Ersatz All Folks

Hey kids-kind of a "so good it could be real" post today, so hang on for a fun ride!

Here's a couple of esoteric Topps sales stimulators I found from an old Morphy Auction some time ago.  These are of the neater items I've seen in the ersatz-promo vein.  The first is a "Baseball Certificate" which very much resembles an admission ticket of yore-because it actually was one!  It's hard to read but it indeed bestowed a granstand seat to the bearer.  This may have been from a Bazooka contest but I'm having trouble tracking which one so perhaps it was instead from a distributor contest, something Topps ran with regularity.

Next up, we get this fantastic item from two years later, hawking the first Topps Baseball inserts (Baseball Stamps) and the standalone albums used to house them:

That was clearly designed to look like a Western Union telegram and given that Thanksgiving is almost upon us, this one seems apt to show as an example (plus it was sent on the exact day I was born!):

Western Union killed off telegrams on January 27, 2006 in case you were wondering why you hadn't received one lately!

Topps would up their game considerably in 1962 with faux fiat currency.  I can't find any promotional material for these, which doesn't mean there wasn't any of course, but it's MIA right now.

Baseball Bucks came first and were an entirely separate product from the flagship Baseball, sold in one and five cent retail packs.  This is a typical example, tilt and all:

The change of seasons brought Football Bucks of course, which might be the most miscut-prone issue Topps ever produced.  These were pack inserts with the regular issue Football set:

And if you lived in Canada Hockey Bucks also saw daylight once a pack of Hockey cards was opened, although they had a decidely North of the Border look. These are not the easiest things to find:

Still tilted after all these years!

-30-

Catchup Mashup

I haven't done a catch up post in quite some time, so if you missed short updates on prior posts, this is your day! I'll proceed chronologically...

1949 Topps Play Coins of the World

Friend o'the Archive Bill Christensen has passed along some color variations via scan:

Yellow, blue and green all seem to have lighter toned variants.  Whether this was planned or the result of die running low at the end of a "minting" is hard to day but I lean toward the latter.  I particualarly like the light blue.  Anyone else out there have some color variations they can share?

1962 Topps Hockey

I've shown this before but given recent revelations about the 1962 era aluminum plates, here is one of the color process plates in aluminum for the 1962 Football set, compared to the regular issue card:

The 1962 aluminum hockey proofs have a little bit more of an intriguing story now, thanks to Friend o'the Archive Keith Olbermann, I'll let him explain regarding these:

...[they] include the answer to one of the great riddles of Topps editorial choices. That set has 66 cards of just three NHL teams. There's a coach and at least one goalie depicted for the Bruins and the Black Hawks, but the Rangers have a card of one goalie, no coach -- and a trainer.

The trainer card, Frank Paice, always bothered me. A trainer? Instead of a coach? Well sure enough, on the aluminum and paper proofs, the explanation is presented. Paice had nothing to do with the absence of a coach card. His photo is identified as "MARCEL PAILLE - GOALIE." An understandable photo ID mistake, apparently discovered too late to do anything more about than make the card into one of Paice!"

Here is Paice the Trainer:

The 1962 backs must have been pasted up first then, I'm not sure how many guys have been called a stickboy on a hockey card but it must be in the low single digits:

1962 Topps Hockey Bucks

I find the early Topps Hockey issues fascinating as there were so many little twists and turns, a boatload of inserts and packaging oddities, all for some very short sets.  Recently an uncut strip of twelve 1962 Hockey Bucks was rung up on eBay:

If you want to know why there are so many miscut vintage Topps inserts, this is a good indicator. When I was editing the above shot, I realized the top edge was perfectly aligned horizontally.  You can see the right-tilting curl very easily in this scan.

1967 Topps Blockheads/1988 Topps Pee Wee's Playhouse

I recently linked some of the activity cards in Pee Wee's Playhouse to some earlier Topps issues and while I didn't include this in the post, I think there is a basis for comparison.  Here is one of the most gorgeous artworks from the Blockheads issue, which I have also shown before:

First of all, the idea that such an intricate painting was used to create very short run Hallowe'en issue in 1967 is mind-boggling! Really, look at this thing, it's insane! Now here is a clear derivation, although in rough form, from Pee Wee's Playhouse.  Not an exact copy but I suspect the Pee Wee's Playhouse artists were looking at some older Topps archival material, possibly unearthed as the iconic 1989 Guernsey's auction of Topps production material around the same time:

Blockheads, by the way, featured artwork from Wally Wood and Basil Wolverton of EC Comics and Mad Magazine fame, with Norm Saunders doing the finished paintings. Crazy!

