St. Louis Cards Sports Collectors Club 8th Annual Spring Sports Collectors Convention

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Here’s another morsel of card show history, this one from the April 1983 edition of Trader Speaks. It’s an advertisement for the St. Lous Cards Sports Collectors Club and their 8th annual spring sports collectors convention, held May 20-22, 1983, at the Cervantes Convention Center, four blocks from Busch Stadium.

I’d love to see that Lou Brock painting in color; if anyone knows what it is, please leave a comment. I’d also love to time travel back to some of these early ’80s card shows, meet some legends of the game, check out cards before grading, and see what was popular at the time.

A High-Grade 1935 R331 National Chicle Football Complete Set

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This high-grade 1935 R331 National Chicle football complete set was offered for sale in Mastro’s August 2003 Sports Premier Catalog Auction and would rank in the Top 10 of the PSA Registry today.

The highlight was definitely the PSA 7 Bronko Nagurski. In the lot’s description, they wrote that the minimum bid of $3500 was only half of the SMR value of the Nagurski card alone at the time. That means, in 2003, a PSA 7 Nagurski was $7k. Well, REA sold this one for $105k in the summer of 2022.

Original 1949 Bowman Baseball Window Ad Sheet

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It’s incredible that this 1949 Bowman window ad sheet, meant to be stuck inside a window with pre-applied glue, survived intact.

In their May 2000 catalog, Mastro auctions described this 20” x 5-3/4” piece as in near-mint condition with a fold in the center, as manufactured. It features 16 of the set’s 240 “upcoming” cards.

One contributor on the net54 boards said these were displayed in candy store windows in the Philadelphia area in June 1949.

1970 Topps #468 Jerry Koosman Original Reverse Artwork

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Here’s the original baseball card reverse artwork for Jerry Koosman’s 1970 Topps The Sporting News All-Star card #468.

It was described in Ron Oser Enterprises’ December 2000 catalog as an approximately 5” x 7” pen-and-ink artwork.

Here’s an example of a final production card (via PWCC).

Check out The Original Artwork Archive for more!

The Second National Sports Collectors Convention

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Bill Heitman wrote this light-hearted review of the Second National Sports Collectors Convention, held at the Plymouth Hilton in Michigan in 1981. It appeared in the September 1981 issue of Trader Speaks.

A couple of notes: I hadn’t realized the second National was a conversion of an already successful show. Second, it’s cool how tight-nit many “hobby influencers” seemed to be in 1981. Next, I wish today’s National conventions had more seminars like this one. It tracks that Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline, would be a popular signer at a Michigan card show. Bill’s closing quote is PERFECT, “If the spirit of the National Convention survives, we will all still have fun in this hobby.”

PS: The magazine was too big for my scanner, so I did my best to “glue” two scans of separate pages together; this was the “centerfold.”

The Illustrated Wrapper Checklist Compiled By Christopher Benjamin

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While you can find all of the information from The Illustrated Wrapper Checklist on TCDB or online auction house archives, Christopher Benjamin’s project was significant in 1980.

If that name sounds familiar, that’s because Benjamin was a prominent hobby writer, particularly for non-sports cards. The following ad was in Alan Kaye’s Sports Cards News & Price Guides premier issue and included the following bio, “Christopher Benjamin has published The Card Collectors Bulletin, the “original” hobby magazine. He is editor-in-chief of Non-Sports Update and has authored more than a dozen books and monographs about cards and collecting.”

The guide started with a few words to the collector, thanking them for their purchase, explaining the project, and thanking folks for their contributions.

Then, there were sequential photos of significant baseball, football, basketball, hockey (they’ve always been tough to track down), and non-sports wrappers.

I particularly like that Benjamin included a few boxes and tins on the inside back cover.

If you’re a fan of hobby publications, The Illustrated Wrapper Checklist is a must-get, just are back issues of The Wrapper which was advertised on the back cover.

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

Topps 40 Years Of Baseball Four Decades Of Greatness Feature

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In 1991, Topps Magazine ran a feature called Four Decades of Greatness, featuring four players in each issue, one from each of the previous four decades, who were great players and a large part of Topps baseball cards.

Here’s a list of who they included for each decade:

  • 50s: Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra
  • 60s: Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente
  • 70s: Reggie Jackson, Carl Yastrzemski, Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose
  • 80s: Nolan Ryan, Ryne Sandberg, Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson

When I first shared these on X, one collector wrote, “Well the thing that jumps out most immediately is including Musial in the 50s, when Topps made like two cards of him in that decade. And The Man appeared on Bowman, Red Man, Red Heart, Berk Ross, and others in that time, so it’s not like he was exclusive.”

What do you think? Biggest snub? Oddest inclusion?