1957 Topps

Five Incredibly Rare Hockey Wax Packs

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Mastro offered five scarce hockey wax packs in their August 2004 Sports Premier Catalog Auction. Here’s the oldest, from the 1954/55 Topps set featuring a “who’s who” of hockey greats: Kelly, Howe, Worsley, Bathgate, and Sawchuck!

Also included were a 1957/58 Topps Five-Cent Wax Pack, a 1958/59 Parkhurst 5-cent Wax Pack, a 1961/62 Topps Five-Cent Wax Pack, and a 1965/66 Topps Five-Cent Wax Pack.

For good measure, a 1954/55 Topps display box was also part of this catalog!

PS, this auction also included a few lots I’ve discussed previously:

Happy collecting!

A Curious Item – The “Original Artwork” For Darrell Johnson’s 1957 Topps Baseball Card

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I ran across an item in Ron Oser Enterprises’ December 2000 catalog that perplexes me. It was described as a 3 1/2” x 5 1/2” flexichrome artwork for Darrell Johnson’s 1957 Topps card, but I always thought flexi’s were used to color black and white images.

I reached out to The Topps Archives, and he pointed out that flexi’s can look different but also thought they were only used to color black-and-white images. He also wondered if Topps just cut out the image with an Xacto knife as it would have already been in color. He pointed out that it sort of looks like an alternate for Johnson’s 1958 Topps card, which has a slightly different pose.

Any ideas? Did Topps have other plans for the 1957 Topps set? Were they going to use the cutout for another set?

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

1957 Topps Paul Hornung Rookie Card Original Artwork

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Here’s the original artwork used as the foundation for the 1957 Topps Football Paul Hornung rookie #151.

The flexichrome, a full-color painting on a black-and-white photograph, is 3-3/8” x 4-3/4”, larger than the finished card. The back of the art piece has working pencil marks and adhesive residue.

The item came from the 1989 Guernsey’s Auction, where Topps sold a large portion of their archives.