Welcome to the Original Artwork Archive! This is the hub for all the articles I’ve written about original artwork used to produce cards, sorted by sport and set. A lot of these pieces originate from the Topps Archives and Guernsey’s Topps auction, while others remain “lost,” buried in private collections. But thanks to the hobby library, I can scan and share photos from these and other past auctions and magazines, preserving these treasures for collectors to enjoy.
If you have any examples to share, shoot me an e-mail.
I always found it interesting that Stan Musial wasn’t signed with Topps or Bowman from 1954 through 1957. James N. Giglio wrote that Musial refused to sign due to “insufficient compensation.” I later learned that Musial had some other business partnerships (for example, with Rawlings) and was showcasing a bit of business acumen, but I didn’t research this any further. So when I stumbled upon a Kit Young catalog featuring an advertisement for the Stan-The-Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack, I couldn’t resist learning more about Musial’s company and the product.
Kit Young – 1997 Early Spring Catalog
The first ad I came across was from Kit Young’s 1997 Early Spring Catalog, featuring an autographed Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack for $69.95 plus $5.95 p/h. It included a signed letter of authenticity.
The ad referenced that they offered the display piece in an earlier catalog and had immediately sold out. I tracked that one down from their 1996 holiday sale, and they offered that rack for $39.95 plus $5.95 p/h.
Kit Young – 1996 Holiday Sale
As a collector, I was intrigued by both options and wondered about the history of the bat rack.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack
My research led me to discover that the Stan-The-Man Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack was official merchandise sold by Stan Musial’s company, Stan the Man Inc. The company sold a variety of Musial memorabilia, including “Stan the Man Inc.” branded baseball bats, gloves, and signed Musial memorabilia. The company was operated by Dick Zitzmann, vice president of Stan the Man Inc. The company closed its doors in 2015. Here are a couple of photos of an entire case of Rack-Um-Up Bat Racks.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 1
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 2
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 3
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 4
The Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack was a wooden rack-equipment holder designed to hold up to six baseball bats. It was released around 1964 and is approximately 4″ x 6″ x 19″.
I found this description from KeyMan Collectibles: “As Advertised; Stan Musial’s Rack-Um-Up is the big league way to keep your bats, balls, and glove ready for play. Rack-Um-Up holds three bats, two balls, and has pegs for your cap and favorite glove, and the back panel features Stan’s picture and autograph….plus a list of his outstanding baseball records. The instructions and hardware for assembly are included and visible in a small plastic bag inside the larger bag on back of rack.”
As I delved deeper into the history of the Stan-The-Man Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack, I came across photographs of the bat rack, some of which Musial signed and looked like they may have come from Kit Young’s advertisement.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Signed
I also found examples of letters of authenticity that matched the ad.
Stan The Man Inc. Certificate of Authenticity
You can pick up a still-sealed rack for around $100 (with some patience).
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Sealed – Front
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Sealed – Reverse
I’ve also seen signed ones with JSA certs listed for between $150 and $200, like the following example.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack – Signed
Stumbling upon the Kit Young catalog advertisement for the Stan-The-Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack led me to uncover an exciting aspect of Stan Musial’s business ventures. Although his absence from Topps and Bowman cards may have seemed odd initially, it appears to have been the start of a calculated move that showcased Musial’s savvy business acumen.
In 1966, Fleer sold the last of its baseball player contracts to Topps after fighting them in court for its aggressiveness in securing exclusive player contracts. Fleer actually initially won their case at the Federal Trade Commission but lost on appeal. Despite a challenging landscape, Fleer embraced innovation and diversity and ventured into non-sports cards pretty hard to help sell their bubble gum. One really intriguing outcome of this experimentation was the emergence of the 1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs and the 1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs.
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs
Kudos to The Sport Americana Price Guide to The Non-Sports Cards for details about these two Fleer Weird-Ohs sets; there isn’t much else written about them. They point out that the wrapper design tells you what this set of cards is all about; it features a monster wearing an “SCTA” hat (Society for Cruelty to Animals) flagging down prospective victims.
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs Wax Wrapper
The 66-card set is packed with similar bizarre characters based on characters developed by the Hawk Model Company – who have a copyright on the back of the cards.
