as the signatures are unequivocally genuine. LOA from Mike Gutierrez/MastroNet.”
The contract itself is an “Agreement between: Reginald M. Jackson player, and TOPPS CHEWING GUM, INC.”
It reads, “We, the undersigned, hereby agree to extend the term of our present contract, plus extensions, if any, for an additional period of two years or two full Baseball Seasons, as the case may be, on the same terms and conditions contained in said contract. This extension agreement shall be governed by the Laws of the State of New York. A bonus payment of $75.00 will be due the player the first time after signing this extension that he is or becomes an active member of a Major Leagae Baseball Team between May 15 and August 15.”
I found another contract on Cooperstown Expert. They wrote, “Shown here is Jackson’s contract with Topps Chewing Gum to appear on baseball cards for 1974, ’75, and ’76. Signed by Jackson at the bottom, this deal calls for the slugger to receive a $75 bonus payment.”
And REA included the following signed contract extension between Jackson and Topps, along with a few signed checks in the fall of 2019.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if a single collector ever managed to snag a complete run of Reggie Jackson Topps contracts?
In July 2009, Dave and Adam’s Card World purchased an item that neither they nor anyone else in the hobby had ever seen or believed existed: a 1990-1991 OPC Premier Hockey vending case.
1990 OPC Premier hockey was the first high-end hockey product. The release had a great rookie class, great design, and limited availability, so they were hot out of the gate. Boxes went from $30-40 to over $250 pretty quickly.
However, two significant developments in the hobby affected the O-Pee-Chee Company at the time. First, 1990-1991 OPC hockey cards showed up at a few shows before their official release, and second, there was a big wave of counterfeiting of OPC products at the time, as their simple paper stock made them easy targets for forgers who were printing runs of star cards.
The original owner of the case of 1990 OPC Premier vending boxes had been assisting OPC with their investigation, so as a thank you, Gary Koreen, the President of OPC Company Limited, sent him a vending case of approximately 10,000 Premier Cards. In his correspondence, Gary mentioned that they did not produce vending cases of this product.
And it’s true, OPC only made their premier cards available through foil packs in boxes and via a factory set. They did make vending products for the base product, though.
Also, the date of the letter, February 22, 1991, made it clear that the case could not have been a later release; it had to be 1990-1991.
The case was factory sealed, brought to the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland for the July/August 2009 show, and slapped with a $6k price tag. Reed Kasaoka mentioned, in an interview with Beckett at the show, that the collector may have missed the case’s peak value, potentially over $20k, had he sold it when the cards were selling for over $200 a box.
Dave and Adams sold the case back then, and to this day, no one has any reason to believe it’s not legit; the correspondence helped remove a lot of doubt.
What price do you think this unique 1990-1991 OPC Premier hockey vending case would fetch at auction today?
—— Update Since Original Posting ——
I originally posted this story here on the blog in August 2022; shortly after that, the dealer who sold it to Reed Kasaoka contacted me to share a few more details, which I published in The Post War Cards Newsletter #27 in March 2023.
The person who sold it to Reed (let’s call him Owner 3 so as not to use real names) wasn’t the original owner; the 1st owner was Ronald Mastro (whose name is written on the case pictured above), who sold it to Owner 2 who was Owner 3’s business partner.
When Owner 2 bought the case from Ron, Ron said that OPC President Gary Koreen hired him (Ron) to investigate and deal with the ongoing theft problem at OPC. Ron was to figure out who and how people were stealing numerous cases without any trace. Ultimately, Gary was pleased and thankful for Ron’s help in controlling the theft problem. So besides Ron’s compensation, Gary decided, as a courtesy, to give Ron the 1-of-1 vending case of 1990-91 OPC Premier Hockey Cards, which no one knew existed, and Ron promised never to get rid of.
Well, Ron sold it to Owner 2 for $10k, who then sold it, for unknown reasons, to Owner 3 for $5k. After about 12 years of owning the case, someone in the sports card world told Reed that Owner 3 had this one-of-a-kind item that no one knew existed, so Owner 3 got contacted by Reed. At the time, hockey cards had hit an all-time low, so the vending case didn’t have much value, no matter how rare it was. So, Owner 3 wanted to get the case out of his safe. First, he contacted Gary Koreen to let him know he possessed the vending case and asked if it was really a 1-of-1. Gary wasn’t happy to find out Ron sold the case but confirmed it was real.
