Here’s a true hobby one-of-one: the original artwork for card number 51 in Bowman’s 1953 football set, featuring John Karras of the Chicago Cardinals.
The piece was a part of Mastro’s December 2005 Sports Premier Catalog Auction. They described it as a hand-crafted artifact measuring 3-1/8” x 4-5/8” (larger than the as-issued card). The item description mentioned that the item’s corners were chipped as a function of the working process. Also, the art piece was matted with an Ex sample of the final card on display measuring 11-3/4” x 15”, but Mastro didn’t share a photo of the combined display in the catalog.
So, here’s an example of the published Karras Bowman football card.
Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson are two of the most famous, “modern,” two-sport professional athletes. But did you know there is an NBA Hall of Famer who also pitched for the Chicago White Sox? Among the 13 athletes to play in the NBA and MLB, Dave DeBusschere was undoubtedly the most successful at basketball. Still, many of today’s collectors may not know a lot about him, so in this piece, I’ll share his professional accolades and history along with every baseball and basketball card Topps printed for him.
Dave DeBusschere attended the University of Detroit between 1959 and 1962. He averaged 24 points per game, making the NIT twice and the NCAA tournament once. He also pitched for the baseball team, leading them to 3 NCAA tournament appearances.
He was signed as a free agent by the White Sox in 1962. The same year, he was a territorial draft selection in the 1962 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. He played for the White Sox in the majors from 1962-1963, in the NBA for the Pistons between 1962 and 1968, and for the New York Knicks between 1968 and 1974. After two more years of minor league pitching, he eventually gave up baseball to concentrate on playing and coaching basketball.
He had a career 3-4 win/loss record as a pitcher with a 2.90 earned run average as a baseball player.
His first baseball card was in the 1963 Topps set, with two variations.
1963 Topps #54 – 1963 Rookie Stars
1963 Topps #54 – 1962 Rookie Stars
He also had cards in the 1964 and 1965 Topps baseball sets.
1964 Topps #247 Dave DeBusschere
1965 Topps #297 Dave DeBusschere
DeBusschere had an impressive NBA career. He was known as an elite defensive player, which resulted in his election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983. Over his career, he averaged 16.1 points per game, 11 rebounds per game, and 2.9 assists per game. He was a two-time NBA champion with the Knicks, made 8 All-Star games, and was a six-time All-Defensive First Team member.
His first basketball card was in the notoriously rare 1968 Topps Test release, so his 1969 Topps Tall Boy is more classically considered his first Topps basketball card.
1968 Topps Test #11 Dave DeBusschere
1969 Topps #85 Dave DeBusschere
Topps also printed cards for him in 1970, 71, 72, and 73, and he was on the Knicks Team Leaders card in 1974.
1970 Topps #135 Dave DeBusschere
1971 Topps #107 Dave DeBusschere
1972 Topps #105 Dave DeBusschere
1973 Topps #30 Dave DeBusschere
1974 Topps #93 New York Knicks Team Leaders
Today, most athletes commit to a single sport long before going professional, though some successful two-sport athletes play multiple sports in college. Like Tim Tebow or Michael Jordan, others have tried to transition between sports, but few have had Dave DeBusschere’s success.
PS: The 13 men who have played in the NBA and MLB are: Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Chuck Connors, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts, and Howie Schultz.
Topps Magazine had a feature called Topps In The Field dedicated to news from around the collecting world; in the summer of 92, they included this piece about collectible pins, specifically the Hermes Ice Cream Honus Wagner from the Copeland Collection!
I’ve only started learning about sports pins, so I’m not an expert. Luckily, I do have Sotheby’s Copeland Catalog Topps was referring to. Here’s a scan of the pin from the catalog.
And here’s how Sotheby’s described the Hermes Ice Cream Pin lot that included the Wagner:
Hermes Ice Cream Pins, 1910, lot of 4 different pins, set features the 1909 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, black and white portraits, yellow border with a blue flag “Pittsburgh” and yellow skull and cross bones at bottom, Hermes logo across the top, players not identified, unnumbered, made by Whitehead and Hoag, the lot includes Leach and Abstein (both only good condition due to excessive surface wear), Clarke-Manager and Hall of Famer (near mint) and Honus Wagner (minor edge stains near the word cream on the right—also minor surface scratches) still a very significant pin and at least excellent condition. 1¼ in. diameter (4) Hermes Ice Cream pins are very rare. Honus Wagner is one of the finest early pins and is highly coveted by collectors.
The expected sales price in the catalog was $2,000-$2,500; Topps wrote that it sold for $2,975.
Regarding the Wagner pin specifically, PSA has only encapsulated two examples and graded one a seven and the other a three. And neither looks like the Copeland pin to me.
Here’s some of the sale’s history: Heritage sold the seven for $6,120 in December 2019. REA then resold it for $9k in the Summer of 2021. REA sold the three for $2,160 in the Spring of 2019 before reselling it in the Fall of 2024 for $3,840.
Here’s a great piece put together by Jon Brecka for the November 1994 issue of Trading Cards magazine, ranking baseball’s top ten most sought-after cards. Thirty years later, it’s hard to argue against! Would you trade any out?
Here are cards 6-10.
How many people do you think have all ten “All-Time Greats?” What a collection that would be!
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.
