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.

Chuck Klein Signed 1934 Goudey Endorsement Contract

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This is an incredibly cool piece related to the 1934 Goudey baseball set, sometimes called the “Lou Gehrig Says…” series; Chuck Klein’s signed endorsement contract to use his picture and name on cards in the set.

You see, Gehrig’s name and picture (blue background) are used on the bottom of most cards in the set.

But 12 (cards 80-91) feature Klein’s (red background) who had just come off a Triple Crown season.

The 7” x 8-1/2” document, dated July 18, 1934, defines the business agreement. A sample 1934 Goudey card featuring the “Chuck Klein Says…” ad is attached to the top of the document.

Original Photo Archive Used To Create The 1950 Bowman Baseball Set

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In December 2005, Mastro auctioned off the original photo archive used to create the 1950 Bowman baseball set. Most pictures were described as 7-1/2” x 10”, with a few smaller and odd sizes, mainly in EX/MT condition.

The lot comprised 252 photos representing 251 of the set’s 252 cards. Al Kozar (card 15) was missing, but a photo of Phil Marchildon (Philadelphia Athletics) was included. Marchildon was bumped from card number 140 for Pete Suder.

When I first shared the photo on Twitter, Keith Olbermann replied with the following photo and wrote, “Here’s the other shoe. I got this about 15 years ago: it’s a painting clearly designed for the 1950 Bowman set – except the team the guy is on, is Buffalo of the International League. And the player is…the bumped #140 Phil Marchildon. The assumption was Bowman had prepared some kind of IL set to match its 1949 PCL effort. Now I doubt it – though I wonder why they prepared Marchildon in a minor league uniform (albeit an accurate one). Surely if he’d made the set he would’ve been shown with the A’s.”