It’s time to look at the history of another T206 Honus Wagner—this time with the PSA 1 example sold in Mastro’s 1999 auction.
While raw, The T206Resource labeled this Wanger as 31a in their gallery.
Then, after being consigned to Mastro for their November 1999 Millennium Auction, it was graded and given the notation 31b by the T206 Resource. The T206 Resource said it sold for $58,513, which is partially true, as lot 869, with the 15% buyer’s premium, the final price, per my records, was $67,290. I believe it remains in the same slab to this day.
Two other incredible cards accompanied Wagner on Page 207 of the catalog: the Plank sold for $13,126, and the Magie sold for $9,492.
By the way, The T206 Resource calls this The Long Island Wagner on their Sales History page. Is that accurate? Also, if anyone has any more information about the history of this T206 Wagner example, please reach out. Happy collecting!
I used to have a ridiculous 1978 Topps basketball collection: two complete high-grade PSA Sets, wax boxes, packs, trays, vending, display cases, wrappers, etc. But one thing that always eluded me was an uncut sheet, like this blank-back proof that Mastro auctioned off in December 2007.
The auction included a sister item, a blank-back proof sheet of the card backs.
Here’s the full description:
These 66-card proof sheets present, respectively, the front and back sides of 66 entries in Topps’ 1978/79 Basketball series. Virtually never found in this form, these items are printed on bright white cardstock of standard thickness; both have an unusual glossy character of a type that’s only observed on selected Topps proof relics from this era. The sheets measure about 22″ x 28-3/4″ (each with an irregular border cut at one edge) and display their subject designs in 6-card-by-11-card arrangements. Highlights among the sheets’ content include Bing, Frazier, Gervin, Gilmore, Goodrich, Hayes, King and Malone. The sheets feature alignment marks and color notes in their margins, and both exhibit a number of editorial marks placed in grease pencil. Overall EX display quality with a few small creases and wrinkles, along with occasional surface cracks in their glossy coating.
I’ve only been able to track down a few sales. The following sheet sold on eBay in 2019; I want to say it closed at $565, too.
And Mile High Card Co. sold the following sheet for $424 in December 2024.
Here’s a historically significant ad TCMA placed in the April 1972 issue of The Trader Speaks—one of their first as a newly incorporated company that year.
Unfortunately, I’m unaware of a definitive source of TCMA sets and checklists; the major catalogs are all missing at least a handful. That said, The Standard Catalog does include the 504-card 1972 TCMA The 1930’s set. Here’s what they wrote about it:
Extending to over 500 cards, this was one of TCMA’s first ventures into the business of creating collectors’ edition card sets of former players. Over the length of the series there were a number of style differences. The set was issued in 21 series of 24 cards each. All cards were printed in black-and-white (except for Series 18-19 printed in blue) and feature player photos on usually borderless fronts. Dimensions were about 2” x 2-3/4” for most series, with Series 15-16 in a 2-1/2” x 3-1/2” format. Except for a TCMA copyright line on some of the earlier cards, there is no other printing on the front. Back have player identification, team affiliations, TCMA copyright and, after #72, a card number. Production is reported as 1,000 sets. Blank-back version and uncut panels of 12 exist.
But there’s another great source of information for the 1930’s and reprint sets from TCMA’s ad, and that’s Bert Sugar’s 1975 The Sports Collectors Bible.
And why is that? Well, Mike Aronstein wrote the section on “Collectors’ Issues!”
He’d have had a good idea three years later what he printed! Here’s the intro that he wrote:
Next, in the first two pages of the 1930s set, notice that the first three are described as unnumbered, and Aaronstein included information about distribution. Series No. 1 was issued separately, with 2 through 19 issues in pairs.
A few pages later, on the bottom of page 346, Aronstein included information about the company’s reprint sets. Some of these are mentioned in The Trader Speaks advertisement.
Here’s another cool item from Mastro’s June 2008 Classic Collector Auction: a 1955 Exhibit Card Catalog.
The only other copy I’ve seen (which could be the same as Mastro’s) is on Adam Warshaw’s Exhibit Supply Company Page.
