Brown & Blue

While I didn't bid on it, a curious piece of Topps history was hammered on eBay late last year.  Using their own employees for photo shoots was a continuing theme with Topps in the Sixties and Seventies, and some of their antics are a little humorous in retrospect.

This is an original photographic pasteup from the archives of Brown Brothers, a stock photo firm that was big for a good chunk of the Twentieth Century: 

Lelands has been auctioning off the firm's archival items on the 'Bay and also in some catalog auctions but the three notations are masking another Brown reference, namely the friendly "shopkeeper" pounding a baseball mitt, one Len Brown.  Brown was Topps New Product Director Woody Gelman's assistant at the time and he's helping the PR push for those 1963 Bazooka boxes that not only had three package design baseball cards on the revere but five All Time Greats cards within. 

These were the boxes being hawked by Len:

The reverse of the photo shows a lot of decrepit rubber cement along with a notation:

I've blown it up to make it easier to read:

I am surmising this particular piece came from Len's first wife and was in her possession as part of their divorce.  Of note are mention of three 1973-74 test issues; in order these are Deckle Baseball cards from '74, plus The Waltons and The Rookies, both TV shows of the day that Topps tried to make work as card sets in 1973.  I've covered the first two here previously but to my surprise I've never referenced The Rookies, which is one of the tougher test issues of the decade and far harder to track down than the other two, at least from what I've found.

They come from a time when Topps was trying to standardize some of their graphics:

A little text and a puzzle make up the reverse:

The example above is unusual as it's not severely miscut, since most of the set's surviving examples are found that way. In fact, many of its 44 subjects are horizontally-oriented and the cuts can be so bad that the caption is often found above the photo and not below:

Yikes!  It's truly a tough issue and finding well-cut cards is super challenging.   PSA has graded a mere 60 examples overall with nothing above a grade of 7 given. However, 44 of them are in the sole registry set, which is complete with a GPA of 6.898. By way of reference, 255 Waltons cards have been PSA slabbed (nine 9's given) and over 3,000 1974 Deckles, with seventy-six 10's granted somehow!

Peeling Out

I can't believe I haven't covered these previously but the 1963 Baseball Peel-Offs are, in my opinion, one of the better inserts ever created by Topps.  These small (1 1/4" x 2 3/4"), colorful stickers were included in select wax and cello packs, probably commencing with the second series (Topps didn't always include inserts in series one).  As this pack rip shows, they were definitely found in 4th Series packs. At a mere 46 subjects, it was the sole pack insert in a  year where Topps was taking on Fleer for a share of the big league trading card market. 46 is a strange number for a Topps run of justabout anything, and I suspect there's a reason the set count landed there, which I'll get into momentarily.

First though, behold the colorful Peel-Offs:

That bright line running horizontally across the face of each player is an unfortunate production artifact, wherein the adhesive didn't see application at the cut line that splits the paper on the reverse.  Speaking of reverses, three types can be found: instruction back facing left, instruction back facing right and blank. The instruction backs are mirror images (and measure the same, ignore the aspects of the two below, they are identical in size):

Blank, well, is blank:

You often see gum or glue residue on them, no surprise given the layout of the pack in the video I linked in the first paragraph above:

So why only 46 subjects? Well, it's a strange number as the divisor is 23-are there any other inserts or short Topps sets other than those divisible by 11, where the divisor is a prime number?  On this note, Friend o'the Archive Al Richter has advised his research indicates Fleer experienced poor sales for their 1963 Baseball series, while I have also read that legal action shut the Philadelphia based firm's set down. Either way, I think what happened was related to Fleer's exploits and Topps pulled the plug on the inserts. It occurred in 1956 with Baseball Buttons, which was reduced to 60 subjects from an announced 90, following the acquisition of Bowman, so it makes sense to me history repeated.  It's possible a few planned subjects were in contractual limbo as well, which may have been an issue in 1963 for Topps.

The Bazooka Baseball boxes that year were sold with an extra feature within, the 41 subject All Time Greats set. That particular set was designed on a 45 card press sheet array, with four subjects double-printed.  Did Topps pull four subjects once the Fleer suit was out of the marketplace or did they just run out of time procuring the rights of four more old-timers? It's just strange that two insert sets from the same year are somewhat anomalous in length at a time when Topps was making a big spend on legal fees. Fleer also went after them in a Federal Trade Commission suit, which was ongoing in 1963.

