Woody Gelman’s Personal Collection of Card Samples, Including A 1969 Color Deckle-Edge Prototype of Sandy Koufax

Finding Woody Gelman’s personal collection of card samples would be a treasure for hobby enthusiasts today. However, this auction of over 160 sports and non-sports samples, including a 1969 color Deckle Edge prototype of Sandy Koufax, was from April 2000 and likely broken up.

The image in the catalog was really small, so the scan isn’t super clear, but the Koufax is a scaled copy of the 1964 Topps Giants Koufax card.

The Topps Archives has a great post about Gelman’s filing system, including better scans of the Koufax and King Kong pages. He said these albums have been “looted and pillaged over the years with all the pages and files being scattered across the hobby landscape with reckless abandon, stymying any hope of getting a complete picture painted.”

I did find one related item on eBay with an asking price of $175: Gleman’s IDEA page for the Topps “Magic Photo”Hidden Pictures” Hocus Focus set. Unfortunately, the seller said the cards were removed 15 years ago.

The Original Artwork Archive

Welcome to the Original Artwork Archive! This is the hub for all the articles I’ve written about original artwork used to produce cards, sorted by sport and set. A lot of these pieces originate from the Topps Archives and Guernsey’s Topps auction, while others remain “lost,” buried in private collections. But thanks to the hobby library, I can scan and share photos from these and other past auctions and magazines, preserving these treasures for collectors to enjoy.

If you have any examples to share, shoot me an e-mail.

Baseball

Basketball

Football

Hockey

Non-Sports

Original Artwork Hobby Books, Magazine Articles, and 101s