Hobby Library – Post War Cards

The Finer Points of Baseball For Everyone Instructional Booklets

January 23, 2025 by John

Between 1957 and 1966, a series of 12 instructional booklets titled The Finer Points of Baseball For Everyone offered baseball insights and hints for little, junior, midget, and Babe Ruth players. The booklets, which had copyrights attributed to Vital Publications, Inc. and later WM. C. Popper & Co., were promotional products that provided advertising on the back for their clients.

My Introduction to The Finer Points of Baseball For Everyone

I discovered these baseball instructional booklets from my hunt for their basketball-related cousins. However, I can’t remember if it was this Mile High Card Co. auction from 2017 of an opened 1968 Topps Test Pack with a How to Play Better Basketball booklet or this auction from REA for a 1963 Hood Dairy Bob Cousy How to Play Better Basketball Booklet Collection that prompted my jump into this hobby niche. I’ll write more about the 1963 How to Play Better Basketball booklets soon; for now, if you’re interested in them, check out VintageBasketball.com.

To this day, I’ve been unable to secure a single basketball booklet, but in looking for them on eBay, I noticed the baseball ones and picked up a trio with a 1965 Copyright and Hood Ice Cream advertising on the back in May 2023. I hadn’t given them much more thought until the 2023 National in Chicago; when closing a deal on some pre-war strip cards, I noticed the dealer had a complete set of 12 from 1958 with Fleet Wing Gasoline advertising on the backs, so I included them in the deal. The set was priced at $150, but I believe I got them for $100. Here are the covers and backs to all 12. I’ve also included scans of every page of the How to Play First Base booklet at the end of the article.

1958 Finer Points of Baseball for Everyone – Fleet Wing Gasoline Set – Fronts

1958 Finer Points of Baseball for Everyone – Fleet Wing Gasoline Set – Backs

After that pickup, I had to learn more!

The Finer Points of Baseball For Everyone Overview

There’s not much out there about these advertising booklets; save for this page from KeyMan Collectibles and a few notes from MyComicShop. But between those references and some eBay/Auction sales, we can piece a lot of the details together.

First, the 12 booklets are ~ 3 3/8″ x 4 5/8″ in size. Each has 16 pages if you include the front and back covers. Ten are positional, or action “How-to” guides, another has rules for umpires, and one has finer points for everyone. Each has a cartoon drawing on the cover and the words “Hints for Little, Junior, Midget, Babe Ruth Players.”

Here’s the checklist:

Baseball Finer Points for Everyone
How to Catch
How to Pitch
How to Bat
How to Run Bases
How to Play First Base
How to Play Second Base
How to Play Shortstop
How to Play Third Base
How to Play The Outfield
How to Use Baseball Signals
Rules for Umpires

They’re full-color printings in a newspaper-like material saddle-stitched like a magazine.

The differentiation comes from the copyright on the inside front cover and the advertising on the back. I’ve noticed that the early years show a copyright attributed to Vital Publications, Inc., while the later years show WM. C. Popper & Co. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any details about these companies or if it was the result of an acquisition, but they’re both referenced to New York.

As I wrote in the intro, the booklets were used as promotional products. KeyMan wrote that “for the most part early books were used as a premium for meat companies like White Seal Franks, Neuhoff’s Franfurters, Essem Hotdogs, and Hydride’s Wieners. Other ads that show up are Kids Does, Reed Candy Company, Fleet Wing Gasoline, and Stop & Shop Supermarkets.”

I’ll have to take his word for it, and he shared quite a few advertisements, but I didn’t find a lot of meat company examples in my research for the early copyright years.

White Seal Franks/Bacon Ad with Booklets

He continued writing that “By the 1960s, an array of advertisers began using the baseball books, including; local banks, and car dealerships, Mr. Softee, Baseball on NBC TV/DX Oil, Sealtest Foods, All Star Dairies, International Harvester, Weaver Potato Chip Co., Country Kitchen Restaurants, Hood Ice Cream, Horn & Hardart Automats, Holland Popsicle, and Manny’s Baseball Land, located across from Yankee Stadium.”

Finer Points of Baseball for Everyone Yearly Breakdowns

Utilizing KeyMan Collective’s, MyComicShop, and eBay/Auction listings, I’ve managed to categorize a lot of the advertisers by years; there are likely many others. I’ve sometimes taken a listing’s title as truth, but I’ll note that below when a scan of the copyright page wasn’t included.

1957

First, booklets exist without any advertising; perhaps they were used by the publishers as samples through the years, like this 1957 example set.

