No legal action been filed yet in connection with the ongoing revelations of altered trading cards uncovered by members of the Blowout Cards forum since last spring, but the work to identify them continues. More cards alleged to have been purchased, altered and re-graded for profit are being revealed on almost a daily basis. Members have recently highlighted … [Read more...]
35 Years After Last MLB At-Bat, Bill Lyons Finally Gets a Cardinals Baseball Card
Bill Lyons, a Cardinals prospect in the 1980s, had 133 at-bats with St. Louis, split between the 1983 and ’84 seasons. His career, spent mostly in the minors, provided plenty of memories, but never a baseball card. Not one you could pull out of a pack of MLB licensed cards, anyway. That short stint with the Cardinals was his last in the big leagues but he'd play four more … [Read more...]
Notes: 1982’s “Card of the Year”; Game-Worn Auctions
Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk turned 72 on Thursday. That was his uniform number with the Chicago White Sox in the 1980s, who eventually retired it. Interestingly, his rookie card is in the ’72 Topps set…and he hit 72 homers after turning 40 according to historian Christopher Kamka. It was while wearing that number with the Sox that Fisk was featured on a 1982 Topps In … [Read more...]
Packs of Sports Cards Were Once a Grocery Enticement
Ever since tobacco companies used them as collectible package stiffeners for fragile boxes of cigarettes, baseball cards have been inserted into consumer products. They've been in smokes, soda, snack cakes and razor blades--just to name a few. Sometimes, though, the promotion went between their traditional home inside bubble gum card packs and the food products that … [Read more...]
Battle Creek Newspaper Touted Dawn of Post Cereal Baseball Cards
Even in the Cereal Capital of the World, there had never been a promotion quite like it. Sure, Wheaties had used its boxes to portray individual players in the 1930s-- and even a mini set of rather unexciting cards meant to be cut from the back in 1952-- but the 1961 Post Cereal baseball card set was a massive undertaking. For three years, in fact, Post was a … [Read more...]
Uncovering an Old Newspaper Story About an Early 1900s Collector and His Baseball Cards
He was about 16 when he started saving them. Nearly 50 years after Glenn Bosworth was hoarding Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance, Mordecai Brown, Christy Mathewson and other stars of the deadball era diamond, the baseball cards he had pasted into an album were still there. By the time he spoke to a curious newspaper reporter in 1960, the guy the locals called … [Read more...]
Of 15 Cent Aaron Autographs and $1,000 Wagners: Article Features 1971 Southern California Card Show
When you’re lucky enough to find them, photos and stories of some of the earliest public sports collectors conventions are fascinating to see. Stacks of cards wrapped in rubber bands with little regard for condition. No top loaders. No plastic sheets and thus, no binders. No cello-wrapped boxes of new products. Most of the stories and whatever photographs … [Read more...]
Baseball Card Coverage from 60 Years Ago Reveals Interesting Info on Market
By popular demand, here are a few more nuggets we dug up over the weekend from coverage of the hobby decades ago. In 1959, Topps wax putting 250 million baseball cards and 70 million football on the market, mostly through penny and nickel wax packs. Cello packs were decent sellers, which proved to company officials that in many cases, it wasn't the gum that was the … [Read more...]
Why Baseball Cards Came Out a Tad Later in 1964
Think "Topps" and most people think baseball but the truth is, the trading card side of the business always been about pop culture. If it's entertainment or sports and people talk about it or like to collect it, the company is interested. If it'll sell and the licensing is right, it's a candidate for the company's cards, both physical and digital. … [Read more...]
Notes: Slugger Auction TV Segment; GBSCC Show; Polo Grounds Exhibit
It's the final week of bidding for the annual Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum Auction, which culminates with a live element at the facility on Saturday. Hunt Auctions is once again conducting the sale. Company president David Hunt talked with WKRC-TV about the sale of the Green Diamond Collection, curated by Dayton native and long-time hobbyist Bob Crotty and … [Read more...]