Topps Magazine

One Of The Rarest Junk Wax Era Baseball Cards – The 1993 Topps Nikon House Celebrating Baseball Card

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Mario Alejandro introduced me to this card in his tweet from March 2024, and then I ran across the following picture of it in Issue 15 (Summer 1993) of Topps Magazine.

First, here’s a screen capture of what Mario wrote about the card

And here are the images he attached to the tweet.

Unfortunately, in their Topps Magazine blurb, Topps doesn’t add much more to the story. Mario alluded to the back of the card, which invited folks to show up at the Nikon House on Tuesday, April 13th, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. after RSVPing to Rebecca Kirisits. But that means the card had to have been distributed before then.

Perhaps it was handed out by Topps’s “paparazzi,” whose photos were displayed at Nikon House.

By the way, PSA has a single example, a gem mint 10, in its Pop Report.

Let me know if you have any more info about this card.

And happy collecting!

Topps Remembers The Magnificent Multi-Sport Champion Jim Thorpe

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I shared Topps Magazine’s tribute to Willie, Mickey & The Duke in early October. Well, the ‘Topps Remembers’ series continued, and in their final issue (Fall 1993, No. 16), Topps featured a fantastic piece on the legendary multi-sport champion Jim Thorpe!

Given the article, I thought sharing some of his most significant cards made sense. Note that PSA does have a Master set for Thorpe that currently requires 112 cards, though no one currently even has 10% of them.

Today, his two most well-known cards are probably his 1955 Topps All-American card (I highlighted the original wire photo in April 2024) and the 1933 Goudey Sport Kings card.

In the spring of 2016, REA sold this 1955 Topps All-American PSA 9 copy for $5,100.

Heritage sold this PSA 8 1933 Goudey Sport Kings Thorpe card for $7,767 in May 2015.

However, he has a few cards that are much tougher to track down, like this 1916 Famous & Barr card (there are a handful of variations of this card) that Heritage sold for $4,182 in November 2010.

Thorpe also has a Zeenut PCL card; REA sold this one in the spring of 2022 for $39,600.

And if you’re looking for a cheaper Thorpe, I recommend the card he shares with Teddy Ballgame.

Beyond the NFL – Topps Football Cards from the AFL, USFL, and CFL

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A couple of older hobby periodicals have so much alpha that I recommend completing the back issue runs to everyone. One example is Topps Magazine; sure, it had a lot of self-advertising, but it also had great pieces like this one about Topps’ Non-NFL sets.

How many of you have all 14 Topps AFL, CFL, and USFL sets Dwight Chapin mentioned in this article?

Now, let’s see how pricey some of the cards mentioned in this Fall 1993 article are today (Near Mint 1993 prices compared to recent PSA sales).

  • 1958 Topps Cookie Gilchrist: $22/$151 PSA 6 in October 2020
  • 1961 Topps Joe Kapp: $20/$109 PSA 8 January 2024
  • 1961 Topps Jack Kemp: $110/$221 PSA 9 June 2020
  • 1964 Topps Checklist #176: $125/$1,480 PSA 9 in May 2024
  • 1965 Topps Joe Namath: $1,250/$36,400 PSA 8 in May 2024
  • 1966 Topps Funny Ring Checklist: $325/$4,446 PSA 8 in September 2023
  • 1984 Topps USFL Jim Kelly: $185/$91 PSA 8 in October 2024

It’s Like Deja Vu-Hoo: 1990s Yoo-Hoo Baseball Sets

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I ran across the following promo for the 1993 Yoo-Hoo Baseball Legends set in the Summer 1993 issue of Topps Magazine. Berra had a promotional relationship with Yoo-Hoo dating back to the ’50s.

The ad covers most of the set’s basics, but after some research, there’s no difference between the design of the two series cards. However, the Standard Catalog says Series 1 had Yogi Berra, Joe Morgan, Duke Snider, Steve Garvey, Jim Rice, Bob Feller, Pete Rose, Rod Carew, Gaylord Perry, and Graig Nettles while Series 2 had Johny Bench, Lou Brock, Stan Musial, Willie McCovey, White Ford, Phil Rizzuto, Tom Seaver, Willie Stargell, Brooks Robinson, and Al Kaline.

There was another ’90s Yoo-Hoo set issued in conjunction with Rawlings in 1994.

Rawlings sponsored the Gold Glove award, so the set features past winners. The set is relatively common, but apparently, Yaz signed a few copies that were randomly inserted, though I haven’t found a copy, and apparently, they weren’t certified on the card in any way. BaseballCardPedia wrote that the 1994 set was released in two, 10-card series consisting of eight player cards and two fact cards which is backed up by this piece I found on eBay.

Also, note that since the set’s weren’t licensed so all the team logos were airbrushed out.

Where’s Wahoo? The 1993 Cleveland Indians Media Guide Cover

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The Cleveland Indians hired San Francisco photographer Pat Johnson to create the cover for their 1993 media guide. The Cleveland expat mainly used his collection to create one of the greatest collages the hobby has ever seen!

Topps Magazine highlighted the cover in its Spring 1993 issue. Johnson said shooting the cover was a dream come true and likened it to a puzzle. He said, “The big items are a focal point at first, but two weeks later, you’ll find other things hidden in there.” Topps added that it was like one of those “Where’s Waldo?” cartoons.

That’s The Ticket!

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Tickets to sporting events can be worth more than the price of admission by Bruce Chadwick.

I love that Chadwick highlighted college football tickets. “Some of the most memory-filled tickets are from college football games. Until the early ’70s, schools large and small had colorful illustrations on the tickets, making them much more than just stubs.”

This article appeared in Edition #8 of Topps Magazine in the fall of 1991.