The Post War Cards Newsletter #29
1956 Bowman BB Cards, Incredible Uncut Sheets, A 1969 Topps BB Rak Display, Signed BB Cards And Oddball BK, And Dave Bing's 1978 Topps Proof
Happy Thursday, collectors! Shoot me an email if you have suggestions or just want to share some cool collectibles! And if you're interested in the unopened side of the hobby, consider upgrading your account to get the Unopened Market Report every Monday.
⚾️ 1956 Bowman Baseball Cards
The 1956 Bowman Baseball Card Preference Study Report is a fascinating document that reveals the final stages of Bowman’s design process before its acquisition by Topps. But the complete story would take 15 pages to cover! Only a handful of the 324 original folders sent out are known to exist today; Keith Olbermann owns one, and he shared his copy with Topps in 2002 to help with the 2003 Bowman Heritage set design.
I know of two public sales of the same example. In November 1999, Mastro sold Gelman’s copy for $4,074.
Then, in the Spring of 2005, REA re-sold it for $10,440.
Given those past sales, I can’t help but wonder what one would fetch at auction today!
💵 Incredible Uncut Sheets At Collect Auctions
Collect Auctions wrapped up its Spring Auction on April 3, and to me, the standout items were a pair of uncut sheets. First is the 1956 Topps Baseball Uncut Sheet Advertising Display With Clemente, Ted, and Robby that sold for $6,300.
I first covered this 1956 Topps promo sheet in a blog post in May 2024 and shared a photo scanned from the Spring 1982 issue of Baseball Cards magazine! Look at the tape; it’s the same item. It very well may be the only of its kind remaining in existence.
The second marvel of hobby uncut sheet history was the Rarest Mickey Mantle Card on One-of-A-Kind 1961 (1963) Topps Dice Game Test Issue Uncut Sheet that sold for $252k (which feels low for this piece)
PSA writes that the 1961 Topps Dice Game set is:
An extremely rare test issue, it is thought that the 1961 Topps Dice Game cards were never actually released. So few have surfaced that hobbyists suspect simply that a handful somehow found their way out of the Topps factory at some point. The set is believed to be complete at 18. There are no Topps-related markings on the cards, so it is unknown if the cards were still in the development stage when they made their way into the hobby.
For more, The Topps Archives wrote a great piece called A Dicey Situation on the sheet.
A few other uncut highlights included a 1954 Wilson Franks Uncut Sheet Standee with Ted Williams, Roy Campanella ($7,877), a 1933 Goudey Baseball Uncut Sheet With Foxx, Simmons and Waner ($15k), a 1962 Topps Baseball High Series Proof Sheet With Black Ink ($428), a 1962 Salada Baseball Coins Pristine Uncut Sheet ($940), 1970s R.G. Laughlin Famous Feats Original Artwork ($2,093), and 1971 Topps Basketball NBA Stickers Proof Sets Uncut Sheets ($2,300), among others!
✍️ Great Hobby Writing
Japanese Baseball Cards: RIP Hidetoshi Hakamada
Topps Ripped: Office Hours | No-Hitters
The Chronicles of Fuji: Fifty-Seven Years in the Making
Night Owl Cards: Where do I draw the line?
Diamond Jesters: Ranking 50 Years Worth Of Topps #330 Cards #10 - #1
The Topps Archives: Flimsy Flyer
SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee: Using Little Cards to Sell Big Books
Topps Ripped: Collector Stories | Cincinnati Reds Collector Allan Branstiter
⚾️ Unopened Item Of The Week - A 1969 Topps Baseball Rak Display
RetroBaseballPackArt set out to recreate the 1969 Topps Baseball Rack Pack retail display from the salesman sample sheet pictured below, and the achievement is spectacular! He displayed it at his local card shop’s rip night. Here’s a link to a higher-resolution image of the final product.
During the development process, we exchanged emails, trying to determine the exact wording Topps used on the display header. So, please let me know if you have a clearer scan of the dealer sell sheet or an original Rak display!
