John

Topps T-Shirts And Sweatshirts

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When this ad was placed in edition 7 of Topps Magazine in the summer of ’91, the price was just $15.95 per t-shirt or $27.50 per sweatshirt, plus $3.25 per order for shipping and handling for Anniversary or Traditional series items.

Apparently, a special edition Mickey Mantle one was available with this 52 Topps card on it and a Babe Ruth, too, featuring his ’73 card. About twenty players were available, including George Brett, Will Clark, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, Ken Griffey Jr., Gregg Jefferies, Wally Joyner, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan, Darryl Strawberry (Mets or Dodgers), Ozzie Smith, Frank Viola, among others. Checks were payable to Insta Graphic Systems based in Cerritos, CA.

I’m unsure what these look like, so if you have one, please let me know.

Red Grange Last Game Ticket Stub

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Red Grange took the field for the last time on January 27, 1935, in an exhibition game at Gilmore Field in Los Angeles, a rematch of the NFL Championship game. Here’s a ticket stub from the game.

Mastro sold this example in July 1998, but I found another one offered by SCP Auctions in January 2008.

This graded example sold for $175 before the recent focus on tickets in the hobby and the run-up in their prices.

1949 Bowman America Salutes The FBI Wrapper

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The 1949 Bowman America Salutes the FBI set is one that I only recently discovered while browsing an auction catalog from November 1998 and ran across a photo of the wax wrapper.

Here’s a photo of the front and back of the first card in the set that I grabbed from PSA’s Gallery.

Isn’t it interesting how closely the back resembles its baseball cousin?

Memorabilia Madness – Some Background On The PSA 8 T206 Honus Wagner

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I ran across this tidbit about the “PSA-8” graded McNall/Gretzky T-206 Honus Wagner in Topps Magazine’s 6th Edition (Spring 1991). Madness indeed!

The article explains that the Piedmont-backed T206 Honus Wagner achieved the highest price ever (at the time) for a single baseball card, $410k (plus $41k auction fee) during Sotheby’s auction of The Copeland Collection of Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia in March 1991.

The card’s history is quite infamous, but I have nothing unique to add to that part of the story; check out Wikipedia or the net54 message boards for more info. However, I’m not sure many people today have seen the auction description, including a photo of the back of the raw, pre-graded card.

1962 Topps Baseball Display Boxes

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I’ve never been a massive fan of the wood-grained 1962 Topps design like others, but the wax box and pack designs that year were awesome!

The two display boxes and unopened wax pack pictured above were offered for sale back in 2004. The pack is an “Extra/Stamps” variation; one of the 5-cent display boxes has “All The Great Major League Stars” as its front panel slogan, while the other features the “Extra/Stamps” front slogan, with a “Mr. Retailer” and “Dimes” lid-top design.

Interestingly, the “Extra/Stamps” design is featured on the 1962 Topps dealer sell sheet floating around the hobby.

Also, it’s a tough find today, but here’s a 1962 Topps 1-cent Wax Pack Box.

200 1961 Jay Publishing Unopened Picture Pack Team Sets

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I’ve always felt team sets were a great, accessible, and inexpensive hobby niche. So here are 200 1961 Jay Publishing Unopened Picture Pack Team Sets that were sold together in late 2004.

Jay Publishing Co. actually made a variety of team collectibles in the late ’50s and ’60s, including yearbooks and picture packs. These contained 5” x 7” black-and-white baseball “cards” from specific teams and were popular ballpark collectibles. Each bag had 12 cards and originally sold for 25 cents.

This particular lot included twenty GAI-graded picture packs.