1958 Topps Roger Maris Salesman Sample

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I was pretty excited when I saw this hand-cut 1958 Topps Roger Maris Salesman Sample card graded authentic by SGC pop up on eBay back in July 2024; it’s a really cool piece of hobby history.

Back in Newsletter #28, I wrote:

As the name implies, salesman-sample sports card panels were used by salesmen as samples to vendors (e.g. grocers and candy-store owners) to illustrate an upcoming release of cards to promote sales. These panels were produced in limited numbers, making surviving samples quite rare.

The front of the panels looked like regular-issue cards, while the back had a small advertising pitch for the new product. In some years, the backs also had redemption information or a sample card back.

Here’s an example from Heritage Auctions of a complete 1958 Topps Salesman Sample.

On the front, you can see that the three cards are just a random strip of three from an uncut sheet, while the back has advertising copy and an example card’s back. So, depending on a card’s location on an uncut sheet, it could be on any position on the front and, therefore, have any piece of the back (unless Topps placed it on a sheet’s edge). So a salesman sample with a 1958 Roger Maris front could go Frank Bolling/Wally Burnette/Roger Maris, or Wally Burnette/Roger Maris/Del Rice, or Roger Maris/Del Rice/Bill Fischer.

The cut Maris pictured above has the top of the back printed on its back, but it could have any; however, this SGC authenticated one is the only one in either PSA’s or SGC’s Pop Report.

The SGC-graded 1958 Topps Roger Maris “#47” cut Salesman Sample card sold on eBay for $785 on July 8th, 2024. Unfortunately, the buyer didn’t pay, and the owner had to relist the card. It was sold again on July 23rd for $538. The $538 price is reasonable when you compare it to other examples. REA sold a Don Drysdale cut sample for $156 in February 2023, and a Hank Aaron sold for $1,499.99 on eBay in April 2024.

The Maris sample card appears to have been purchased by another dealer who re-listed it on eBay with a Buy-it-Now price of $949.99.

1971 Milk Duds Giant Assortment of 661 Unassembled Complete Boxes

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Today, in hobby hoarding history, a visually stunning assortment of 661 1971 Milk Duds unassembled complete boxes.

REA offered this lot in July 2000 with a $1,000 reserve. Here’s the complete description:

In 1971 Milk Duds issued this unusual set on the back of five cent boxes of Milk Duds candy. This giant hoard of 661 complete boxes includes only 36 different cards. There are between ten and forty-eight of each of 11 players represented in the group. These are complete unassembled boxes which never made it to the candy store. 98% range from Ex-Mt to Nr/Mt-Mt (averaging Nr/Mt), 2% Vg to Vg-Ex/Ex. This is an incredible find of these candy cards in their most ideal complete box form. Assortment includes the following stars with the number in parenthesis indicating the quantity of that player: Aparicio (1). Brock (28), Clemente (34), Jenkins (44), Killebrew (4), Mays (41), McCovey (9), B. Robinson (19). F. Robinson (24), Rose (2), Williams (1). The Standard Catalog book value for this assortment is in excess of $11,000. Total 661 complete unassembled boxes.

While this hoard doesn’t include a complete set of full boxes, which command $3,000-5,000 these days, it did have 41 Mays and 34 Clemente boxes, which, in high grade, individually command >$1k each.

That’s The Ticket!

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Tickets to sporting events can be worth more than the price of admission by Bruce Chadwick.

I love that Chadwick highlighted college football tickets. “Some of the most memory-filled tickets are from college football games. Until the early ’70s, schools large and small had colorful illustrations on the tickets, making them much more than just stubs.”

This article appeared in Edition #8 of Topps Magazine in the fall of 1991.

1936/37 Madison Square Garden Hockey Poster

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Today’s piece of hobby history memorabilia is this 1936/37 Madison Square Garden Hockey Poster featuring Hall of Famer Mervin “Red” Dutton of the New York American Hockey Club.

Sotheby’s offered the piece in their March 1993 catalog. It shows the schedule of events at the Garden in November 1936, highlighting the New York Americans match to open the season on November 12th against the Chicago Black Hawks.

It was described as being printed on heavy stock with a blank reverse; “one of the finest hockey broadsides ever offered,” near mint condition. 11 in by 17 in. The estimate was $1,500-2,000.

Cards That Never Were – By Dave Sliepka and Theo Chen

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A few days ago, I shared a post called Celebrating the Reverse – Card Backs With Jim McLauchlin. In it, I shared a fantastic article from the September 1991 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine that jokingly presents the first quasi-annual Sy Berger Awards for Card Back Excellence (or Lack Thereof). Today, I’m doing something similar and sharing another fantastic piece from a magazine, this time from the official program for the 16th National Sports Collectors Convention in July 1995.

16th National Sports Collectors Convention Official Program

The convention organizers included five detailed articles from leading card and memorabilia magazines, and this one was from Beckett Baseball Card Monthly covering Cards That Never Were. Dave Sliepka and Theo Chen offered a visual look at what could have been in baseball cards but wasn’t. They limited themselves to active or recently active players and concentrated only on cards that realistically could have been produced. Given how popular custom cards are now, I think a lot of you will get a kick out of what they came up with. I’ll share the entire article at the end with the details of each card.