Reed Candy Company

Stop & Shop Super Markets (no copyright scan)

1958

Blank Backed

Fleet Wing Gasoline – See the photos I shared above.

1959

Garden Gate Margarine

1959 – Golden Gate Margarine – Copyright

1959 – Golden Gate Margarine – Back Cover

1960

MyComicShop wrote that International Harvester Company had a 1960 release, and Heritage Auctions sold a lot of them attributed to 1960 (plus a handful from a few other years that sold for $264 in June 2018), but I don’t have any copyright page scans.

1960 – International Harvester – Back Covers (& Others)

1961

MyComicShop wrote that Sealtest Foods had a 1961 release, but I haven’t found any scans that include a 1961 copyright. But this is as good a time as any to share another advertisement KeyMan shared for Holland Popsicles that included a book in each 12-pack.

1962

Black Backed

DX Dealer

Sealtest Foods and Carstens Hygrade (No Copyright Images)

1963

I haven’t found any examples referenced to 1963.

1964

MyComicShop wrote that Twin City Federal Savings & Loan sponsored a set, but I don’t have any examples of that one.

Country Kitchen

1965

Hood Ice Cream

1966

National Bank and Trust Company

1966 – National Bank and Trust Company – Back Cover

Mister Softee

Undated Examples

I found a few other examples that I don’t have dates for.

Kahn’s Wieners

Friendly Chevrolet

Weaver Potato Chip Co.

Finer Points of Baseball for Everyone How to Play First Base Scans

From $121K to $50M? Revisiting the Iconic 1952 Mantle and Other 1996 Hobby Highlights

January 18, 2025 by John

Doug Kale published this piece in the January 1997 issue of Sports Card Trader, highlighting three significant sports collectibles events: The 1996 East Coast National, the Superior Sportscards Auction, where Marshall Fogel bought his 1952 Topps PSA 10 Mantle for $121k, and the September 21st sale of the Greztky/McNall T206 Wagner for $640,500.

There’s been talk around the hobby that the 1952 Topps PSA 10 Mantle cards could be worth $50M now; before Fogel displayed the card during the 2021 All-Star Game, he said he had rejected a $25M offer for it.

Here are a few photos from the Colorado Rockies Facebook page from that event.

For a bit more, Sports Collectors Digest has a nice piece about how Topps’ 1952 Mickey Mantle Became the Most Iconic Card in Hobby History.

For more about the infamous T206 Wagner’s history, click here.

Happy collecting!

One Of The Rarest Junk Wax Era Baseball Cards – The 1993 Topps Nikon House Celebrating Baseball Card

January 17, 2025 by John

Mario Alejandro introduced me to this card in his tweet from March 2024, and then I ran across the following picture of it in Issue 15 (Summer 1993) of Topps Magazine.

First, here’s a screen capture of what Mario wrote about the card

And here are the images he attached to the tweet.

Unfortunately, in their Topps Magazine blurb, Topps doesn’t add much more to the story. Mario alluded to the back of the card, which invited folks to show up at the Nikon House on Tuesday, April 13th, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. after RSVPing to Rebecca Kirisits. But that means the card had to have been distributed before then.

Perhaps it was handed out by Topps’s “paparazzi,” whose photos were displayed at Nikon House.

By the way, PSA has a single example, a gem mint 10, in its Pop Report.

Let me know if you have any more info about this card.

And happy collecting!

Championships And Collectibles: The 1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Basketball Card

January 16, 2025 by John

Bob Cousy helped revolutionize the point guard position while playing for the Boston Celtics between 1950 & 1963, contributing to six NBA Championships. During this time, Cousy was a 13-time NBA All-Star and received the MVP award in 1957. Beloved as a player, his retirement ceremony became known as the “Boston Tear Party.” His legacy is extraordinary, encompassing the organization of the National Basketball Players Association, the popularization of modern guard play, the elevation of the NBA’s profile, the reception of a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the naming of numerous basketball awards in his honor. Additionally, Cousy was well-known for his public stance against racism. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have many basketball card options, with only ten items needed to complete his PSA Master Set Registry. While many collectors target his 1957 Topps or 1951 Berk Ross cards for their collections, my favorite is the 1963 HP Hood Dairy oddball.

