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1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Specs
Year: 1961
Title: Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers
Size: 2″ x 3″
Number in Set: 22
1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Overview
One card was issued in bags of Golden Tulip Potato Chips in the San Diego area, celebrating the AFL team’s first year in the city after moving from Los Angeles. Despite being packaged in cellophane sleeves, many were still stained from the greasy chips. The cards themselves are very thin and appear to have been hand cut from sheets of what’s more like thick paper since they’re usually found off-center. In fact, of the 98 cards PSA has slabbed across the set, 40 are graded “authentic.”
The black-and-white cards feature the player’s photo on the front, with their name, a concise bio, and basic stats below it.
The backs are identical and offered an 8”x10” premium picture upgrade for five cards of the same player, so this probably took a few cards out of circulation. These blank-backed photos are called Golden Tulip Premiums and are incredibly rare. They show the player and include a facsimile autograph and the Golden Tulip logo on the front. XETV, Channel 6, appears to have been a co-sponsor of the cards; I suspect they were showing advertisements for the chips. There was also a free ticket contest on the back that also removed cards from circulation because to enter, kids 8-15 had to send in a player picture for a chance to win.
1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Significant Sales
Huggins and Scott sold a complete ungraded (~NM) set for $1057.50 in August 2012.
Robert Edward Auctions sold a complete ungraded (~Ex) set for $510 in April 2023.
Here are a few examples of individual card sales from the set:
- 1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Jack Kemp PSA 4: $204 in November 2017
- 1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Jack Kemp PSA 5.5: $530 in March 2019
- 1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Ron Mix PSA 8: $180.33 in September 2019
- 1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Charlie McNeil PSA 7: $102.51 in September 2019
1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Example
1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Key Cards
Jack Kemp has the set’s key card; most guides price it at about 1/3 of the entire set’s value. Pro Football Hall of Famer Ron Mix has the next most important card in the set.
1961 Golden Tulip San Diego Chargers Checklist
Ron Botchan
Howard Clark
Fred Cole
Sam DeLuca
Orlando Ferrante
Charlie Flowers
Dick Harris
Emil Karas
Jack Kemp
Dave Kocourek
Bob Laraba
Paul Lowe
Paul Maguire
Charlie McNeil
Ron Mix
Ron Nery
Don Norton
Volney Peters
Don Rogers
Maury Schleicher
Ernie Wright
Bob Zeman