How many complete 1973 Topps Test Comics complete sets do you think exist in the hobby? My guess is under a dozen.
These nine were part of a complete set of 24 that Mastro Sports Auctions offered for sale in December 2004.
Sports Collectors Digest wrote an excellent and detailed overview of the set in an article titled 1973 Topps Comics “Test” Set an Unreleased Rarity. But PSA, who have only graded 191 total comics across the set, has this shorter profile on their site:
Unique among baseball collectibles, the 1973 Topps Comics set was designed as a “test issue” and is never known to havebeen distributed to the public. The item was originally designed to wrap around bubblegum pieces. These thin, wax paper pieces measure 3-7/16” x 4-5/8” and carry gum-wrapper graphics (with a Johnny Bench “teaser” design) on one side, and the featured-player “Comic” on the reverse, along with a facsimile signature. The 24-piece full set consists of Hank Aaron, Dick Allen, Johnny Bench, Steve Carlton, Nate Colbert, Willie Davis, Mike Epstein, Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Lolich, Mike Marshall, Lee May, Willie McCovey, Bobby Murcer, Gaylord Perry, Lou Piniella, Brooks Robinson, Nolan Ryan, George Scott, Tom Seaver, Willie Stargell, Joe Torre, Billy Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski. The 1973 Topps Comics set is among the toughest of all Topps Test issues to achieve in complete set form and are rarely offered on the secondary market.
Here are a few historical set/near-set sales:
Heritage Auctions sold a complete PSA-graded set for $20,315 in May 2008.
REA sold a complete raw set for $17,625 in the Spring of 2010.
REA sold a PSA Set Registry collection of 23/24 comics twice: first for $7,800 in the Summer of 2019 and again for $13,200 in the Fall of 2023.
REA sold a raw set of 23/24 comics for $9,600 in the Summer of 2022, which is perhaps the set this collector on the net54 boards had graded.
As for unopened gum packs, a dealer named SportsInvestments has this one for sale (August 2024) with an asking price of $7,500.
The following rare 1952 Topps baseball high numbers two-color advertising promo was designed to be inserted in cases and later displayed at points of sale, but few have survived. This example is from the November 2000 Mastro Fine Sports Auction catalog.
At the time, they wrote that the 7” x 11-1/2” window display piece was one of two known survivors. Other than the two folds across the sheet, as issued, they described the piece as being in Near Mint Condition.
In 2017, REA sold the following example, which looks different from Mastro’s, for $13,200.
REA wrote, “Extremely rare 1952 Topps advertising poster features images of a large wax pack near the center and a smaller head-shot image of Jackie Robinson (same used on his actual 1952 Topps card) in the lower-left corner. The text printed in red reads “New Series… just out! Over 400 Players.” To the left of the wax pack are the names of five major stars from the high-number series listed with a red star in front each one of their respective names. Listed are Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Roy Campanella, Bobby Thomson, and Pee Wee Reese. Along the bottom next to the small image of Robinson the text reads “Listen To The Jackie Robinson Show Every Saturday 9:30 A. M. WNBC.” The poster, designed to be inserted into cases and later displayed in candy-stores, announced to the world that the new baseball set was finally available. This poster has a Near Mint appearance with two natural vertical fold lines (as issued). Because of their intended use, it is understandable that few of these point-of-sale advertising displays have survived. We have seen fewer than five examples of this rare Topps poster over the past thirty-five years. A superb and extremely rare poster, which would be an outstanding companion piece to any complete 1952 Topps set or addition to any world-class advertising collection. The poster measures 11-1/4 x 6-1/4 inches and has also been matted and framed to dimensions of 18-1/4 x 13 inches.”
REA resold the same piece for $21,600 in the spring of 2019.
A little over a month ago, I published a piece about the Exhibit Supply Co. checklist cards. I highlighted slicks as being particularly important to this hobby niche. I then shared some vending machine header sign examples with slicks pasted on them.
Well, how cool is this display of 1948-1952 Exhibit Supply Co. football card machine-front advertising display pieces that was offered for sale back in December 2005?!
The consigner arranged a group of seven different W468 football machine-front ads into a single, incredible, wood-framed, 32’’ x 43’’ display piece. The minimum bid in December 2005 was $300, but unfortunately, I don’t know what this lot sold for. The cards were all described as paper-thin (slicks) and adhered to the cardboard. And the upper-left example includes a super rare checklist printed on the image of Chuck Bednarik. There are just a handful of these checklist cards in the hobby.
I also can’t say I’ve ever seen an Exhibit machine sign with yellow or green text either, AND the cards in the lower-left example appear to be attached (i.e., a partial uncut sheet of sorts)!
