1915 Boston Red Sox Postcard

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Notice anything significant about this 1915 Boston Red Sox Postcard? Yup, that’s Babe Ruth in the middle of the back row!

Sotheby’s offered this piece in their March 1991 auction that featured items from The Copeland Collection.

It was described as a “real photo team postcard” made before the World Series of the American League Champion Boston Red Sox. Boston went on to win that World Series four games to one against Philadelphia. Sotheby’s, of course, highlighted Babe Ruth but also identified Speaker and Hooper on the near mint-conditioned postcard-backed item.

This is the sort of historical collectible that has exploded in price over the past 30 years. The estimate for the postcard was $3,000-4,000 back in 1991 but has skyrocketed in recent years. When the finest graded example (there are just 10 in PSA’s Pop Report), a PSA 6, was offered by Heritage Auctions in February 2024, it went for $564k, and lower-graded copies are now $80k-115k+.

UPDATE: Aug 2024. REA sold the following example for $114k on August 11, 2024.

Ridiculous Collection Of Vintage Baseball Wax Boxes

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In the spring of 2008, along with The Greatest Collection of Vintage Bowman and Topps Football Display Boxes, someone also consigned the most ridiculous group of baseball boxes to Mastro Auctions, which included the following:

  • 1936 Goudey “Big League Gum” One-Cent Display Box
  • 1939 Gum, Inc. “Play Ball America” Baseball Centennial One-Cent Display Box
  • 1941 Gum Products, Inc. “Double Play” One-Cent Display Box
  • 1950 Bowman Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1951 Bowman Baseball Five-Cent Display Box
  • 1952 Bowman Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1956 Topps Baseball Five-Cent Display Box, “Dated” Version GAI NM+ 7.5
  • 1957 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1958 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1961 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1962 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box

Time Magazine Baseball Covers, 1923-1982

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In January 1983, Trader Speaks published this great piece from Frank Keetz highlighting the 44 times between 1923 and 1982 that a baseball player appeared on Time Magazine’s cover!

A few highlights:

  • Time has highlighted a baseball player on the cover ~1.5% of the time
  • Time Magazine covers are tougher finds than old Life, Sports, Sports Illustrated, and Street and Smith publications
  • George H. Sisler was the first baseball personality to appear on the cover.
  • Only Joe DiMaggio appeared more than once
  • If you’re a Mantle guy, you need the issue dated 6/15/1953

Here are the Sisler and Mantle covers:

1957-58 Topps Basketball Wax Packs

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There was quite a buzz across the hobby, particularly the unopened community when in April 2023, Mile High Card Co. sold the following PSA 7-graded 1957 Topps basketball pack for nearly $128k.

In their auction description, MHCC wrote, “Topps learned their lesson when they overproduced the 1952 Topps baseball series, sending cases of unwanted product to a watery grave. They were much more cost-conscious when they rolled out their inaugural basketball series and packs such as the one featured here are far more scarce.”

However, the underproduction of the 1957 Topps basketball set is a bit of a hobby misconception. In September 2015, Sports Collectors Daily shared that Topps Had Lots of Unsold 1957-58 Basketball. They included the following article from the spring of 1961, which says that Topps had 10M cards from the set left unsold; that’s like 70k boxes!

So, the 1957 Topps basketball packs aren’t scarce from under-printing; they’re scarce because no one wanted them, and Topps appears to have disposed of the leftovers. That disposal and the resurgence of vintage basketball and unopened collecting have skyrocketed the demand for 1957 Topps basketball packs. 

You see, the MHCC sale wasn’t some high-priced one-off outlier; shortly after that, in November 2023, BBCE auctions sold another 1957 Topps basketball PSA 7-graded wax pack for almost $92k.

Now, from a population (supply) perspective, PSA has only encapsulated nine of these packs (three 6s, four 7s, two 8s), and there are a bunch still in GAI holders, but likely not even an entire box worth across both companies.