Here’s what VintageBasketball.com wrote about it:

Bob Cousy retired in 1963 and went to work doing promotions and clinics for the H.P. Hood Dairy Company. These 2 3/8″ x 3 7/8″ cards were distributed during this time period. Bob Cousy confirmed to a collector friend of mine that he used these cards during the period from 1963-1966. One of the Massachusetts-based company’s slogans during this period was “Schoolboy or Celtic, they both get energy to burn from Hood Milk!” The cards come in two variations. The most common variation has a blue ink facsimile signature and says “yours for better fitness, Bob Cousy”. At the bottom of the card it has the Hood logo and below that, it has the “Boston Traveler” logo. The Boston Traveler was a newspaper that is now defunct. The other variation is in black ink and only has the Hood Dairy emblem. Currently, the reason for the difference in cards is unknown. The Boston Traveler newspaper did go out of business in 1967, so maybe Hood had plans to use these cards longer?? We may never know. The black ink Hood card appears to be the rarer of the two. Twenty years ago, it was believed that these cards were exceedingly rare. However, as time has gone on, we have seen a few small finds of these, which have brought the price down slightly. I’ve also included an image of an 11 x 17 advertisement for John Alden fine foods that uses the Cousy graphic from this card.

1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Card Variations From VintageBasketball.com

Bob Cousy John Alden Contest Featuring The Same Cousy Image

I’m unsure when that overview was written, but regarding the black ink variation, Heritage Auctions sold a lot of nine of them in June 2022 for $1320.

1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Cards – Fronts

1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Cards – Backs

PSA doesn’t appear to differentiate between variations in its Pop Report, which contains 22 cards and six autographed copies; SGC has graded six.

Despite the cards’ relative scarcity, they’re not that expensive. In 2021, Probstein sold a trio of them on eBay: a PSA 5 sold for $202 in March, a PSA 6 went for $472 in April, and a PSA 4 for $143 in July. He also sold a PSA 2 for $406 in June 2014.

That said, a PSA 7 (the highest graded) sold for $2,247 on eBay in November 2024.

Lelands sold the original photograph used for the card in November 2023 for $3,540.

Interestingly, I found an advertisement for Hood Milk for sale on eBay a while ago. It was described as coming from the Saturday Evening Post and is dated March 10, 1962, in the upper-left corner. The image looks like it could have been taken on the same day as the PSA Type 1 photo that Lelands sold, and the timeline fits the description of the Cousy card being used from 1963 to 1966.

The same image used on the 1963 HP Hood Diary Cousy card was also used for the souvenir program for “Bob Cousy Day” at Boston Garden on March 17, 1963, aka The Boston Tear Party. In April 2021, SCP Auctions sold the following team-signed copy for $3,769.

The scarcity of basketball card options for iconic figures is an unfortunate reality of the hobby. However, Bob Cousy played a big part in the growth of basketball in America, which led to the abundance of basketball card options that emerged in the late ’80s.

Happy collecting!

The Trader Speaks, Vol 3 No 10 August 15, 1971

January 10, 2025 by John

The Upper Deck Commemorative Sheets Series: Part 4 – Football

January 7, 2025 by John

Welcome to part four of my series about Upper Deck commemorative sheets. As with the baseball, hockey, and basketball ones, Upper Deck used the football sheets to celebrate specific events and sets as promotions for the brand. However, like the basketball ones, there isn’t a lot of documentation about the football ones out there either, so I’ll be categorizing them the same way, by the year printed on gold seal (or gold football) or for later years, the date printed between the words “Limited Edition” and the serial number.

1991 Upper Deck Football Sheet

The first Upper Deck football limited edition collector series sheet I ran across in my research was this one saluting the New York Giants defeating the Buffalo Bills 20-19 in Super Bowl XXV.

The pictured cards are all New York Giants from the 1991 Upper Deck football set. However, the date on the sheet is October 27, 1991. That was a week nine game played between the Redskins and Giants that the Redskins won 17-13. So I presume this sheet was given away at that game, given the title of the sheet, “Redskins vs. Giants,” and the date. Upper Deck was honoring the Giants’ performance from the Super Bowl the year before; Super Bowl XXV was played on January 27, 1991.

1992 Upper Deck Football Sheets

Most of the Upper Deck football sheets I discovered were from 1992, and we can sort them into two categories: those released in partnership with Sports Collector’s Digest and the NFL playoff sheets.

TCDB explains that “Upper Deck produced eight different football sheets for insertion into the September 18, 1992 issue of Sports Collector’s Digest. 8,000 of each sheet were produced, and one was inserted into each SCD issue. Each measure 11’’ by 8 1/2’’.” Unlike most of Upper Deck’s other limited edition sheets, the backs of these aren’t blank; text was repeated across the back. Here are all eight variations.