Here’s Mastro’s complete description:
The products of Chicago’s Exhibit Supply Company were designed to be sold in amusement parks and penny arcades. A lot of noisy excitement took place in those establishments, however, and a means was needed to divert customers toward the mute vending machines standing quietly ready to accept pennies and nickels in exchange for cards. The assembled layouts here offered were used on machine-fronts to draw attention and promote sales of Exhibit’s W468 football subjects, and the gridiron greatness depicted in this group of 7 different, very scarce pieces is astonishing in its scope. Featured among the placards’ depictions are key Hall of Famers, short-printed subjects, and the Exhibit collector’s most sought-after piece: the very rare Check List. Each layout consists of thin-paper Exhibit cardfronts adhered to cardboard or paper backings, with titles and graphics added; the layouts have been nicely arranged and matted within a wooden-framed surround (32″ x 43″ total dimensions). The items’ overall display quality is at least EX (some individual components are lesser), with most faults limited largely to fragile, once-exposed corners and surfaces. Includes: MACHINE-FRONT DISPLAYS (7) 12-1/2″ x 19″ panel 1) “Football Stars” display, 9 subjects w/ Young/Baugh/Lujack/Harder/Check List SP/Motley/Graham/Layne/Christman. (Check List SP with text overprinted on the image of Chuck Bednarik-is apparent EX/MT.) 8″ x 12-1/2″ panels 2) 3-subject, 2¢ display w/ McColl/Connor/Barwegan; 3) 3-subject, 1¢ display w/Morrison/Sitko/ Tripucka; 4) 3-subject, 1¢ display w/ Turner/Hirsch/Dudley; 5) 3-subject, 1¢ display w/ Mastrangelo SP/Wedemeyer SP/Coulter SP; 6) 3-subject, 1¢ display w/ Trippi/Motley/Schlinkman SP; 7) 3-subject, 1¢ display w/Ratterman/Younger/Conerly.
This 1964 Topps Salesman’s Sample Ad Card featuring Mickey Mantle was auctioned off in August 2006.
It’s encapsulated as “authentic” by PSA and was used to drum up interest and give a sneak preview to dealers and collectors for the 1964 Topps Baseball series. The triptych (a picture or carving in three panels side by side) measures 7-9/16” x 3-1/2” with Mickey Mantle, Jim Davenport, and Boog Powell on the front. While the auction didn’t include a photo of the back, they described it as having information about the prospective series’ special features and insert products and also had a Mantle card back as a design example.
Heritage resold the same item in December 2020 for $7,200; they wrote, “One of the fuels that drove the Topps machine was the salesman sample. They featured three cards but had Topps sales propaganda or a sticker selling the set on the reverse. For their 1964 effort, they wisely picked baseball’s best in HoFer Mickey Mantle to promote the upcoming 587-card series. Mantle is joined by fellow major leaguers Jim Davenport and Boog Powell but it is Mantle’s card used for the reverse example.”
If you own any salesman samples, I’d love to chat with you about them for my research.
When you ask a collector to name a Larry Bird card, odds are they will either mention the 1980 Topps Bird, Erving, Johnson triple, or his 1986 Fleer card since they’re two of the most expensive. But collectors who tackle multiple basketball sets will tell you what a tough find a nice 1987 Fleer #11 Larry Bird is.
1987 Fleer #11 Larry Bird Front
1987 Fleer Larry Bird #11 Reverse
It’s widely accepted that the 1987 Fleer set was printed in significantly lower quantities than its 1986 Fleer predecessor. So that already limits the population of Larry’s card in what is a pretty popular set. Then, when you inspect the population report, you will find that the card is super tough to find in high-grade condition.
Of 3075 graded (August 2024), there are only 33 10s (387 9s and 1195 8s). Less than 1% of Bird’s 1987 Fleer cards are Gem Mt 10s. When you compare that to other cards in the set with over 1k regular grades, you can see that only Barkley has a (slightly) more difficult hit rate with PSA 10s. However, the Bird is slightly tougher when combining PSA 9 and 10 populations.
25/3000+ Barkley’s have graded PSA 10, 46/2000+ Ewing’s, 58/3200+ Johnson’s, 215/19500+ Jordan’s, 153/2400+ Malone’s, and 40/3000+ Olajuwon cards.
The Larry Bird is such a tough grade because so many copies have poor centering and registry issues. But why is that? The common belief has to do with the set being printed in 132-card sheets, with 12 rows of 11 cards across. Bird, card #11, was believed to be the last card in the top row (upper right corner), which means it was susceptible to cutting problems.
Despite my reach on social media and throughout the hobby, I couldn’t find a photo of an uncut sheet for a long time. But then I was forwarded a link to a bunch of images from Christopher Sanchirico’s collection, and he owned one! Unfortunately, the image size is small, but you can see the Bird in the upper right corner. In the image’s description, he wrote, “This is one of the only uncut sheets to ever have surfaced from this year (correct me if I’m wrong). Super rare, very colorful, and over 30 years old!”