For more unopened fun facts, consider upgrading your subscription to get the Unopened Market Report—Monday’s featured 1951 Topps Baseball 2-Card Packs, 1975 Nabisco Sugar Daddy and Mama Boxes, Recent Unopened Sales, and the Only PSA-Graded 1953 Bowman Baseball B&W 1-Cent Wax Pack
📝 On The Blog
Apr 3, 2025: The Time Managers Were Traded and Topps Airbrushed Their Baseball Cards
Apr 4, 2025: Dick Perez’s Original Artwork For The 1989 Donruss Mike Greenwell Diamond Kings Card
Apr 5, 2025: A Rare Sight: Mint 1965 Topps Tall Boy 5-Cent Display Boxes
Apr 6, 2025: A Spectacular 1960s Jerry West Wilson Die-Cut Advertising Sign
Apr 7, 2025: 6 Original Photos That Transformed into Iconic Basketball Cards
Apr 8, 2025: One Of The Sporting World’s Most Historic Signings – The Pete Maravich 1970 Atlanta Hawks Rookie Year Contract
Apr 9, 2025: Rookie Sensation – 1992-93 Topps Basketball Card Sets
📰 In The News
Sports Collectors Daily: Upper Deck Seeks To Add Defendant In Theft Claim Against Former Redemption Manager
Beckett: Graded: 1999 Upper Deck A Piece of History 500 Club
ESPN: LeBron card sells for $1.159M; Caitlin Clark card sets record
Fox13 Seattle: ‘Totally unusual’: Binders containing meth sent to Algona business
ESPN: Shohei Ohtani 50/50 card first of Dodgers star to break $1M
Pahrump Valley Times: Baseball card bust sends local man to jail
Yahoo: eBay adds new feature to send raw cards to PSA for grading
The Daily Emerald: Four decades of cards and collectibles at Hooker’s Sports Cards
Sports Collectors Digest: Upper Deck extends card, memorabilia deal with golf legend Tiger Woods
PR Newswire: CardVault by Tom Brady to Open Flagship Store at American Dream
Sports Business Journal: Travis Hunter inks trading card deal with Panini
cllct: PSA announces increased turnaround times for popular service levels
🏷️ Love Of The Game Auctions - Signed Baseball Cards And Oddball Basketball
Love of the Game Auction’s Spring 2025 Premier Auction closed on April 5th. It included a lot of incredible pre-war pieces and an incredible post-war autographed 1949 Bowman Jackie Robinson card that sold for $170,539!
The auction also featured a slew of other signed, PSA-authenticated Bowman baseball cards, including Larry Doby ($18,600), Duke Snider ($6,600), Gil Hodges ($6k), and Richie Ashburn ($5,280) from the 1949 set and 65 commons from the 1951 set.
But the hobby historian in me was most struck by the sheer number of rare oddball basketball items. Each one’s worthy of a deep dive on the blog or the newsletter. Some standout examples from the auction included (I still can’t believe how relatively affordable these remain): a complete set of 1910-11 T51 Murad Cigarettes College Series Cards ($1,140), which include the first cards to depict college or pro teams, a PSA 3 1948 Kellogg's Pep George Mikan ($390), a c.1960's Bill Russell (HOF) Original Type I Photo used for his 1964 Boston Celtics Picture Pack Issue ($930), one of the five graded 1969 NBAP Member John Havlicek RCs ($990), four seldom seen 1956 Boston Celtics PSA-Graded Picture Packs ($216), and an unused strip of 15 1973-74 Shur-Fresh SuperSonics Emmette Bryant cards ($60).
🏛 From The Topps Archives - 1978 Topps Basketball Dave Bing Proof
I recently shared on X that I once had a ridiculous 1978 Topps Basketball collection — PSA sets, wax boxes, vending, trays, you name it. But I never landed an uncut sheet. Well, I didn’t have very many proofs either. So I was pretty excited when I saw this Dave Bing, from the Topps Vault, pop up and sell on eBay for $26.55 back in March.
While this item didn’t come with a COA, the cases and stickers Topps used for its vault items were pretty unique, and I can’t imagine there are too many folks looking to forge $20 items.
Happy collecting!