Showing posts with label 1960 Bazooka Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1960 Bazooka Baseball. Show all posts

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Poppin' Proof

One very neglected area of the collecting world is the Bazooka issues from 1959-71 (some older sets exist but were in a different style).  Mostly known for small sets of package design cards featuring baseball players, as well as occasional  football, hockey and non-sports subjects, numerous Bazooka sets were issued by Topps in their heyday.  The 1959 inaugural baseball and football sets were behemoths and Topps subsequently trimmed the size down in 1960 (two sizes exist from 1960-67, due to differences in the 20 cent and 25 cent Bazooka box dimensions) and began an eight year run of the familiar 3 card panels.

Here is a proof from 1960 that is missing the blue color process:


Meanwhile 1961 brings us a rainbow of progressive proofs:



Tough to find today in neatly cut form, some collect the three card panels or even complete boxes. Production runs compared to regular Topps baseball issues were miniscule and given how many were probably just tossed or mangled back in the day, survival rates are likely much worse as well.