The 1976 D&S Enterprises Cool Papa Bell set celebrates the career of one of baseball’s legends. It’s an affordable must-have for fans of obscure collectors’ issues and baseball history.
I first learned about this set while flipping through the March 1976 issue of The Trader Speaks when I saw an advertisement for them directly from Douglas.
You can see that the 13-card, ~3” x 4”, complete set was available for $2.50. It was developed in partnership with Bell, so they included his commentary. Here’s what The Standard Catalog had to say about it:
The collectors’ issue was produced following the 1974 induction of James “Cool Papa” Bell into the Hall of Fame. Collector John Douglas collaborated with Bell to produce the set chronicling Bell’s career (1922-46) in the Negro and Latin American pro leagues. Fronts have vintage sepia-toned photos of Bell surrounded by a yellow, green or orange woodgrain frame with a title plaque at bottom. Backs are in brown-and-white with a drawing of Bell at top and autobiographical material at center. A description of the photo and copyright data are at bottom.
It’s cool that the HOF Favorite card is a reprint of Bob Laughlin’s 1974 Old-Time Black Stars portrait.
While the 1974 Laughlin Cool Papa Bell card alone will cost a few hundred dollars, complete 1976 Douglas Cool Papa Bell sets routinely sell for just $90.
There are quite a few signed copies around, too.
Happy collecting!