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #3 Francis The Foul – Front
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #3 Francis The Foul – Reverse
The front of each card features a unique cartoon character, their name, and a brief description of their “proclivities.” The green card backs all feature Francis the Foul on the left-hand side and a detailed description of the character in black text underneath a clearly marked “Weird-Ohs” trademark.
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #4 Davey – Front
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #4 Davey – Reverse
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #7 Terry Tent – Front
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #7 Terry Tent – Reverse
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #13 Pop Fly – Front
1965 Fleer Weird-Ohs #13 Pop Fly – Reverse
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs
Despite “baseball” being in the set’s title, the hobby has always categorized the 1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs as a non-sport set.
Fleer stuck with the weird-oh design and basic card format in a spin-off to poke fun at baseball with this 66-card set. The fronts again feature colorful artwork designed by artist William Campbell with a caption (that usually rhymes) below it within the card’s white border. The backs have the “Baseball Weird-ohs” set title, the card title (not the same words as on the front), and a descriptive back story of the character that often describes something comically violent on the right side, with “Doug Out” from card #1 on the left side which has an orange background.
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs #1 Doug Out – Front
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs #1 Doug Out – Reverse
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs #2 Texas Leaguerer – Front
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs #13 Newton Nervous – Front
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs #13 Newton Nervous – Reverse
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs #62 Hey Hey Harry – Front
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs #62 Hey Hey Harry – Reverse
In 2020, REA auctioned off a few of Campbell’s original art pieces. Each piece is approximately 4-3/4″ x 6-1/8″—the four pieces sold for $810.
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs Oringal Artwork
The art for card #62 featuring Hey Hey Harry sold for $355 in October 2013.
1966 Fleer Baseball Weird-Ohs Hey Hey Harry Original Artwork
Wrap Up
When it comes to the Fleer Weird-Oh sets, collectors seem to either love ’em or hate ’em without a lot of in-between. That divide has left a unique market dynamic where collectors can track down complete sets for a modest, though not “super-cheap” price range between $70 and $90. The set has maintained a certain level of popularity, evidenced by its re-issue in 2007/2008, though no new items were introduced.
Welcome to the Uncut Sheet Archive! This is the hub for all the articles I’ve written about uncut sheets, sorted by sport and set. My goal is for it to be the definitive source of uncut sheet information on the web, offering insights into distribution, production quirks, and the factors behind why some vintage cards were so condition-sensitive, even out of the pack!
If you have any rare sheets to share, shoot me an e-mail.
Welcome to the relaunched Unopened Archive! It used to have pages with photos of packs, wrappers, boxes, and cases from all the big pre- and post-war releases. This 2.0 version is more of a hub for all my blog posts about different unopened material. Over time, I’ll bring back the old content and add way more—like info about fakes, finds, sales, collation, and all the known products out there.
If you’re looking for a particular unopened product photo, shoot me an e-mail.
I ran across this window sign advertising the circa 1937 R342 Goudy Thum-Movies in Sotheby’s March 1991 auction catalog, which included The Copeland Collection; it’s a cool-looking sign in black and white, but it’s actually red, white, and blue.
Sotheby’s described the window sign as follows:
Goudey Flip Movie Window Sign, circa 1937, red, white and blue, blank on reverse, thin paper and very delicate, depicting a drawing of a flip movie being flipped and also “gum and pictures only 2 cents” which gives it provenance to the R342 set, near mint to mint. 5⅞ in. by 7⅝ in.
The window sign for the R342 Goudey Flip Movies, were meant to be glued to the window of candy stores. This sign still shows the strips of glue along the edges since it was never used.
Their estimate for the item was $1,000-1,500.
Based on the staple holes and a bit of the paper loss, it looks like Heritage resold the same item in February 2017 for $384.
Heritage highlighted that it was the first time they had the opportunity to present this piece to their bidders and that the item was very fragile.
REA sold the following copy, which originated directly from Goudey’s files, in the spring of 2017 for $360.
They wrote that it still had the original strips of clear glue along the vertical sides, which a candy store was supposed to wet to attach the poster to the window. This one also had two clean staple holes, but the paper loss differs from the Heritage example.
Here’s the original artwork Dick Perez painted for the 1984 Donruss Mike Schmidt #23 Diamond Kings card.
Ron Oser Enterprises offered it in a lot with a few other signed Perez originals in April 2001. The lot’s description was a little unclear, but I believe the piece is 11” x 17”.
Here’s the final card, followed by a side-by-side comparison.
