The 1967 Topps football set meshed perfectly with the Summer of Love that year. While this was Topps’ final AFL-only set, the psychedelic design appealed to many collectors. Even the nickel wax packs had an artsy, hippie-like look to them. There were not many big names in this set, although the most expensive cards are quarterbacks Joe Namath and Jack Kemp. Future Hall of … [Read more...]
1962 Topps Football Easy to Collect; Tough in High Grade
Utilizing a horizontal design for the first time since 1957, the 1962 Topps football set gave future collectors of high grade cards some big headaches. The cause for discomfort are the unique but ultra-condition sensitive black borders, which were easily chipped and scuffed. Topps would employ the same strategy for the black backgrounds for its 1971 baseball set, with … [Read more...]
10 Vintage Football Cards to Keep an Eye On
Like their baseball brethren, quality vintage football rookie cards have shown some significant price increases in the last year or so. Major rookie cards of NFL icons can sometimes catch five-figures when only a small number exist at a certain grade level. Unitas, Starr, Brown, Staubach, Namath and Payton rookie cards are among the hottest. As a whole, though, card prices … [Read more...]
Top 10 Topps Football Cards of All-Time
An era comes to an end this week as Topps wraps up its uninterrupted run of producing football cards. They produced a set of Felt Backs in 1950, but Topps didn't go head first into football until the 1955 season when they issued the All-American set, which pictured former college greats. Their NFL contract started the following season when commissioner Bert Bell got together … [Read more...]
1966 Philadelphia Football Set Showcased NFL In Transition
The 1966 Philadelphia football set represented a changing of the guard in the NFL. Several big stars would make their debut in this 198-card set, while a few would appear as a regular issue for the final time. This was the third of what would be four sets produced by the Philadelphia Gum Company, which won exclusive rights to issue cards of NFL players in 1964. A pair of … [Read more...]
1964 Philadelphia Football Cards Ushered In New Era
It was a swell product while it lasted. In 1964, the Philadelphia Gum Company obtained the licensing rights to produce National Football League trading cards, ending the stranglehold Topps had held since 1956. Topps executive Sy Berger had gotten an agreement through NFL commissioner Bert Bell to produce cards starting in 1956 and continued through 1963. That pact … [Read more...]
Ramblings: Remembering Cards of 1960s Two-Sport Stars
There were a lot of great card “twists” of the 1960s and 70s but one twist was there seemed to be far fewer two sport athletes in those decades than there was in the late 1940s and all during the 1950s. The concept returned with a big bang when Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson both played baseball and football at the same time back in the late 1980s. While Bo and Deion … [Read more...]
1960 Fleer Football Cards Helped Launch AFL
As the first full week of September 1960 wound to a close, much of America’s attention was focused on the upcoming presidential election where the young Massachusetts senator, John Kennedy was battling vice-president Richard Nixon. In Rome, the Summer Olympic Games were winding down and Florida residents were bracing for Hurricane Donna. On the evening of September 9, a … [Read more...]
1967 Royal Castle Dolphins Set Marks Auer’s Place in History
The opening kickoff of the regular season always brings great anticipation. For the Miami Dolphins and Joe Auer, the first regular-season play in franchise history always will be special. On September 2, 1966, Auer stood in the west end zone of Miami’s Orange Bowl, waiting for the opening kickoff by the Oakland Raiders. “I knew I would do something unusual as the … [Read more...]
1965 Topps Football Set is More Than Just Broadway Joe
Youngsters used to seeing packs in a standard size wax wrapper found something completely different on the shelves of their local drug store in the late summer of 1965. For the second year in a row, the nation’s only baseball card maker had created a set of players from the American Football League players but this time, the packs were huge. The 1965 Topps … [Read more...]