Post War Cards – Page 8 – Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football

The Ones That Got Away: 1978 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheets

March 13, 2025 by John

I used to have a ridiculous 1978 Topps basketball collection: two complete high-grade PSA Sets, wax boxes, packs, trays, vending, display cases, wrappers, etc. But one thing that always eluded me was an uncut sheet, like this blank-back proof that Mastro auctioned off in December 2007.

The auction included a sister item, a blank-back proof sheet of the card backs.

Here’s the full description:

These 66-card proof sheets present, respectively, the front and back sides of 66 entries in Topps’ 1978/79 Basketball series. Virtually never found in this form, these items are printed on bright white cardstock of standard thickness; both have an unusual glossy character of a type that’s only observed on selected Topps proof relics from this era. The sheets measure about 22″ x 28-3/4″ (each with an irregular border cut at one edge) and display their subject designs in 6-card-by-11-card arrangements. Highlights among the sheets’ content include Bing, Frazier, Gervin, Gilmore, Goodrich, Hayes, King and Malone. The sheets feature alignment marks and color notes in their margins, and both exhibit a number of editorial marks placed in grease pencil. Overall EX display quality with a few small creases and wrinkles, along with occasional surface cracks in their glossy coating.

I’ve only been able to track down a few sales. The following sheet sold on eBay in 2019; I want to say it closed at $565, too.

And Mile High Card Co. sold the following sheet for $424 in December 2024.

Also, check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more items like these, and happy collecting!

TCMA’s Early Days: A Look at Their 1972 Advertisement in The Trader Speaks

March 12, 2025 by John

Here’s a historically significant ad TCMA placed in the April 1972 issue of The Trader Speaks—one of their first as a newly incorporated company that year.

Unfortunately, I’m unaware of a definitive source of TCMA sets and checklists; the major catalogs are all missing at least a handful. That said, The Standard Catalog does include the 504-card 1972 TCMA The 1930’s set. Here’s what they wrote about it:

Extending to over 500 cards, this was one of TCMA’s first ventures into the business of creating collectors’ edition card sets of former players. Over the length of the series there were a number of style differences. The set was issued in 21 series of 24 cards each. All cards were printed in black-and-white (except for Series 18-19 printed in blue) and feature player photos on usually borderless fronts. Dimensions were about 2” x 2-3/4” for most series, with Series 15-16 in a 2-1/2” x 3-1/2” format. Except for a TCMA copyright line on some of the earlier cards, there is no other printing on the front. Back have player identification, team affiliations, TCMA copyright and, after #72, a card number. Production is reported as 1,000 sets. Blank-back version and uncut panels of 12 exist.

But there’s another great source of information for the 1930’s and reprint sets from TCMA’s ad, and that’s Bert Sugar’s 1975 The Sports Collectors Bible.

And why is that? Well, Mike Aronstein wrote the section on “Collectors’ Issues!”

He’d have had a good idea three years later what he printed! Here’s the intro that he wrote:

Next, in the first two pages of the 1930s set, notice that the first three are described as unnumbered, and Aaronstein included information about distribution. Series No. 1 was issued separately, with 2 through 19 issues in pairs.

A few pages later, on the bottom of page 346, Aronstein included information about the company’s reprint sets. Some of these are mentioned in The Trader Speaks advertisement.

Happy collecting!

The Backbone Of The Amusement Arcade Business: Exhibit’s Cards For 1955

March 11, 2025 by John

Here’s another cool item from Mastro’s June 2008 Classic Collector Auction: a 1955 Exhibit Card Catalog.

The only other copy I’ve seen (which could be the same as Mastro’s) is on Adam Warshaw’s Exhibit Supply Company Page.

The full text of the cover says: Exhibit’s Cards for 1955: Sportlands, Amusement Parks, Carnival Operators. The Backbone of the Amusement Arcade Business. Exhibit Supply – 4218 30 W. Lake St. Chicago 24, Ill., Est. 1901.

From the ad’s appearance, the slicks along the top appear to feature Exhibit’s Art Model Cards.

Happy collecting!

The 1979-80 OPC Hockey Set Isn’t Great Only Because of The Gretzky Rookie Card

March 10, 2025 by John

The 1979 OPC Hockey set is a landmark release in the hobby, largely due to the iconic Wayne Gretzky rookie card. But the set is incredible for a few other reasons. In this piece, I’ll highlight some of them while saving a detailed analysis of Gretzky’s #18 rookie for another time.