The full text of the cover says: Exhibit’s Cards for 1955: Sportlands, Amusement Parks, Carnival Operators. The Backbone of the Amusement Arcade Business. Exhibit Supply – 4218 30 W. Lake St. Chicago 24, Ill., Est. 1901.
From the ad’s appearance, the slicks along the top appear to feature Exhibit’s Art Model Cards.
The 1979 OPC Hockey set is a landmark release in the hobby, largely due to the iconic Wayne Gretzky rookie card. But the set is incredible for a few other reasons. In this piece, I’ll highlight some of them while saving a detailed analysis of Gretzky’s #18 rookie for another time.
1979 OPC #18 Wayne Gretzky
First, the 1979 OPC design is sharp! They moved from a white border design to the now-iconic blue-bordered design.
However, while they look incredible, those blue borders are condition-sensitive and prone to chipping. The cards are also tough to find centered. The rough cut edges are typical for O-Pee-Chee cards, and while they don’t detract from the grading of cards, they can turn off certain collectors.
The bilingual backs have 1978-79 statistics, a biography, and a cartoon sharing a fun fact about the player.
1979 OPC #170 Gainey – Reverse
Next, the set debuted four new NHL clubs in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford. These team cards and checklist emblems (logo cards) are some of the most expensive cards in the set.
1979 OPC #261 Nordiques Team
The set is also famous for having the last cards of Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Ken Dryden. Howe was still playing pro hockey at 51, so this set demonstrates the torch passing from Howe to the 19-year-old Gretzky.
1979 OPC #175 Gordie Howe
1979 OPC #185 Bobby Hull
1979 OPC #155 Stan Mikita
1979 OPC #150 Ken Dryden
As is standard with older hockey releases, the checklists are particularly expensive. This set includes three: #131, #237, and #346.
1979 OPC #237 Checklist #133-264
Unfortunately, wax packs are selling for a little more than the 20 cents they sold for when released in 1979. Graded wax packs are multi-thousand-dollar collectibles; REA sold a PSA 9 in the spring of 2024 for just over $3k.
1979 OPC Hockey Wax Pack
Wax boxes, which hold 48 packs, are proportionally expensive; each pack has 14 cards, which means you will get 672 total cards in a box. With a 396-card checklist, you have a good chance of pulling multiple Gretzky (or any other) cards. But remember, the cards are condition-sensitive; most won’t even be PSA 7 quality out of the pack.
1979 OPC Hockey Wax Box
Uncut sheets come to market from time to time as well. Robert Edward Auctions sold this complete set of 1979 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards on three uncut sheets (which obviously included the Gretzky rookie) for just over $20k in their spring 2019 auction. Sheets without the Gretzky rookie are significantly cheaper.
1979 OPC Hockey Complete Set on 3 Uncut Sheets
While the Gretzky card still dominates the public’s perception of the 1979 OPC Hockey set, as it should, the set has many other great features. Happy collecting!
Here are a pair of Topps Space Cards original artworks that Mastro offered in his June 2008 Classic Collector Auction.
Dating these is complicated. According to the Non-Sports Bible, the 1957 Topps Space Cards came out in 1957 with backs printed in black and blue tones, and their English version (U.K.) was printed in 1958 by A&BC. But there’s also a blue-colored back set issued in 1958 called “Target: Moon,” and Watson states that no one can say which was issued first, “Space” or “Target: Moon,” even though he dated the Space set to 1957. The salmon-colored backed cards were re-issued in 1967 as part of a game. However, in 2013, it seems like The Topps Archives settled on 1957 for Space Cards and 1958 for Target: Moon.
That said, it’s highly probable that just a single original artwork exists for each card. And for reference, a few others have sold for between $1,300 and $2,700. Also, “Testing A Space Pilot” is card #11, and “Robot Nears Moon” is card #8 in the 88-card set.
Every ’90s hobby magazine wrote a feature on Topps World Series cards; in October 1995, it was Trading Cards Magazine’s turn!
Here are the links to the pieces about Topps World Series cards that were published in Topps Magazine (Fall 1990) and Sports Cards Magazine (April 1995).
