Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
Here’s a great piece of hobby history from the July 1982 issue of Trader Speaks advertising some complete sets for sale from the Sports Corner in Nanuet, New York.
If I can get a 1948 Bowman Baseball set for $225, I’ll take it! But how much is that ’68 Topps Dave Ricketts?
Here’s an early to mid-1950s Wonder Bread Cardboard advertising sign that features black and white portraits of Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial.
Mastro offered it in their July 1998 catalog and described the multicolored, blank-backed counter sign as 10-1/2” x 14-3/4” in Ex to Mt condition but with minor restorations. They also implied the Stan Musial fountain pen signature was authentic. The minimum bid was $1k.
The Mantle looks a little like the 1957 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Picture Portfolio “card,” but a touch wider.
The Musial looks a lot like one of Musial’s 1958 Jay Publishing “cards” (All-Stars Set A, All-Stars Set B, St. Louis Cardinals Set A, and St. Louis Cardinals Set B).
A few weeks ago, I shared an advertisement for the January 1982 Baltimore Sports Collectibles Show. I highlighted it because Brooks Robinson was signing on Saturday, January 16th, of the show. I noted that Robinson was a guest at a lot of shows back then.
Well, in the March 1982 issue of Trader Speaks, two more shows highlighted Brooks Robinson as a guest. First, the Central Jersey 8 had him on Sunday, February 28th, 1982.
Then, the Philadelphia Sports Spectacular 1 highlighted Robinson’s attendance on both days of their March 6-7 show, along with Stan Musial on Sunday and Chris Short on both days.
He was really making the rounds in early ’82!
The Premier Issue of Baseball Cards was released in the Spring of 1981 as “the complete sports collectors’ magazine,” the team behind it introduced themselves with this great piece.
Bob Lemke was always known to make great cards, so I presume he designed these. Unfortunately, he died in 2017, but his blog remains online.
Here’s the cover of the issue, too.
For all the era of overproduction insert chasers out there—one of my favorite ads from 1992.
The Cal Ripken Jr. 1992 Donruss Signature Series card, in particular, has become really popular over the past few years; I believe PSA Mint 9/Auto 10s are well over $1k now.
In August 2004, this lot of 24 1961 Fleer basketball wax packs was auctioned together with a GAI-encapsulated empty wax box.
In the summer of 2023, a GAI 7.5 pack sold for $4680; in August 2022, a PSA 6 pack sold for $8100. If that’s outside your price range, you can pick up a nice wrapper for under $100. There are three variations: Science Kits-Set, Dubble Bubble, and Airplane.
Here’s the original picture used for Jim Thorpe’s 1955 Topps All-American card.
The April 2002 auction that featured the item described the original wire photo as 8’’ by 10’’ and taken between 1919 and 1920, capturing Thorpe posing as a member of the Canton Bulldogs. The reverse has the original paper caption and two stamps: “Central Press Association September 21, 1935 Reference” and “National News Photos, Inc.”
This photo was enhanced for newspaper use, including details added to his leg pads, helmet, and hands.