1987 Fleer Basketball Uncut Sheet
Next, you can see a pair of miscut Bird cards.
1987 Fleer #11 Larry Bird – Off Center / Miscut
1987 Fleer #11 Larry Bird – Off Center / Miscut
Even the first of the three PSA 10 Birds pictured below looks surprisingly off-center for a perfect 10 grade.
1987 Fleer #11 Larry Bird
1987 Fleer #11 Larry Bird
1987 Fleer #11 Larry Bird
With the surge and dip of the basketball card market over the past few years, it’s a bit tough to say what these high-grade 1987 Fleer Birds are valued at now. PSA’s Auction Prices Realized for the card show the last two sales being $3,300 in November 2022 and $3,750 in September 2022, but they were over $5k in February 2021 (up to $7500). Those 10s were between $1000 and $1500 between August and November 2020 and about $1200 in May 2020. PSA 9s sold for between $260 and $339 this summer, but they were around $140 in May 2020. PSA 8s have settled around $45, which is where they were in May 2020.
Larry Bird is one of the NBA’s all-time greats who achieved every career highlight or award the league has. His popularity continues today, as seen in the demand for his cards. And while you can’t go wrong adding a 1980 Topps or 1986 Fleer Larry Bird card to your collection (they’re pretty liquid in high grade), his 1987 Fleer card will be a bit more challenging for the condition-focused collector.
Christie’s offered this incredible Junge’s Bread For Energy advertising poster in their October 1993 Sports Memorabilia catalog auction. These are some of the toughest cards to find in the hobby.
Christie’s described the Bread For Energy Label Advertising Poster as follows:
The scarcest of all sports bread end label sets is the 48 label “Bread For Energy” set. It includes 16 Movie Stars, 16 Western Stars and 16 Sports Stars four each of boxing, basketball, wrestling, and football. This rare advertisement for Jungle Bread contains an uncut sheet of 16 labels in color including the following sports subjects, Johnny Lujack, Buddy Young, Kid Gailan, Joe Fulks, Gene Stanlee and the very rare Rocky Marciano. In excellent to mint condition.
The expected price was $1,800-2,200.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much information available about the set. While Christie’s said the set has 48 labels, Beckett’s online directory says the set has 44 cards, while the seller of the following sheet on eBay says 42. And if this is the D290-12 set, my American Card Catalog says there are 64 cards.
That seller on eBay wrote,
This 14 inch by 22 inch magnificent piece of sports and movie nostalgia is the only known, uncut bread-end label sheet and advertising poster for the 1950-51 D290-12 “Bread For Energy” series of 42 different multi-sport and Hollywood celebrities. The labels were distributed on the ends of loafs of various brands of breads & bakeries. Junge’s Bread was not previously known as a D290-12 bread label bakery brand and this advertising poster is as fresh and beautiful as the day it was printed and prepared in 1950.
A 16-card, 11 inch by 11 inch, uncut sheet of 16 different bread labels, which were originally exclusively identified with Fischer’s bread, have been affixed to a cardboard poster. These Junge’s Bread, “Bread for Energy labels” are brand new except for a slight crease that runs from Bing Crosby’s head to the bottom of the William Bendix label. The Kid Gavilan, Edgar Bergan, Joe Fulks are all affected. The sheet contains 3 of the 5 keys to the set including Johnny Lujack, Joe Fulks, and most importantly, a rookie issue of Rocky Marciano.
Curiously, they wrote that their poster, with an asking price of $10k, is the only known piece, when there is another one on eBay with an asking price of $6k, and none of the three, compared to Christie’s, look the same.
Also, Leland’s has sold three of these Junge’s Bread-style posters. The first two have the same look as the previous three I’ve shared; the first sold for $1,364 in December 2020, and the second sold for $1,240 in February 2021 (this appears to be the $10k eBay one).
However, Lelands also sold this Junge’s Bread for Energy poster for $1,364 in April 2021. Notice that it has a few different cards on it!
If you want to see more examples of the cards, BMW Sports Cards has a nice directory. If you know anything else about them, please get in touch with me.
Today, I’m wrapping up my five-part series of articles focused on 1978 Topps baseball and its associated sets and promotions. Here are the previous four articles, in case you missed them:
In this one, I’ll discuss the six-card 1978 Topps uncut panels that came inside issue 47 of Scholastic Inc’s Dynamite Magazine. As a hobby library guy, I find this collectible super appealing.
Dynamite Magazine 101
Scholastic Inc.’s Dynamite Magazine launched in March 1974 and continued to be released through March 1992 (165 total issues). It was Scholastic’s most successful publication and inspired four other magazines you might be familiar with if you were a kid aged ~8-14 at the time; Bananas, Wow, Hot Dog!, and Peanut Butter. It was a bit of a pop culture update and included articles, comics, puzzles, and other interactive content like puzzles, games, masks, etc. They’d often contain inserts like stickers, glow-in-the-dark items, 3-D posters with glasses, and of course, baseball cards.