The set checklist is interesting as the ratio of common players to superstars appears a little lower than in most other short Topps insert and supplemental sets.  I think this is further proof the set was truncated.

Bazooka Bonus Blast

One of the neat little, almost inadvertent things Bazooka did with their party boxes - usually sold in groceries and supermarkets - was include an extra image or two on the splash panels with a small photo of a player included in the set that was being issued on the back of the box (and one one occasion, inside the box).  These were not meant to be cards but merely served as advertisements. Topps picked these subjects well as they chose some real superstars for these little pictures.  While the 1959-62 boxes were issued with a simple splash panel alerting kids to the baseball cards on the reverse, they were of an older style, with a cello covered window allowing a peek at the contents inside, like so (1960 version I believe):

 That changed in 1963 when they issued this bad boy:

In addition to introducing the country to the two tykes seen here, the splash panel for '63 has an image of what was purported to be a sample Babe Ruth card from the All Time Greats set, with five cards included within.  It's amazing what a little competition did to Topps over the years, spawning new products, some quite innovative, in order to pry attention away from their competitors, in this case Fleer.

Collectors of this set will quickly realize that image of the Babe included on the card inserts looked nothing at all like the one shown here.  Rather, we got an aging Ruth, fairly close to the end:

Hoo boy, I'll bet the kiddies were disappointed when they saw that!  Topps probably could not, or would not, license an image of Ruth from his playing days for a secondary set, so they improvised and used an image from his "farewell" at Yankee Stadium that they had deployed in the 1962 "Babe Ruth Special" subset that was issued in the wake of the M&M Boys chase of his home run record.* That subset at least had some period images and at a guess, Topps copyrighted the box before their licensing agreement with Ruth's heirs was up.

Check it out, it's a direct lift:

You can hear the speech here-Babe was clearly dying when he gave it on April 27, 1947 and his voice is absolutely shot from the throat cancer that was killing him.

1964 saw Bazooka include a sheet of 10 Baseball Stamps in the box, along with the three cards on the back.  The splash panel on the front didn't have a player image but one of the end panels advertising the inserts sure did, in spades.  Here's the splash:

And here's the end flap: 

Koufax and Mantle, not bad!  The Mick was back in 1965:

(Courtesy Sports Collectors Daily)

OK, so it's the same image they used the year prior. On that note, here is 1966, from my buddy Spike's Number 5 Type Collection Blog:

Yup, Sandy's a repeat from 1964, as are those darn kids!

In 1967 it's deja vu all over again:

Three times was the charm for that Mantle image.

1968 didn't yield a bonus image as the cards moved to the side flaps for reasons unknown; maybe they were hiding them from Marvin Miller or something.  

I sure hope those kids got residuals! 1969 saw a move to an All Time Greats format that may look familiar, although hard to tell if it's the exact same Ruth image on the box from 1963 due to some shadowing on the former, but it's pretty close if it wasn't:

There's four All Time Greats "plaks" on each box, two per side panel; they obviously aren't cards as there's no definitive border but they recycled the "plak" wording from a failed test set of the year prior and they're not those either! Still, I wonder if the Ruth "card" was meant to be the one they intended to issue in 1963 and Topps, clearly having licensed certain images due to the alleged Baseball Centennial in 1969, finally put it to use? This is the Ruth in question, 1969 version:

To their discredit, they reused the exact same box in 1970! 

I've previously posted about these 1969-70 boxes but it was a long time ago and an update is due.  So here is the full checklist for the 1969-70 boxes (and they are generally collected as full boxes due to their configuration). Apologies for the formatting:

BASEBALL GREATS (BOX BACK-LARGE CARDS)

1 NO HIT DUEL	TONEY*-VAUGHN*		FRED, HIPPO
2 ALEXANDER CONQUERS YANKS	ALEXANDER		GROVER CLEVELAND
3 YANKS' LAZZERI SETS AL RECORD	LAZZERI*		TONY
4 HR ALMOST HIT OUT OF STADIUM	FOXX*		JIMMIE
5 4 CONSECUTIVE HOMERS BY LOU	GEHRIG		LOU
6 NO-HIT GAME BY WALTER JOHNSON	JOHNSON		WALTER
7 TWELVE RBI'S BY BOTTOMLEY	BOTTOMLEY*		JIM
8 TY TIES RECORD	COBB		TY
9 BABE RUTH HITS 3 HR'S IN GAME	RUTH		BABE
10 CALLS SHOT IN SERIES GAME	RUTH		BABE
11 RUTH'S 60TH HR SETS NEW RECORD	RUTH		BABE
12 DOUBLE SHUTOUT BY ED RUELBACH	REULBACH*		ED

*- Player does not appear on an All Time Greats Side Panel.