However, some Facebook Vintage Wax and Packs Group collectors said the MHCC pack was probably part of a late 90s/early 2000s find. They thought they started selling for prices in the mid-teens (~$15k), that there were around 27 of them that GAI mostly slabbed as 7s/7.5s, and that the $128k pack was probably a cross from that find.

That timing seems to align with this lot of 6 GAI-graded 1957/58 Topps basketball packs that Mastro offered for sale in August 2004.

The packs’ grades included: GAI NM-MT 8: 2 packs, GAI NM+ 7.5: 3 packs, and GAI NM 7: 1 pack.

Update: 2 September 2024. After reading this post, a collector reached out and told me he and some friends bought the Mastro lot of 6 packs for ~$25k; they split four and sold two. Two of the guys he split them with sold theirs years ago. Another guy kept his GAI 7.5 and crossed it to a PSA 6 pack years ago, and he still owns one of the GAI 8 packs.

The same catalog had another lot for a single GAI 8-graded pack with a minimum bid of $1k.

Update: 8 September 2024. Mastro also included the following collection of five GAI-graded 1957 Topps basketball packs in their December 2004 Sports Auction of Distinction. One was a GAI NM-MT 8, and four were GAI NM+ 7.5s.

The recent ~$100k price point for these packs is a massive increase from other confirmed pack sales I’ve tracked down.

For example, Lelands sold this GAI 7.5 example for $3,352 in June 2005.

Memory Lane Inc. has two sales in its archives; the first is a GAI 8, which sold for $4,353 in December 2006.

And the second, more recently, is this GAI 6.5, which sold for just under $27k in December 2021.

That December 2021 Memory Lane 1957 Topps basketball pack appears to be the same one I grabbed a screenshot of back in August 2020 from eBay. 

You can see that the owner was asking $33k (plus $4.95 shipping). Many of us thought the price was a little high then; at the time, yes, but not two years later!

The next example of a 1957 Topps basketball pack that I found was, again, from MHCC; they sold this GAI 7.5 example for just under $20k in March of 2018.

Update: 16 September 2024. BBCE Auctions sold the following PSA-7 graded 1957 Topps basketball wax pack this morning for just under $69k.

Here’s a summary of the progression of wax pack sales:

  • June 2005: GAI 7.5, Lelands, $3,352
  • December 2006: GAI 8, Memory Lane Inc., $4,353
  • March 2018; GAI 7.5, Mile High Card Co., $20k
  • December 2021: GAI 6.5, Memory Lane Inc., $27k
  • April 2023: PSA 7, Mile High Card Co., $128k
  • November 2023: PSA 7, BBCE Auctions, $92k
  • September 2024: PSA 7, BBCE Auctions, $69k

If you have any other information about 1957 Topps basketball wax pack sales, please get in touch with me!

Mr. Mint Alan Rosen’s Find II

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In my post about Seven 1954 Bowman Unopened Five-Cent Wax Packs, I mentioned that they originated from the famous Paris, Tennesse, find, which I said I would detail in a future post. Well, here’s a look back at Mr. Mint’s Find II of unopened material.

First, a “find” is when old trading cards surface with significant value that few collectors know about. And usually, those finds have a great story related to them. Alan Rosen used those stories to grow his brand (before branding was a thing in the hobby) through advertising and word of mouth.

Alan Rosen – The Buying Machine – Advertisement

Mr. Mint’s Find II was his >$400k 1954 and 1955 unopened box find from 1987 in Paris, Tennessee. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I pulled the following screen capture from Mr. Mint’s old website, describing the Find II as having over 500 unopened boxes of 1954 and 1955 Topps and Bowman baseball cards. Plus, an additional 250+ boxes of 1954 and 1955 Bowman football unopened boxes, along with some 1955 Bowman baseball sets (I’ve read they were all missing Charles King’s card, who lived in Paris, TN).

