Membership Has Its Privileges

Back at it kids, with more peeks at Topps Sports Club news today!

The cover of Issue #3 had confused me when I first encountered it as I wasn't sure if there was, in addition to the Bobby Clarke 8x10, one of Dave DeDusschere.  Now that I have the full issue in hand, thanks to Friend o'the Archive David Eskenazi, I can see why I was confused as it took some time for me to grok that only the Guest Columnist (who most certainly did not pen the words of wisdom in each issue) got the photo insert honors.  Double D was so prominently featured that I thought he might have a glossy as well but I was, after a full review of the issue, quite shockingly, wrong.  Anyhoo, here we go.

The aforementioned page 1:

DeBusschere was interviewed by Herb Goren, who was a big name sportswriter and, having been the PR Director for the New York Rangers seems a likely candidate to have penned the Clarke piece.  In fact, given his CV, he may have ghosted all of the guest columns.

Page 2 is for continuity:

Page 3 is where the fun begins. The Pen Pals are long moved away folks...

More fun happens on page 4. Love the book reviews, I read all of them back in the day except the Modern Encyclopedia of Basketball:

More continuity takes up most of page 5 as did the Collectors' Corner:

Many familiar names are listed in the effort to put kids in touch with various collectors clubs around the country, which details I have to imagine were provided by Woody Gelman. Some noteworthy names were proffered: Jim Nowell organized what was essentially the first baseball card convention and Richard Egan wrote a very early E card guide that was a masterwork of organization in the pre-Internet days.  John Stirling also published a price guide in 1977 that was the best one yet.

An old vaudeville joke made an appearance in "Hot Dog" on the sixth and final page:

This came with two inserts I think.  The Clarke 8x10 was of course in there:

It's paper but really well done.  In fact, the entire package was unfailingly professional is every aspect and that expense probably helped doom the club.  But before that happened in 1976, Topps reached out to their subscribers to pump the membership numbers:

I have no idea who Darrell West was. I assume it's just a made up name as the newsletter would seem, to me at least, to have been an outside production with specific input from Topps. I will say that the $2.50 for three issue was money well spent given the preview cards and extras included with each mailing but it may have been too much for the average pre-teen back then.

The flip side tries the old soft sell:

I'm sorry but if it took you hours to get through a typical issue, even with all the games and quizzes, you probably were not the brightest bulb in the package!  The premium offers were mostly well beyond the typical fare offered by the Bazooka Joe comics:

We've visited the vinyl Sports Card Locker, or something very close to it, before, so that was already a known quantity to loyal Topps consumers. The athletic shoes and the kicking toe were not typical fare though:

1976 kicked off with a baseball issue, of course:

Joe Garagiola had a long association with Topps, going back to at least 1959 and was the MC for the annual Rookie Banquets.

Page 2 is, once again, devoted to continuity:

Embiggen the crossword clues here as the puzzle can still be worked on!

Pen pals galore, as the card collecting hobby was really taking off in 1976:

Did Topps make an unforced error on page 5 with the Collector's Corner presenting a repeat Q&A about the 1974 Washington National League cards?  It had already been asked and answered in the very first issue! I do like how they steered collectors to the two largest buyers of aftermarket cards from Topps: Card Collectors Company and Larry Fritsch.

Too bad that picture of Garagiola and Johnny Bench never made it into the 1976 set, although the Kurt Bevacqua contest winner card is a classic.

Here is the rest of the crossword clues and puzzle:

The Joe Morgan 8x10 was another winner:

Finally, we know at least one more issue was produced as a Lynn Swann photo extra is in my collection, I just need the newsletter!

How Ya Doin' Sport?

Friend o'the Archive David Eskenazi has been sending me all sorts of goodies over the past several months and the barrage continues with two editions of the Topps Sports Club News plus a neat little extra that rode along.  In addition to being cool little items in their own right, these newly arrived issues have me re-thinking a few things.

Newly arrived are Vol. 1 No. 1 and Vol. 1 No 3, which have been added to my personal collection.  The first issue was a four-pager, quite well produced.

The "Guest Columnist" (possibly ghosted by Herb Goren, based upon content in later issues) was also the subject of the 8" x 10" glossy paper insert in each issue.  Steve Garvey was the first after his 1974 NL MVP win and this was what each member of the club got inside the newsletter:

The 1975 Baseball card preview was fairly in-depth:

There were other features, including a trivia quiz.  Try it without googling!

Then some card talk and a preview of the next issue (plus the quiz answers) :

Here's some better detail for the Topps Answer Man column:

I am going to call shenanigans on the answer to #3! Color for the 1951 Baseball Candy issues? C'mon Topps!

Below that were the teasers for the next two issues:

The previews were what made the Sports Club an enticing deal.  I don't actually have any of these superb extras except for the 8x10's from the next three issues.  Given what was sent by Topps, it's no wonder the goodies are AWOL.