Made In The USA

Of all the major sports, when comparing Topps issues and innovation in the 50's, 60's and 70's, baseball and hockey have the most interesting and varied sets and inserts.  Considering that until 1966, none of the hockey sets (with the possible exception of the 1954 issue) were issued in the lower 48 and the population of Canada is about 10 percent of the U.S., it's even more impressive.

One of the more elusive hockey inserts of the era are the 1962-63 Hockey Bucks. Distributed as an insert with the 1962-63 Hockey cards, there are 24 subjects in a set known for miscuts, folds, staining and general all around non-mintness.  The US Baseball and Football sets from 1962 also had similar inserts and for all their problems, they are quite attractive collectibles.  I picked one of these up of the 'bay and after a long wait due to a Canadian postal service strike, it finally showed up here at the main Topps Archives Research Complex. Incredibly, it held a small surprise.

Oh the front was as expected, loosely based on real Canadian currency:

But it's the back that held a secret:

Depending upon your viewing device of choice it may be a little hard to see but the bucks were printed in the good ol' US of A:

The wrappers for the set clearly indicate the cards were Canadian in manufacture, so this was a surprise.  Still, the bucks were clearly marked as U.S. product so it was all on the up and up-I guess it was just cheaper to make these in the States.

The Bucks Stop Here

The early 1960's were an incredibly creative time at Topps. They were putting out great sets in every line and creating killer inserts to boot. They even established a meme of sorts in 1962!

The expansion of the American and National Leagues in 1961-62 opened up or expanded four major league markets and with Fleer pushing hard to compete Topps was coming up with little extras to differentiate their offerings. They inserted stamps into the baseball packs and marketed their first real supplemental set since 1956. Baseball Bucks were a 96 "note" set of faux currency sold in penny packs:



Given the difficulty I had finding a pack scan (the above is from a recently concluded Ebay auction) it can be assumed the bucks did not set the world on fire. I also wonder if penny packs were really popular at this point as well since Topps phased them out entirely across all lines in 1965.

Topps Vault sold a proof box a couple of years ago:



The bucks, which measure roughly 4 1/8" x 1 9/16" (sizes, cuts and horizontal orientation vary a little) had to be folded to fit in the pack. Folds are generally found about a little to the right of the player photo. They also came into contact with the gum, which can cause some issues.





The design on these is fantastic! You could open up a pack and find one of three denominations (1, 5 or 10) and either and AL or NL logo on the reverse. The paper even feels a little bit like legal tender. Team logos were also a real cool touch, as was showing the team's home field on the front. You can find these fairly easily but good luck on the centering!

Here is a partial uncut sheet of 48 notes, probably from an REA auction a few years ago:



Not to let a good idea go to waste, despite likely lackluster sales, Topps created a 48 note set of NFL players (Fleer had the AFL license at the time) that were inserted in their 1962 football packs:


(from http://footballcardgallery.com)

The design elements of the Football Bucks echo the baseball issue almost exactly, right down to the fold, miscuts, size and denominations:




These are harder to find than the Baseball Bucks but not all that tough to track down.

Topps did not issue a basketball set in 1962 but I'll bet they would have had Bucks inserts had they sold them. They did manage to halve the count again and create 24 Hockey Bucks inserts for the 1962-63 NHL season. Topps hockey cards were sold in Canada, usually coming out in midseason hot on the heels of the annual Parkhurst issue.


(from Bobby Burrell's Vintage Hockey Collector book)

If you want to go broke real quick, buy some 50's and 60's hockey wrappers or packs. If you are tempted to open one, you will find slightly redesigned bucks:




The Hockey Bucks are difficult to find (the above two scans are a rare sighting from Ebay) especially in nice shape, which is true of all three issues. The only denomination on these is "1" for some reason. Size is similar to the baseball and football issues and well centered, untilted examples are probably more myth than reality. I am told the Hockey Bucks quite resemble the Canadian currency of the time, which makes cents.