The Post War Cards Newsletter #26
Topps Nostalgia, Historically Significant Ticket Stubs, 1985 Los Goonies Paper Packs, Gibson And Sandberg Proofs, And The Most Childish Post-War Baseball Card
Cheers, hobby friends! There’s a bit of randomness in today’s newsletter—hope you enjoy it! And I can’t believe I only just learned about the last card a few weeks ago! And apologies for sending out last week’s PWC NL #25 a day early, oops!
🍬 Topps Nostalgia From 1974
I promised in Newsletter #11 to share more photos from Topps' annual report for the year ending March 2, 1974, so how’s this for some nostalgia?!
From a pack perspective, the image features a 1973-74 Topps Hockey, a 1973 Topps Football, and 1974 Batty Buttons boxes.
But why did they feature so much candy and gum? Well, Topps's sales for the fiscal year ending March 2, 1974, were $44,208,000, and they mentioned that the major part of that volume was from the sales of bubble gum-related products.
PS, Unopened Market Report #6 included a 1974 convenience store photo of a Topps Wacky Packages 6th Series Box from the annual report.
🎟️ Two Historically Significant Tickets In Lelands 2025 Winter Classic Auction
Lelands wrapped up their Winter Classic Auction on March 15th. Of course, they had a handful of museum pieces, like a 1997 SP Authentic Sign of the Times Stars & Rookies Michael Jordan Auto ($283,026), the #4 PSA Registry Ranked 1948 Leaf Baseball set ($118,882), and a very clean Babe Ruth Single-Signed Baseball ($41,477). But they also sold two tickets to historically significant baseball games.
A 1961 Roger Maris 61st Home Run Stub graded PSA 3 (MK) for $3,037, and a 1932 World Series Game 3 Babe Ruth “Called Shot” Ticket Stub graded PSA Authentic for $5,702.
What I love about ticket stubs is that they were used—they were actually at the event! That said, neither of these is particularly rare; PSA has graded 88 Maris HR Record and 130 1932 World Series Game 3 Ticket Stubs.
Lelands also auctioned off a slew of original photos used for W468 and W469 Exhibit football cards. But my search for the original Clyde LeForce photo—hoping to uncover why so much of him was airbrushed away—continues.
✍️ Great Hobby Writing
Tan Man Baseball Fan: 36 Years of Collecting … TODAY!
Sports Collectors Daily: 1969 Nabisco Team Flakes Cards Kept Kids Crunching
The Collective Mind: Happy Pi(e) Day
The Topps Archives: Lost In Spacetime
SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee: This Card Was A Steal!
Japanese Baseball Cards: 2000 Upper Deck Ovation Rising Stars
Not Another Baseball Card Blog: Blog Bat Around: Junk Wax Favourites
Nippon Baseball Retro: Collecting and Translating the 1973 Calbee Bat-Backs (Part 14)
Topps Ripped: Collector Stories | Mike Cirincione & Cards from our “Wonder Years”
The Shlabotnik Report: Ed-U-Cards, Mr. Met, Rocky And Bullwinkle
PS. Also, be sure to check out BucCollector’s Homage to 1979-80 Topps Hockey
🏴☠️ Unopened Item Of The Week - 1985 Pacosa Dos Los Goonies Paper Pack
Los Goonies!!!!!
This Pop 2 pack (the other is also a PSA 5) for a series only available in Spain contains five stickers. That said, an album with 10 sealed packs is available on eBay for $800, so they’re not that rare, but they’re still super cool!
P.S. Love unopened? Upgrade for the weekly Unopened Market Report! Maybe I’ll cover the U.S. 1985 Topps The Goonies set in an upcoming feature; one of the wrappers features Sloth!
📝 On The Blog
Mar 13, 2025: The Ones That Got Away: 1978 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheets
Mar 14, 2025: A Look Back At Another T206 Honus Wagner Sale
Mar 15, 2025: Baseball’s Top Ten Most Sought-After Cards (In November 1994)
Mar 16, 2025: Topps in the Field: The Rare 1910 Hermes Ice Cream Honus Wagner Pin
Mar 17, 2025: The NBA Hall of Famer Who Pitched for the Chicago White Sox
Mar 18, 2025: The Original Artwork For The 1953 Bowman #51 John Karras Football Card
Mar 19, 2025: A 1973 Topps Test Candy Lid Uncut Sheet From The Hobby Library Archives
🏛 From The Topps Archives - Kirk Gibson And Ryne Sandberg Proofs
Not only did The Topps Vault contain Topps File cards, as I shared in Newsletter #24 and #25, but it also included a bunch of proofs, and two super cool ones were sold on eBay on March 6th.
First, a 1981 Topps Coca-Cola Detroit Tigers #11 Kirk Gibson RC Proof sold for $76.
According to BaseballCardPedia:
1981 Coca-Cola is a series of eleven, 12-card, regionally-distributed team sets produced by Topps. Each team is represented by eleven players with a twelfth unnumbered card advertising a mail-in offer good for an uncut sheet of the entire 132-card set.
The design is identical to that of the 1981 Topps set, but with a Coca-Cola logo in the corner.
The second item is a proof for Ryne Sandberg’s 1985 Topps #713 All-Star card, which sold for $103.50.
Here’s an example of the final product.
🤣 1961 Nu-Card Scoops Merkle Pulls Boner
In researching 1961 Nu-Card Baseball Scoops boxes for The Unopened Market Report #5, I asked for information on the net54baseball message boards. While no one could provide insight into how they were distributed, Adam Warshaw, who writes a great Substack, shared what he called the “Greatest. Card. Ever.”
I, too, am ten years old.
Happy collecting!
Best issue yet! So many cool items.