1974 Topps Dave Winfield, Washing “NAT’L LEA.”

1974 Topps Dave Winfield, Washing “NAT’L LEA.”

1983 Topps Traded Don Mattingly

1983 Topps Traded Don Mattingly

1986 Fleer Fred McGriff/Ty Gainey

1986 Fleer Fred McGriff/Ty Gainey

1986 Fleer Update Bo Jackson

1986 Fleer Update Bo Jackson

1986 Topps Traded Ruben Sierra

1986 Topps Traded Ruben Sierra

1987 Fleer Greg Maddux/Rafael Palmeiro

1987 Fleer Greg Maddux/Rafael Palmeiro

1988 Topps Gregg Jefferies

1988 Topps Gregg Jefferies

1989 Score Ken Griffey Jr.

1989 Score Ken Griffey Jr.

1989 Upper Deck Joey Belle

1989 Upper Deck Joey Belle

1989 Upper Deck Deion Sanders

1989 Upper Deck Deion Sanders

1990 Donruss The Rookies Frank Thomas

1990 Donruss The Rookies Frank Thomas

1990 Bowman Dave Justice

1990 Bowman Dave Justice

1990 Leaf Travis Fryman and Juan Gonzalez

1990 Leaf Travis Fryman and Juan Gonzalez

1991 Stadium Club Mike Mussina

1991 Stadium Club Mike Mussina

1993 Fleer Mike Piazza

1993 Fleer Mike Piazza

1993 Donruss George Brett

1993 Donruss George Brett

1993 Topps Traded Alex Rodriguez

1993 Topps Traded Alex Rodriguez

Cards That Never Were Complete Article

Cards That Never Were – Pages 50/51
Cards That Never Were – Page 52
Cards That Never Were – Page 53
Cards That Never Were – Page 54

1961 Topps Collection Of World Series Baseball Card Original Artworks

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Ron Oser Enterprises offered these three 1961 Topps World Series baseball card original full-color artworks (card #’s 309, 310, and 311) in a lot together back in the spring of 2000.

All are from the “1960 World Series” specials. The full color artworks measure approximately 4″ x 5″ and each is accompanied by an original 1961 Topps example card. All are bordered by the artists color “wash” which runs into the artists board that the artworks are still attached to. Includes: #309 “Cimoli Safe in Crucial Play’ #310 “Face Saves the Day’ #311 “Ford Pitches Second Shutout
Reserve $250.

Ron Oser Enterprises

Here are the final products:

Now, cards 306-313 make up the World Series subset, and I managed to find one other original artwork online; REA sold card #308 for $830 in the fall of 2013

Please let me know if you’ve seen any of the other four World Series cards’ original artworks.

The Topps Mickey Mantle Cards We Didn’t Get

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In 1954 and 1955, when kids were ripping packs of Topps baseball cards, many were undoubtedly disappointed when they learned that they wouldn’t be pulling a Mickey Mantle card. And the reason why is simple, Topps never printed them. This article will explain why and show a few of my favorite custom 1954 Topps and 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle cards and the versions Topps has shared.

Topps didn’t print a Mantle card as part of its 1954 or 1955 baseball sets because it legally couldn’t. Bowman and Topps had such a fierce rivalry in the early post-war era that they each tried to sign exclusive agreements with the most popular players to differentiate their products. In 1954 and 1955, Bowman managed to sign Mantle. In 1956, Topps purchased Bowman, so Topps sets were more “complete” from that point forward.

However, even though Topps didn’t print a Mantle card in 1954, it didn’t stop them from publishing an example of what one would have looked like on paper stock. They partnered with Sports Illustrated Magazine in 1954 and printed a black & white Mantle “card.” 

Sports Illustrated Black and White 1954 Topps Mickey Mantle

Sports Illustrated wanted to boost magazine sales and included 27 paper-thin cards in its first two editions. The first edition included stars like Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Duke Snider, and Eddie Mathews. The second edition was exclusively Yankees, and the 27 printed cards included a 1954 Topps-style Mickey Mantle card.

Sports Illustrated Magazine – First and Second Weekly Issues
Sports Illustrated 1954 Topps Baseball Cards – Fronts – Angle 1
Sports Illustrated 1954 Topps Baseball Cards – Fronts – Angle 2
Sports Illustrated 1954 Topps Baseball Cards – Backs

Topps also, many years later, gave us an example of a 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle card. Topps was printing their own magazine during the peak of the junk-wax era, and in their third edition, released in the summer of 1990, they had a special on “Mantle Mania,” and the center-fold included a 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle style card.

Topps Magazine – Collectors’ Edition #3
Topps Magazine Centerfold – 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle

Many other collectors and hobbyists have produced custom 1954 and 1955 Topps cards, but my favorites come from hobby pioneer Bob Lemke, who unfortunately passed away in 2017. On his blog, you can read about his custom efforts: “Ho-Hum … another 1954 Topps-style Mantle. But mine has a story” and “My ’55 Mantle completes Topps-style customs.” I think it’s fantastic that he re-used the portrait that he put on the 1954 custom on his 1955 Mantle, too, just as Topps often did back then.

Bob Lemke’s 1954 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Front
Bob Lemke’s 1954 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Reverse
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Front
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Reverse
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Red Variation
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Green Variation

I’m sure that many Mantle collectors are bummed that Bowman had the exclusive contract to print his cards in 1954 and 1955. But their pocketbooks must be thankful; can you imagine how pricey those Topps cards would be now? Leave your price estimates down in the comments, and happy collecting!

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