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 1

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 2

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 3

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 4

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 5

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 6

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 7

1992 Upper Deck Football SCD Sheet – Version 8

Upper Deck gave away the AFC and NFC championship sheets at the Super Bowl Card Show III and the NFL Experience in Minneapolis. While the Super Bowl XXVI sheet was given away at various locations in the Minneapolis area during the week of the Super Bowl, it’s just weird to imply the Bills at Super Bowl XXVI champs since the Redskins ended up defeating them 37-24 on January 26, 1992.

1992 Upper Deck Football Super Bowl XXVI Sheet – Redskins

1992 Upper Deck Football Super Bowl XXVI Sheet – Bills

You can see that the NFC playoff sheet salutes the Redskins for defeating the Lions 41-10 on January 12, 1992, and the AFC sheet sales the Bills for shutting down the Broncos in a 10-7 game to earn a trip to the Super Bowl.

1992 Upper Deck Football NFC Champion Sheet – Lions vs. Redskins

1992 Upper Deck Football AFC Champion Sheet – Broncos vs. Bills

All four playoff sheets have 1992 dates on the gold football seal and feature 1991 Upper Deck football cards. Here’s the Comic Bowl sheet.

1994 and 1995 Upper Deck Football Sheets

The 2006 Standard Catalog of Football Cards says four sheets were issued at the Super Bowl Card Show VI in 1995, and it included the Rookie Class 1994 sheet, the Jan. 26-29, 1995 sheet, a sheet saluting the St. Louis Rams, and another saluting Dan Marino. However, the sheets I found don’t seem to align perfectly with that checklist, and the “Limited Edition” dates are slightly different.

This first sheet appears to be associated with Upper Deck’s Collector’s Choice brand and features Marshall Faulk. I’ll note that a 1994/95 Collector’s Choice Crash Super Bowl XXIX set was available at the NFL Experience card show in Miami, so it’s possible this sheet was available there.

1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Football Rookie Class of 1994 Sheet

This next sheet, the Rookie Class of 1994, also has a 1994 date and advertises the Upper Deck football set due to launch in August 1994. That seems like a weird item to be shared at the Super Bowl Card Show in 1995.

1994 Upper Deck Football Rookie Class of 1994 Sheet

I also ran across a pair of Joe Montana sheets with 1994 dates on them; one celebrating his three Super Bowl championships, and the other a few of his biggest comebacks.

1994 Upper Deck Football Joe Montana Super Bowl Sheet

1994 Upper Deck Football Montana’s Magic Sheet

The next sheet was definitely for the Super Bowl since it has Super Bowl Card Show VI printed along one side and Super Bowl XXIX on the other.

1995 Upper Deck Football Super Bowl Card Show VI Autograph Sheet

If The Standard Catalog was correct, here’s the Rams sheet they described, with a 1995 seal and copyright.

1995 Upper Deck Football Salutes the Saint Louis Rams Sheet

And here’s the 1995 sheet celebrating Dan Marino’s records.

1995 Upper Deck Football Salutes Dan Marino Sheet

And finally, a 1995 sheet celebrating Joe Montana.

1995 Upper Deck Football Salutes Joe Montana Sheet

FYI, The 49ers, behind QB Steve Young, defeated the Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX on January 29, 1995. Also, during this time, Upper Deck had a lot of inserts and unique sets devoted to both Marino and Montana.

Conclusion and Further Reading

I imagine there are more football sheets out there, so if you run across any, please leave a comment or email me. Anyway, that wraps up my four-part series about Upper Deck commemorative sheets. If you haven’t checked them out, here are the previous three articles about the Upper Deck Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball sheets; I hope you enjoyed the nostalgia!

1997 Sale of a Fully Signed 1959 Fleer Ted Williams Baseball Card Set

January 6, 2025 by John

Sports Card Magazine’s monthly auction report highlighted an incredible item in its April 1998 issue: the sale of a completely signed 80-card 1959 Fleer Ted Williams Set!

Based on the magazine’s date, the Sportsworld “All Boston” Auction must have been in December 1997 (I can’t find any other references to the auction). And, as you can read, the set of signed Williams’ Fleer baseball cards sold for $11,694.

While they highlighted card no. 69 in the text; I think they meant 68 because that’s the actual number for the “Ted Signs for 1959” card they featured in the image.

REA has recently sold a pair of these signed cards for some modern market context. This first example is a PSA 5, which sold for $1,920 in the spring of 2024.

The second example was this PSA 2, with a much nicer signature, that sold for $1,560 in October 2024.

Card 68 is definitely the key card in the set; other signed 1959 Fleer Ted Williams cards sell for a lot less; for example, this “Ted Reaches 400th Homer” sold for $276.50 on eBay back in November 2024.