ALL TIME GREATS (SIDE PANELS)

		BOX
ALEXANDER	GROVER CLEVELAND	3
ANSON	CAP	9
BENDER	CHIEF	3
BROWN	MORDECAI	1
CHANCE	FRANK	5, 11
CHESBRO	JACK	9
COBB	TY	1, 7
COCHRANE	MICKEY	5, 8
COLLINS	EDDIE	7, 8
DUFFY	HUGH	4
EVERS	JOHNNY	6, 7
GEHRIG	LOU	4, 7
HORNSBY	ROGERS	2, 12
JOHNSON	BAN	2
JOHNSON	WALTER	2, 6
KEELER	WILLIE	1
LAJOIE	NAP	10, 11
MACK	CONNIE	10
MARANVILLE	RABBIT	10, 12
MATHEWSON	CHRISTY	3, 12
McGRAW	JOHN	5, 6
OTT	MEL	8, 11
PLANK	EDDIE	1
RUTH	BABE	5
SIMMONS	AL	2, 9
SPEAKER	TRIS	4, 9
TINKER	JOE	4, 11
WAGNER	HONUS	8, 12
WALSH	ED	10
YOUNG	CY	3, 6

There's a bunch of double printed All Time Greats, as you can see, with more than half the subjects appearing on two different boxes, in a mix and match panel scheme that must have made sense to Topps (or not).  The total is 30 different ATG subjects, with 12 single prints and 18 double prints. This is the full look:

And here's an uncut sheet of the full set that Huggins & Scott had some time ago, yowsa!

Topps had one or two more bubbles up their sleeve though, even as 1971 brought an end to this fine line of Bazooka package design cards.  With Koufax and Mantle in retirement, Topps went with a big name in 1971, from the Big Red Machine:

(Courtesy Dave & Adam's Card World)

Johnny Bench may have been the hottest story in baseball in 1970-71, before interest was focused on Vida Blue before the midseason of '71 (no joke), then on Hank Aaron's home run chase.

I can assure you that those kids were still on Bazooka boxes well after the baseball cards were discontinued in 1971 and for all I know, they are still there today!

Bazooka cards are really not widely collected but Topps used some classic shots on them.  Check out this collection of 1966 panels that Robert Edward Auctions had a while back for proof of this:

* (Sorry, couldn't resist).

Double GOAT

A very interesting item popped up on eBay last month, namely an uncut sheet of the 1963 Bazooka All Time Greats set, an issue last discussed a year ago.  Since I don't have a Christmas themed Topps post this year (and continue to search in vain for a Hanukkah related Topps item) I figured some gold is the next best thing!

Feast your eyes:

It's easier to see if you click to blow it up but this is clearly a full sheet of 45 cards.  Since the set only had 41 cards, my first (and only) thought, was to check for double prints. As it turned out, it was quite easy as they all reside in order on the bottom row-look at the four rightmost cards there: Hank Greenberg, Dazzy Vance, Honus Wagner and Rogers Hornsby.

Using a matrix reference where the rows are lettered A through E and the columns 1 through 9, you can see the corresponding "first prints" of each: Greenberg is at position A2, Vance at B9, Wagner at B7, and Hornsby resides at C5.

Before seeing this sheet, I had always figured the missing subjects had been pulled over rights issues but the placement of the double prints all together at E6-9 makes me think the sheet could have been laid out this way to begin with. An alternative thought is that my initial theory was correct and the DP's are scattered in the rows above E and Topps went with those four as they were the four most recent cards to have been designed.  I lean toward the "deliberate' theory but really either is possible.

Have a nice Christmas all!

Silver And Gold (Foil)

Topps doesn't have any New Year's themed sets, otherwise I'd probably be posting about such a thing but as we start our ninth (!) calendar year here, I'm going to turn the WABAC to 1963 and take a quick look at the Bazooka All Time Greats set. I did a short post a while ago on these but want to take a closer look at the "silver" variations that are circulating. Besides, I'm on a bit of a Bazooka research bender these days.

