The Post War Cards Newsletter #14
Musial, 1960 Topps Finds, Competition, And A Magazine
Today, I’m highlighting:
How Stan Musial monetized his NIL,
BBCE’s December auction with a note about a Mr. Mint find of 1960 unopened items, plus a few cool boxes and packs from MHCC,
The smorgasbord of card manufacturers in 1998,
A 1968 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet,
And the first issue of Baseball Cards Magazine!
🧢 Stan-The-Man!
After sharing all that Topps Swag in Newsletter #11, I figured I should share some info about another company that flooded the market with cool collectibles, Stan-The-Man Inc.!
As you can see in the advertisement from the summer of 1996, Musial set up a company to sell autographed memorabilia, such as jerseys, baseballs, bats, caps, and photos, directly to fans. Today, compared to other Hall of Famers, you can pick up his autographs for relatively reasonable prices; Musial signed A LOT.
Dick Zitzmann, who is mentioned in the ad, ran the company; you can read a bit more about one of its items, the Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack, in an earlier blog post.
✍️ Great Hobby Writing
Japanese Baseball Cards: An Answer
Droidtrader’s Sports Memorabilia: Charley Rabe TTM Return
Baseball Cards Come to Life: 1970 Topps Booklets: The Mike Epstein Story
Night Owl Cards: I prefer hanging out with oddballs
Sports Collectors Digest: GROOVY SET: 1967 Topps Football brings back memories of dominant Kansas City Chiefs, first Super Bowl
Plaschke Thy Sweater is Argyle: George Washington's Plastic Tomb
The Topps Archives: Orbital Mechanics Mate
Night Owl Cards: Yes, he was the best
Collectibles on SI: Ken Griffey Jr. and Other '90s Baseball Cards Collectors Hoped Would Make Them Rich
Number 5 Type Collection: Baseball Backgrounds: Reggie Jackson's Glasses on 1982 Topps #300
Baseball Card Breakdown: Joy of a Completed Set: 1992 Leaf Black Gold
📦 Unopened Item Of The Week - Mr. Mint's 1960 Topps Find and BBCE's Recent Auction
One of the highlights of BBCE Auctions's December Auction #4 was a 1960 Topps Baseball Unopened Series 2 Rack Pack, which sold for $10,735.
You may notice that there seems to be a disproportionate number of 1960 Topps baseball rack and cello products in the unopened space compared to other sets of the era. Well, that's probably because in what I think was 1996 (this quote is from the March 1997 issue of Sports Cards Magazine), "Mr. Mint Alan Rosen got a phone call just before Thanksgiving that produced more than five cases of unopened 1960 Topps Baseball cello and rack packs, along with unopened boxes (four each) of 1956 and 1957 Topps Football and one box of 1959 Topps Football."
Back to BBCE's auction, the priciest five unopened items were a 1986/87 Fleer Basketball Wax Box ($146,877), 1979/80 Topps Hockey Wax Box ($27,360), 1980/81 Topps Basketball Wax Box ($20,029), 1973/74 Topps Basketball Wax Box (in 72/73 Wrappers) ($18,809), and a 1974 Topps Baseball Wax Box ($18,360)
Also, a few weeks ago, Mile High Card Company wrapped up its Fall auction, which featured a trio of particularly interesting unopened items: a 1967 Topps Punch Out Unopened Wax Pack that sold for $6,474, a 1954 Bowman Football Unopened 1 Cent Wax Box that sold for $34,155, and a 1954 Bowman Football Unopened 5 Cent Wax Box that sold for $43,596.
MHCC’s overall auction highlights weren’t unopened; they were the 1958 Topps #62 Jim Brown PSA 8.5 ($220k) and 1951 Bowman #305 Willie Mays PSA 8 ($190k) cards.
📝 On The Blog
December 19, 2024: The Bittersweet Tale Of Casey Stengel’s 1965 Dugan Brothers Baseball Card
December 20, 2024: Private Collections Reap Big Sales – A Sports Cards’ Auction Report From 1996
December 20, 2024: Trading Labels for Legends: How the 1954 Red Heart Baseball Set Was Advertised and Distributed
December 21, 2024: Early Wrapper Redemptions – The Limited-Edition 1992 Fleer Rookie Sensations Promo Sheet
December 22, 2024: Unlicensed Treasures – The 1974 Broder 1957-58 Pacific Coast League Popcorn Baseball Card Set
December 23, 2024: Topps Remembers The Magnificent Multi-Sport Champion Jim Thorpe
December 24, 2024: Woody Gelman’s Personal Collection of Card Samples, Including A 1969 Color Deckle-Edge Prototype of Sandy Koufax
December 25, 2024: Revisiting 1912 T202 Hassan Triple Folders - An Auction Snapshot From 1991
🏭 Card Show History - SportsFest '98
What stands out to me about this advertisement for SportsFest '98 is the number of card manufacturers we had in the late '90s. With all the competition, it's hard to argue that the hobby wasn't more interesting and innovative then.
🏀 A 1968 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet
Last week, Jason Simonds, a consignment director for Heritage Auctions, shared that they’d be offering a likely one-of-a-kind 1968 Topps Basketball test issue uncut sheet featuring two complete sets of cards in their February Platinum Night Sale. It was taken out of the home of a former Topps employee.
I was chatting with another collector, and we think that with the auction house's juice and Heritage Auctions being in Texas, $500k is possible.
⚾️ In The Hobby Library - Baseball Cards Vol. 1 No. 1
In Newsletter #8, I shared that Baseball Cards Magazine set the standard for great hobby writing, and I shared a photo of the first 18 issues. Well, if you're going to pick one up, may I recommend the premier issue?
When the magazine was issued, the Topps Monopoly had just been broken up, and Donruss and Fleer had just released their 1981 sets, so it makes sense that hobby legend Larry Fritsch and the magazine highlighted them early in the issue.
But look at what else you got: a piece by editor Bob Lemke on the impact of plastic album pages on cards, another on Hartland Statues, an "investor's" view from Tony Galovich, and a great piece on how a collector's focus on collectibles opens up when they specialize in one team, the author, Doug Watson, concentrated on the St. Louis Cardinals (hello, again, Stan-the-Man).
But the highlights might be the pieces by Lew Lipset and Jim Nicewander on 19th-century cards and baseball coins. And, yeah, there was a price guide, too!
Happy collecting!
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