Mr. Mint’s Major Finds via the Wayback Machine

In a November 20, 1987 advertisement, Rosen also wrote that he was called to the deal by three Paris, Tennessee collector/dealers who came across the find in the basement of a former candy wholesaler. Many boxes were ruined by bugs and thrown away, and about a third were water-damaged (some vintage packs on the market from this find show brown stains on the wrapper). 

Alan Rosen’s The Find II Advertisement

You can see from the advertisement that he was selling:

  • 1954 Bowman baseball 5-cent packs for $125 and boxes for $2500. 
  • 1955 Bowman baseball 5-cent packs for $150 and boxes for $3000.
  • 1955 Topps baseball 5-cent packs for $200 and boxes for $3500.
  • 1954 Bowman football 5-cent packs for $20 and boxes for $425
  • 1954 Bowman football 1-cent packs for $10 and boxes for $1000.

Many of these products were bought and ripped to complete sets; indeed, many high-grade cards in today’s graded market came from this find. But the prices have skyrocketed for those who managed to hang on to the unopened products. Here are a few recent sales:

  • A 1954 Bowman baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $4200 in the fall of 2021
  • A 1955 Bowman Baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 7 sold for $4680 in the Fall of 2021
  • A 1955 Bowman Baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $7200 in the Fall of 2021
  • A 1955 Topps Baseball 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 5 sold for $36000 in the Spring of 2022, yes, $36k. REA wrote that it almost certainly originated from the 1987 Paris find.
  • An empty 1955 Topps baseball 5-cent box sold for $1620 in the Summer of 2020
  • A 1954 Bowman Football 5-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $1740 in the Summer of 2020
  • A 1954 Bowman Football 1-cent wax pack graded PSA 8 sold for $420 in the Summer of 2020
  • A 1954 Bowman Football 5-cent wax box sold for $46800 in July 2020
  • A 1954 Bowman Football 1-cent wax box sold for $32400 in May 2020

It’s almost impossible to put a current market value at what a find like this one would go for today; the market saturation would be so incredible that if I found it, I would probably try to keep it a secret. 

You might think that most cards have already been “found,” but that isn’t true. We keep reading announcements about previously privately held collections, so keep your eyes open and happy collecting!

The Start Of An Era – The 1951 Topps Red Back And Blue Backs Baseball Cards

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Some folks will say the 1952 Topps set was the company’s first baseball card release because the 51s were more of a “game,” ignoring the baseball cards that were part of the 1948 Topps Magic Photos set.

Whatever you believe, this article from the second edition of Topps Magazine is an excellent primer to Topps’ early baseball card days.

1913 T200 Fatima Premium Of The Cleveland Americans Including Joe Jackson

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The 1913 T200 Fatima Team cards are popular and pricey, but even those prices get dwarfed by the premiums! REA offered this framed copy of the Cleveland Americans (Joe Jackson) at auction in July 2000.

REA wrote:

This large team photograph of the Cleveland Americans was issued as a special premium by Fatima Cigarettes. The Cleveland Americans are considered by many to be the most desirable in this series as this team includes Joe Jackson (standing second from left). T200 premiums, which are giant versions of the T200 Fatima team cards packaged with Fatima cigarettes, feature team photos on thick cardboard mounts and are ideal for display. These large premium team cards are among the rarest of all baseball tobacco issues, and were available only by mail in exchange for forty coupons which were included (one per pack) with Fatima cigarettes. This Cleveland Americans premium was the prize (both in terms of the team and condition) of a find of eight T200 Fatima premiums which surfaced and were sold at auction in June of 1998. Strong Nr/Mt condition with flawless contrast. Beautifully matted and framed. 11 3/4″ x 19 1/2″

More recently, REA sold and re-sold the following example for $18,800 in the spring of 2010 and $29,625 in the spring of 2012.

Also, it looks like someone got a pretty good deal when they picked up this mounted example in the fall of 2018 for “just” $6,000.

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