Dynamite Magazine Issue 47, April 1978, Happy Birthday, Mad!
The issue that included 1978 Topps baseball cards was number 47, released in April 1978, titled “Happy Birthday, Mad!” This edition has over a dozen features, with the headline being “a look at the MADmen and their MAD magazine on its 25th birthday.” Other blasts included a feature about the magazine’s one-year-old horse, how to decorate bicycles, and mini-skits that kids could perform. Shorter pieces, “bombshells,” included cartoons, sneak peek calendars, jokes, puzzles, and advice. The magazine also had a bike poster and, of course, “Free Baseball Cards!”
Dynamite Magazine – Issue 47 – Front Cover
Dynamite Magazine – Issue 47 – Back Cover
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Details and Examples
The 1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panels are the same as regular 1978 Topps cards. They’re a six-card strip from an uncut sheet, then folded to fit in the magazine. No one’s really sure if the whole set made it into the magazines. While my 2010 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards wrote that just three six-card panels of 1978 Topps baseball issues had been found at the time, there are definitely more than that, but likely not the entire set because an 11-card wide sheet doesn’t make an even number of 2×3 card panels.
Of the four examples I’ll share, three are cut from Sheet A and one from Sheet B. The Standard Catalog shares two other examples, one with Steve Kemp, Reggie Smith, Roguish Jackson, Rick Burleson, Duane Kuiper, and Davey Lopes, and another with Toby Harrah, Gary Carter, Jeff Burroughs, Fred Lynn, Bucky Dent, and Jim Rice. Both are Sheet A cards. If you’ve seen some from other sheets, please let me know in the comments.
Here’s the example in my library; it features Wayne Garland, Lerrin LaGrow, Enrique Romo, Rick Waits, Rick Manning, and Jim Kern. I bought it for $15.
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 1 – Image 1
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 1 – Image 2
Here, you can see where the six-card panel was on a regular 1978 Topps uncut sheet (Sheet A).
1978 Topps Uncut Sheet A With 1978 Topps Dynamite Panel Example 1 Highlighted
This second example includes Ellis Valentine, Steve Stone, Willie McCovey, Mark Belanger, Willie Montanez (of Topps Zest Fame), and Mitchell Page.
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 2 – Image 1
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 2 – Image 2
This panel was cut from the left edge of Sheet A.
1978 Topps Uncut Sheet A With 1978 Topps Dynamite Panel Example 2 Highlighted
This third example is the most famous one and was documented on The Chronicles of Fuji blog in June 2013 after the author sniped it off of eBay for $22.50 + $3.95 shipping. It features Eddie Murray, Amos Otis, Ruppert Jones, Bobby Bonds, John Mayberry, and George Scott.
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 3 – Image 1
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 3 – Image 2
The Eddie Murray panel was cut from the lower right corner of Sheet B.
1978 Topps Uncut Sheet A With 1978 Topps Dynamite Panel Example 3 Highlighted
By the way, ToddUncommon on Twitter mentioned that there’s a cottage industry of hand-cutting Murray cards from sheets and passing them off as pack-pulled since the in-card pack Murray’s are often terribly off-center.
The following example is slightly inconsistent with the other three, which is interesting since it features superstars Dave Winfield and George Brett, Roy White, Bobby Murcer, Jim Barr, and Cesar Geronimo. It’s been listed on eBay for $49.99 before.
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 4 – Image 1
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panel Example 4 – Image 2
You can see that it’s also a Sheet A cut panel, but it seems to have been inserted oppositely. The first three examples all look the same, with a pair of cards over the edge of the poster on top of the magazine’s index.
1978 Topps Dynamite Magazine Panels – First 3 Examples
1978 Topps Uncut Sheet A With 1978 Topps Dynamite Panel Example 4 Highlighted
If you’re looking for individual panels, they’ll all have a bend across them, just like this 1983 Topps Hot Dog Magazine example.
1983 Topps Hot Dog Magazine Panel and Sheet Placement
A handful of examples advertised as Dynamite or Hot Dog panels without bends are probably legitimate cards but not magazine inserts.
Topps partnered with Scholastic for many years, so you can also find examples for other baseball (and football) sets.
1978 Topps Series Wrap Up
That wraps up my 1978 Topps baseball series! From the base set to partnerships with Burger King and Zest Soap, the mail-in checklists, and these six-card panels, Topps certainly maximized their brand’s reach! And I acknowledge that I COULD have included a review of the 1978 O-Pee-Chee baseball set in this series. Do you think I should have?