Topps may have thought 1963 would be another year where Fleer issued an old timer's set, as they had for three seasons, but Fleer elected to try a set of current major leaguers, which Topps shut down after one series. The 1963 Topps regular issue only had a single insert, 46 Peel-Offs that would hardly have filled out all seven series of cards while they were competing with Fleer so it's a bit odd their other insert set went into Bazooka boxes destined for the nation's supermarket and variety store shelves. I have to suspect the timing was such that after shutting down Fleer they decided to just put the All Time Greats, which feature  T.C.G. indicia, into Bazooka, which already featured what was becoming a standard three card panel of current players.

So anyhoo, there are 41 All Time Greats, and they are pretty darn snazzy with their faux gold leaf and dimensions (1 9/16" x 2 1/2") almost matching those of T206 and the like. Here's Honus:

You can see how the gold foil scratches easily and retains production marks.  When the cards are in nice, spiffy shape they really pop.  In contrast, here is a "silver" front:

You can see there is no gold foil present, although I have to say they still look pretty nice in this format.  It's easy to think the foil just wasn't applied to the silver cards but that's not the case, as evidenced by the backs.  Here is the back of the gold Honus Wagner card:

The mustard yellow blocks are prominent but on the silver cards, there is no block of color applied:

Clearly these were intended to be manufactured just a little differently.  So what's the story?  Some sources I've seen say the silver cards were issued in larger than ordinary Bazooka boxes (normally they were either 20 or 25 count) of 100 pieces or so, while others offer no opinion at all.  What I can tell you is that the November 3, 1963 Fifth Catalog Additions to the American Card Catalog mention both the gold and black-and-white backs so they were both produced in or by 1963. The 20 and 25 count boxes both state there were 5 Golden Edition" cards in each box. My best guess is that Topps had a final run printed up, awaiting the golden touches and then just used the cards anyway to finish out the 1963 Bazooka baseball issue. They are about three or four times scarcer than the gold cards but not particularly hard to find so some fairly large distribution of them occurred.

Here is the "Golden Edition" checklist, see you all in 2017!

1	TINKER	JOE
2	HEILMANN	HARRY
3	CHESBRO	JACK
4	MATHEWSON	CHRISTY
5	PENNOCK	HERB
6	YOUNG	CY
7	WALSH	ED
8	LAJOIE	NAP
9	PLANK	EDDIE
10	WAGNER	HONUS
11	BENDER	CHIEF
12	JOHNSON	WALTER
13	BROWN	MORDECAI
14	MARANVILLE	RABBIT
15	GEHRIG	LOU
16	JOHNSON	BAN
17	RUTH	BABE
18	MACK	CONNIE
19	GREENBERG	HANK
20	McGRAW	JOHN
21	EVERS	JOHNNY
22	SIMMONS	AL
23	COLLINS	JIMMY
24	SPEAKER	TRIS
25	CHANCE	FRANK
26	CLARKE	FRED
27	ROBINSON	WILBERT
28	VANCE	DAZZY
29	ALEXANDER	GROVER CLEVELAND
30	LANDIS	KENESAW MOUNTAIN
31	KEELER	WILLIE
32	HORNSBY	ROGERS
33	DUFFY	HUGH
34	COCHRANE	MICKEY
35	COBB	TY
36	OTT	MEL
37	GRIFFITH	CLARK
38	LYONS	TED
39	ANSON	CAP
40	DICKEY	BILL
41	COLLINS	EDDIE

Bazooka Joe And His (Older) Pals

While not often thought of as Topps cards, Bazooka issued an almost uninterrupted run of baseball sets from 1959-71, the vast majority of which were issued on the backs of boxes of their namesake bubble gum in panels of three.

I found a really nice scan of a proof sheet from 1963 in the depths of my hard drive this morning:



The Bazooka cards often featured better photography than their Topps brethren. Some years tend to look alike though but dem's da breaks!

You can see how the panels were stripped onto the boxes, from a scan is lifted from Clean Sweep Auctions:



If you click the picture, it will expand and you can see it held five All Time Great cards within:



That Babe is the more common gold version of the cards. There is also one referred to as silver:



Silver cards are harder to find but don't seem to tend toward the pink toning seen on the borders of the golds.

Locked in a battle with Fleer over the rights to various current ball players in 1963, Topps hit the boys from Philly right in the labonza with the insert set as Fleer had issued cards of old timers over the previous three years. There are 41 All Time Greats in the insert set.

There are 36 current players in the '63 Bazooka set, a total that was fairly consistent over the years the cards were printed. Panels are very collectible today and display nicely but there is far less interest in these cards than in the mainstream sets issued by Topps.