Owner 3 offered the case to Reed for $3k, but they settled on $2k since that was approximately the break-up value of the 10k cards in the case. It had a $6k price tag at the 2009 National, but I don’t know what it sold for or who has it now.
There are some incredibly unique collectibles out there, like this 1940/41 O-Pee-Chee double-sided “uncut sheet” I found in a 2005 Mastro auction catalog.
Here’s the lots full description:
In 1940, O-Pee-Chee continued the production of their oversized 5″ x 7″ cards from the year before. The offered uncut sheet contains images of all 50 cards in the 1940 set. Card #’s 101-125 are printed on one side of the sheet while cards #’s 126-150 appear on the other side. Card #’s 101-125 are printed in black and white while the remaining cards are in sepia. A plethora of stars are present, including #’s 102 Sands, 108 Broda, 116 Reardon, 118 Apps, 125 Lach, 130 Broda, 131 Bentley, 132 Schmidt, 136 Patrick and 146 Apps. The sheet measures an imposing 25-1/2″ × 36″. Due to its size, it is host to a plethora of condition problems, including multiple creases, edge tears, surface scrapes, etc. Despite these flaws, we cannot overstate its importance, and the piece may well be the only one of its type in the hobby. With proper framing and matting, this rarity would make a spectacular display piece and nicely complement the finest advanced hockey collection.
However, I think Heritage Auctions got it right when they sold an incredibly similar item in October 2021 for $810 and described it as an advertising poster.
They wrote, “This is a two-sided poster printed on thin paper. Was it meant to hang in retail stores? Did O-Pee-Chee consider making dual-sided cards on paper to accommodate the war effort like ’41 Play Ball baseball cards on paper in the states? Either way, it is very rare. There is some obvious edge damage, surface damage and creasing. Every card is affected by creasing. Overall size is approx 25” x 35″ on paper.”
This is a one-of-a-kind production relic for the five-cent wrapper for the 1965 Topps Battle series. Ex-Topps Vault.
I presume Mastro was the first auction house to sell this item after the consignor acquired it from Topps Vault. They wrote it up as printed on glossy paper, measuring 11-1/8” x 10” with penciled-in editorial notes.
After a quick Google search and perhaps a few more owners (who knows!), Hake’s Auctions re-sold it in March 2013 for $172. The editorial note on this scan says, “Fill in white shots on blue plate” referring to the white dots above the black square advertising an “Extra Military Emblem In Each Pack.”
While the following 1965 Topps Battle wrapper has a different advertisement on the left-hand side, the white dots were removed.
Hake’s included the following scan of the official COA from the Topps Vault.
I jokingly shared a scan of the May 1993 issue of Sports Cards (former Baseball Cards) magazine and tagged Dr. Sports Antagonist, who wrote, “Coincidence that “scam”, “profits” and “investments” are all on the same cover?”
Another collector then asked what the hobby’s biggest scam was. After some folks made guesses, I shared Steve Ryan’s article about refurbished cards and memorabilia having become the hobby’s biggest scam.
As Junk Wax Heroes replied, the entire article proves, “Time is a flat circle, so many times I see stuff in old Becketts that still goes on today.”
This incredible lot of nine 1948/49 Leaf Premiums, advertising cards, a display box, and wrapper were offered together in December 2004.
The way Mastro kicked off their description, bashing the base set, is pretty funny, “Universally, hobbyists agree that Leaf’s baseball card program of 1948 was an embarrassing debacle. By current standards, the issue is brightly popular due only to all the production’s unfortunate nuances. However, just a few of today’s best-tutored collectors are aware that there was a premium card supplement then available as well.”
Anyway, they explained that Leaf put one of the 5-1/2” x 7-1/4” pictures inside at the bottom of each counter box and that whoever bought the last pack would get the premium. Or, a collector with ten wrappers could also get a premium.
The premiums in this lot were described as being in pretty great shape: Grover Alexander (EX+), Cochrane (EX), Gehrig (EX+), Walter Johnson (NM), Mathewson (EX+), McGraw (NM), Babe Ruth (NM), and Ed Walsh (NM). The instructions describing how to get premiums was NM, the advertising card was EX, the Ruth Variation was VG/EX, the wrapper NM, and the two-piece box was VG-VG/EX with some corner wear and a puncture.