Are You Ready For Some Football Salesmen Samples?

I realize that Baseball Salesmen Samples get most of the attention whe it comes to such things but Topps issued these little teasers for most, it not all, of their standard card sets through 1967 or so and the 1963 and '64 Football samples below are one such example:

Pretty sweet, right?  The proportions on these "three-strips" always seem just right to me, probably due to some extension of the "golden ratio" or some similar type of aesthetically pleasing combination of length and width:

The reverse is quite wonderful:

That "special feature" may have been fun to rub off as a kid but it certainly bedevils modern day collectors!

Sometimes samples got cut up, probably by a wholesaler's or retailer's kid:

Still nice but I really prefer my strips unsullied.

1964 brought this; I have to say I'm not a fan of this design as I want to cut along the stars, which resemble dotted lines to me:

1964 was an AFL only affair for Topps, a big leap of faitth in a way but I'm betting the contractual rights were cheap.  I like the back better than the front:

Too bad these ended prior to 1969-the first series Football cards from that season would have looked stupendous given their full bleed borders-this uncut sheet certainly gives you an idea though:

It still pains me that Topps added white borders to the second series and it seems like a real head-scratcher. Ah well.......

Album Of The Year

Well kids, the fall BST Auctions, run by Friends o'the Archive John Spano and Andy Becker has concluded,and what a memorable one it was, but before I kick things into gear, make sure to check out the end of this post for some information on an exciting new website (not mine) that a lot of you will enjoy.  Now then...football's the main but non-exclusive name of the game and one of the items in the mix this time around really caught my eye, namely the internal file book of the 1964 Topps Football set.

These books have been seen before. Compiled by Woody Gelman and his staff, they were the official corporate record of the various card sets and packaging issued each year and it pains me to see when they get broken up for auction.  Happily though, this fate has not yet befallen this book!

Imaging what the file room must have looked like at Bush Terminal, with sagging shelves full of albums similar to this one:

While these generally did not memorialize every variation they did contain a full set of cards, although a couple ended up disappearing from this one which is fairly common.  They all pretty much look like this:

This binder contained a sell sheet example as a nice bonus:

Now that is a nice piece but the real prizes here are the box and wrapper of the one cent wax variety. The catalog description states the one cent box has not been seen but at least two packs have been graded by PSA so it may just be it's super rare.  REA had this offering last year:

Another went in Mile High a couple of weeks ago to boot. I think the one cent packs are indeed quite rare but they do seem to have been issued.  Either way, it's a tough pack and among the last of the Topps "pennies".

Here's what Topps had in the binder:

Looks like the art was ready to go just as summer arrived! I believe that is Woody Gelman's red crayon or grease pencil in action on those pages.

This little exercise also got me thinking about the last "normal" Topps set to be issued in penny packs.  I know 1965 Baseball was sold in one cent packs and when I checked John Neuner's Non-Sports wrapper guide against my own master list, I couldn't find any penny packs on the non-sports side in '65.  So unless someone out there can turn up evidence to the contrary, the 1965 Baseball penny packs are the last of this breed.

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On a semi-unrelated note, but speaking of things that enclosed other Topps things, collector Mike White has launched what I believe to be a hobby first, namely a website devoted to Topps shipping cases.  Mike has posted about these on a couple of hobby forums in the past and count me among the folks who are amazed many of  these behemoths have survived over the years.  Give a click here to see. I wish Mike well in his efforts.