This Month on PostWarCards – August 2023

As a hobby historian, I really like old cases; they teach us about product codes and production, tell us when the items were packaged, and make excellent hobby cave/library/museum display pieces. And lately, the Baseball Card Exchange has been selling off a huge collection of empty cases on eBay. I’m not sure if they’re getting rid of old inventory from their warehouse, if they were from case breaks, or if they bought someone’s collection, but it’s been helping me fill in some holes in the Unopened Archive, particularly in the football category.

Here are a few of the significant updates I’ve been able to make this month:

I only had two low-quality angles of a 1978 Topps Football Wax Case and was able to add six new photos of one.

I didn’t have a single photo of a 1979 Topps Football Grocery Tray Case and only had a single tiny photo of a Wax Case; there are six photos of each on the archive now.

And for 1984 Topps Football, I’ve now got six angles of the Cello, Rack, and Grocery Rack cases.

I’ve also added cases to the 1973 Topps Football, 1976 Topps Football, 1981 Topps Football, 1986 Topps Football, and 1987 Topps Football pages.

And if you like cases, you might want to check out my articles about Deciphering Vintage Topps Case Stamps, Topps X-Out Box Practices, the 1976 Topps Basketball and Hockey Free Goods products, and The Story of the Truly One of a Kind 1990-1991 OPC Premier Hockey Vending Case.

In terms of hobby writing, I published eight new articles and made 19 archive additions here on PostWarCards.com. I also issued four Post War Cards Newsletters over on Substack. I’ve linked all the new material below.

Articles Published in July

Here are the eight articles I published on the blog this month.

• Vintage Topps and Fleer Baseball Cards Featuring League Executives
• 1977 Star Wars Trading Card Wrappers: A Comprehensive Guide to International Variations
• A Fascinating Letter from Sy Berger to Fred Corcoran Extending Ted Williams’ Contract with Topps
• The 1991 Score Exclusive Mickey Mantle Card Promotion
• A High-Grade Collector’s Nightmare: The 1971-72 Topps Basketball Stickers
• The 1992 Score Joe DiMaggio Yankee Clipper Autographs
• The 1978 Topps Baseball Set: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic Collection
• 1992 Score The Franchise Autograph Cards – Musial, Mantle, and Yastrzemski

The Unopened Archive

Here are the 14 sets I added to the Unopened Archive in July:

• 1963 Scanlens VFL
• 1968 Topps Test Team Patches Football
• 1978 Topps Battlestar Galactica
• 1980 Topps Super Football
• 1984 Topps Super Baseball
• 1985 Topps Super Baseball
• 1986 OPC Baseball Tattoos
• 1986 Topps Baseball Tattoos
• 1986 Topps Major League Leaders Minis Baseball
• 1986 Topps Super Baseball
• 1987 Topps Major League Leaders Minis Baseball
• 1988 Topps Major League Leaders Minis Baseball
• 1989 Topps Major League Leaders Minis Baseball
• 1990 Topps Major League Leaders Minis Baseball

As you can see, with all the cases I shared, I’m constantly updating published pages, so from time to time, check back on your favorite sets.

Another interesting thing happened a few weeks ago when I shared the link to the 1966 Topps Superman page on Twitter with a note that there only appeared to be a single wrapper variation despite three different card formats. Well, a Superman card collector responded, “There are wrappers and boxes from 1965 that included bubble gum. The T.V. packs and cards are much more common.” He included the following Bubble Gum wrapper example!

The Oddball Archive

Here are the 5 sets I added to the Oddball Archive in July:

• 1969 Jack in the Box California Angels
• 1971 Jack in the Box California Angels
• 1989 Bulls Dairy Council of Wisconsin
• 1989 Equal Chicago Bulls
• 1990 Star Equal Chicago Bulls Silver Season

The Post War Cards Newsletter

• The Post War Cards Newsletter #42
• The Post War Cards Newsletter #43
• The Post War Cards Newsletter #44
• The Post War Cards Newsletter #45

And finally, thanks for reading PostWarCards; if there is a topic you’d like me to write about or a set you’d like me to prioritize for either archive, please reach out to me.

Happy collecting!