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Specs
Year: 1953
Title: Stahl-Meyer Franks
Size: 3 1/4″ by 4 1/2″
Number in Set: 9
Overview
Many hobby legends consider the 1953 Stahl-Meyer Franks baseball card set one of the rarest and most attractive regional oddball sets in the hobby.
Stahl-Meyer individually inserted cards into packages of Stahl-Meyer Franks, a regional New York area meat company. The cards have a protective wax coating, but collectors will find that most cards have condition problems like staining and creases from being inserted between hot dog rows or on top of hot dogs.
Stahl-Meyer included three players from each of the time’s New York teams (Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees)
The front of the cards features a player photograph within a white frame. Boxed beneath the picture are the player’s facsimile autograph and printed name. The card corners are diagonally cut.
The red-bordered backs have a real visual pop that’s surprising given the subtle tone on the front of the card. The unnumbered, horizontal backs used red and blue print. One side of the back features player information and statistics, while the other shares a promotion where kids could check a box and send back a letter about why they liked Stahl-Meyer franks to win a pair of tickets to a baseball game.
PSA wrote that this promotion is probably why the cards are so scarce since many were taken out of circulation.
Example
Key Cards
The set’s key card is Mickey mantle. The PSA 6 pictured above sold for $27k in the spring of 2018.
Checklist
Hank Bauer
Roy Campanella
Gil Hodges
Monte Irvin
Whitey Lockman
Mickey Mantle
Phil Rizzuto
Duke Snider
Bobby Thomson