First, the 1979 OPC design is sharp! They moved from a white border design to the now-iconic blue-bordered design.

However, while they look incredible, those blue borders are condition-sensitive and prone to chipping. The cards are also tough to find centered. The rough cut edges are typical for O-Pee-Chee cards, and while they don’t detract from the grading of cards, they can turn off certain collectors.

The bilingual backs have 1978-79 statistics, a biography, and a cartoon sharing a fun fact about the player.

Next, the set debuted four new NHL clubs in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford. These team cards and checklist emblems (logo cards) are some of the most expensive cards in the set.

The set is also famous for having the last cards of Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Ken Dryden. Howe was still playing pro hockey at 51, so this set demonstrates the torch passing from Howe to the 19-year-old Gretzky.

As is standard with older hockey releases, the checklists are particularly expensive. This set includes three: #131, #237, and #346.

Unfortunately, wax packs are selling for a little more than the 20 cents they sold for when released in 1979. Graded wax packs are multi-thousand-dollar collectibles; REA sold a PSA 9 in the spring of 2024 for just over $3k.

Wax boxes, which hold 48 packs, are proportionally expensive; each pack has 14 cards, which means you will get 672 total cards in a box. With a 396-card checklist, you have a good chance of pulling multiple Gretzky (or any other) cards. But remember, the cards are condition-sensitive; most won’t even be PSA 7 quality out of the pack.

Uncut sheets come to market from time to time as well. Robert Edward Auctions sold this complete set of 1979 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards on three uncut sheets (which obviously included the Gretzky rookie) for just over $20k in their spring 2019 auction. Sheets without the Gretzky rookie are significantly cheaper.

1979 OPC Hockey Complete Set on 3 Uncut Sheets

While the Gretzky card still dominates the public’s perception of the 1979 OPC Hockey set, as it should, the set has many other great features. Happy collecting!

Exploring the Cosmos: Two Topps Space Cards Original Artworks

March 9, 2025 by John

Here are a pair of Topps Space Cards original artworks that Mastro offered in his June 2008 Classic Collector Auction.

Dating these is complicated. According to the Non-Sports Bible, the 1957 Topps Space Cards came out in 1957 with backs printed in black and blue tones, and their English version (U.K.) was printed in 1958 by A&BC. But there’s also a blue-colored back set issued in 1958 called “Target: Moon,” and Watson states that no one can say which was issued first, “Space” or “Target: Moon,” even though he dated the Space set to 1957. The salmon-colored backed cards were re-issued in 1967 as part of a game. However, in 2013, it seems like The Topps Archives settled on 1957 for Space Cards and 1958 for Target: Moon.

That said, it’s highly probable that just a single original artwork exists for each card. And for reference, a few others have sold for between $1,300 and $2,700. Also, “Testing A Space Pilot” is card #11, and “Robot Nears Moon” is card #8 in the 88-card set.

In case you’re curious, I found both sets’ penny and nickel wrappers on this Vintage Non-Sports Forum thread.

Happy collecting, and don’t forget to check out The Original Artwork Archive for more!

World Series Special – Topps Captured The Moments

March 8, 2025 by John

Every ’90s hobby magazine wrote a feature on Topps World Series cards; in October 1995, it was Trading Cards Magazine’s turn!

Here are the links to the pieces about Topps World Series cards that were published in Topps Magazine (Fall 1990) and Sports Cards Magazine (April 1995).

Happy reading and happy collecting!

The 1934 Gold Medal Foods Set And Its Original Envelope

March 7, 2025 by John

I don’t often dive into pre-war sets—they’re not my specialty. But when I spot an elusive premium issue in an old catalog with a ‘hobby-library adjacent’ aspect, it’s hard for me to ignore. Here’s a 1934 Gold Medal Foods set and its original envelope from Mastro’s December 2007 catalog.

Per The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards, the set was issued by Gold Medal Foods (the parent company of Wheaties) to commemorate the 1934 World Series. It includes six members of the Detroit Tigers and six members of the St. Louis Cardinals. The cards are blank-backed and 3-1/4” x 5-3/8” in size. The key card belongs to Dizzy Dean.

Here’s an SGC-graded Dizzy Dean card that REA sold for $300 in February 2022.

The set sold by Mastro included nine cards slabbed by SGC, and three more (Dizzy Dean, Goose Goslin, and Joe Medwick) were ungraded and labeled “factory miscut” by SGC.

The set’s history is a bit complicated, so I recommend checking out these two threads on the net54 forums for more information.

Happy collecting!