I posted most of the contents of the second issue previously, leaving out two pages (of 6 total) which are missing from my copy.  So it goes....

We'll get into the third and fourth issues next time out! 

Sporting Life

A trio of lots in the recently concluded Love of the Game Fall Premier Auction opened a window into the past and yielded some unexpected surprises (is there any other kind?) related to Topps Sports Club. The Club and its newsletter has been covered here before but LOTG has unearthed "kits" for each of the three major sports seasons (baseball, football and a combined hockey/basketball) that show how much value Topps put into this marketing effort.

The baseball themed TSC entry in 1975 led off what was, I believe, a five issue run.  Check out what came in the envelope (not shown but included with this and the other lots I am examining here:

This is actually the least interesting of the three offered kits for reasons that will soon be apparent.  The certificate is pretty standard fare although it looks like the included flyer has upped the premium ante beyond what was found on your typical Bazooka Joe comic.  The newsletter is fabulous although I've looked at it more comprehensively in the past and dig that (paper) Steve Garvey photo! But the team checklist sheet is a stunner.  It was available through other offers I believe but it does make sense Topps would include it herein as the ad for the Club on their wax wrappers does state "sample cards" would be provided.

The football edition though, ups the sample ante considerably:

Topps Sports Club newsletter? Check!

Awesome Bob Griese photo? Check!  It's the first in the Sports Club "friends" style as well, the Garvey was not stylized at all.

Awesome team checklist sheet? Check!

Premium offers galore? Check!

Sample 1975 Football cards printed on thinner stock?  Check!  Wait, what......Yes, the auction description describes these as being on "slightly thin" stock!  I have to confess, that is something I have not seen described before. That should open a big can of worms!

Hockey and basketball had to settle for a combo mailing:

Those basketball checklist cards are tough-harder than the baseball and football ones from what I have seen although all but baseball are difficult. No hockey checklists though, and I wonder why as it looks like Topps was getting some help defraying costs from The Hockey News. It's also a bit odd to see the baseball samples (again on thin stock) here so late in the year, maybe they were with the baseball kit and got mixed in here?  I like the cover letter and while I didn't bid on this lot, would like to see what it says someday. Bobby Clarke looks like he's contemplating a penalty, no?

Three issues comprised Volume 1, Volume 2 would see baseball and football editions with photos of Joe Morgan and Lynn Swann respectively.  The whole thing then went belly up near as I can tell.  Were there thin stock samples provided in '76?  I do not know but would love to find out.

 

Greetings

Hot on the heels of my last post on the Topps Sports Club News 8" x 10" premium photos, the irrepressible Howard Schenker has sent along a scan of the Bobby Clarke photo:

You can see that the inscription is similar to the one on the Griese photo.  Now that is what I expected but when I went back to look at the Garvey photo at 1978, The Year It All Began,  it was lacking the inscription: and is "signed" in white ink, not black.  Gadzooks!

There is also a tagline I cannot make out in the lower right corner.  [Update 11/4/11: Howard Schenker comes through again-the tagline says Full-Color Print,Inc. (212 947-1060)]. The photos would come as part of a "kit" for each sport, something that will be looked at in a bit more detail once some more scans and recollections come in (and following a short break while me and Mrs. Archives visit the home of the National Archives this week).

I do want to try and find scans of the Joe Morgan and Dave DeBusschere photos; I am inferring their existence from other sites (that's why I stated "I think" in relation to the checklist) and would like to see the visual evidence of their existence. 

All The News

Topps launched a very high profile collectors club in 1975, although it is not too well known today.  Dubbed the Topps Sports Club, a coordinated effort across all four sports brands was launched, with wrapper side panels ads enticing kids to join. The ads were similar on each sports' wrapper:

The hockey panel is from the well-illustrated Vintage Hockey Collector Price Guide. The panel looks like it was identical on all four wrappers and it also came on the Mini Baseball pack as well.  $2.50 would get you in:

For the record, the mailing address was a loud shout from my childhood home. There was also at least one print ad, probably in Boy's Life magazine:

That is from the Project Baseball 1976 site by the way.  The newsletter that came with membership started off at 6 pages and then was winnowed down to four (UPDATE 4/18/24: The first issue was four pages, the second one had six).  I only have the second issue, which features 1975 Football:

As a bonus you got an 8" x 10" color photo of a popular superstar tucked away inside:

Griese is printed on very glossy, thin paper stock.  Other photos in the set seem to include Joe Morgan and Steve Garvey, Bobby Clarke and (possibly) Dave DeBusschere.  There could be more.  The Garvey and a little more backstory can be found here.

The project seems to have died out pretty quickly; I suspect the price was a little too steep for the times.