SSI*

No, not Supplemental Security Income but rather a Sound Selling Idea for the typical retail shop owner circa 1950.  I've covered the Topps Premium Certificates here before and now I have a nice catalog to show what was available to Joe Shopowner.

I suspect this was a 1949 publication as it came with a bunch of Certificates that expired in 1950.  It's an 8 page accordion style flyer, although I have gone with a four page presentation here.

Can you say "whitebread?!"  The eagle eyed among you will note the presence of the original Bazooka Joe on the left front corner of the box:

You would have to sell a lot of Topps product to obtain a toaster and there were so many products available not all could be illustrated:

 2,155 half certificates for a type-writer?!

With one half certificate per box, and say 24 boxes per case, you would need to sell 180 cartons of  Topps products to get the typewriter-yikes!

Considering how extensive the retailer certificate program was and how thin profit margins often were, it's amazing Topps was able to make any money but indeed they did.

Proto-Typical

Now that I've finished off my book and before I embark on my next major project, I've been mining my hard drive for images of interesting and oddball items that I saved a while back and never really got around to showing.  I also like to show some Bowman images every once in a while and today's subject qualifies in spades.

In 2009, Robert Edward Auctions listed a 3 card grouping of what they termed 1952 Bowman prototypes. These were black and white photographs of subjects that appeared in the 1952 Bowman Baseball set. The two on either end are the same size as the 52 Bowmans, the middle one of Bobby Thomson has dimensions that match the larger 1953 cards.  As you can see Alvin Dark's issued card in '52 differs in projection from the prototype and the Harry Brecheen photo was not based upon his 1952 card.  Thomson's projection is also slightly different and looks like someone retouched his face a bit for the prototype.

There are notations on the Thomson back that reference 1952 and it's worth noting he did not appear in the 1953 Bowman set so these certainly seem to be bridging the gap between sizes.  The prototypes were from the George Moll estate (Moll being head of their ad agency).

Display Case

On of the neater Topps Gum pieces I have ever seen came across my radar recently, namely a bakelite counter display which held columns of Topps gum:

A small circular piece is missing at the right top (and possibly two are gone from the bottom) but it looks in fine shape otherwise. The gum tabs are described as the 1946 versions so the display looks to be a post-World War 2 piece.  Topps had patented a similar wooden display case about five years earlier so I guess this was the natural progression.

Can you spot the lone gum tab that is not Peppermint or Spearmint?

The Modern Hobby Guide Can Now Be Ordered Online

The print on demand version is now available from lulu.com.  You can click the link below or off to the right in the Link list.  The books are printed and shipped by lulu; I do not handle them at all. Thanks for your interest!

ORDER HERE

Building Capitol

One of the many things I discovered while doing research for The Modern Hobby Guide was that the 1948-49 Topps Golden Coin set was issued with, in addition to a coin for each president through Harry Truman, one depicting the U.S. Capitol. Thanks to (who else) BFF O'the Archive Jeff Shepherd, who sent me one, I can now show what this coin looked like, although there is a twist:

The front is quite well rendered, just like the Presidents but the back has a surprise or two:

Firstly, there is a typo as the coin reads "Restored for use or Congress in 1817" when the "or"should be an "of" but the bigger surprise is the Osborne Register company indicia at the bottom (under "Washington").  So far as I am aware, the Osborne Register company information was not on any of the President coins in 1948 but instead was added in 1953 when the board game Meet The Presidents was issued. That game was originally a Topps for Toys product in 1949 but a Selchow & Righter property in 1953. 

What this does is make me wonder if there was also a 1952 release of Golden Coin.  Such a thing seems possible to me for two reasons:

1) The "2 Coins in Every Pack" kicker stapled to the front of some 1948-49 style boxes:

Topps experienced returns of Golden Coin in 1949 so this could have been a way to move the product four years later, when the next election was occurring.

2) A variant Harry Truman coin, without or with glasses.  Jeff S. confirms the no glasses version came along with a folder album while the coins with glasses came from the 1949 Topps for Toys Meet The Presidents game. 

 

I own a folder album as well and my Truman also is sans glasses and has no Osborne indicia:

It would seem then that the Truman with glasses was an update.

And what of the "bright border' coins found in cello overwraps that are in a slightly different style than the 48's, although I am not sure these are confirmed as a Topps product.  I am still trying to cipher these.

One thing's for sure, Golden Coin is one tricky issue (or three) to get a grip on!

Black And White Alright

A couple of posts ago I dissected a 1965 Topps Halloween catalog, which was chock full of vintage goodies, mostly Bazooka related.  Today I have a 1967 Halloween Catalog, which looks like a partial and is in black and white but it's OK because there is a BIG surprise within.

This is identified as page 1 but I'm not so sure about that:

Keep an eye on those Fun Packs....

Next up are some boxes of Bazooka:

That sure is an interesting box of goodies at the upper right.....

100 cards, half of which look like 1967 baseball and the other half 1966 Batman's (Riddler Backs and one of the illustrated sets), both likely in cello wrapping.  It's quite interesting they were already selling off their overstock on the current year's baseball cards at a time when the high numbers were still being sold at retail.

I have never seen one of these in the wild; it would be a sight to behold if one surfaces, wouldn't it?!

'68 = Great

Fresh in from the wilds of the 'bay is this neat Card Collectors Company catalog dated January 15, 1968 (their 20th!), clocking in at a fairly hefty ten pages.  Before the internet and before or just around the birth of the modern card show, Card Collectors Co enticed collectors with mail order goodness. So let's take a peek, realizing that there will be some repetition with their 1965 catalog shown here recently.

 Red and Blue Backs but no sets of the Reds? The last reference is to a Reds Team Card. Odd that there were only Blue Back sets though.  And a complete run of '52 highs for $90?  Sold!  An just an eight cent difference twixt the low and high numbers in 1953.  1954 lows (#1-50)were two cents less than the rest of the 54's.  No surprises in 1955 but those Baseball Buttons look like a steal at five for a quarter, even if Woody got to pick them himself.

Here's an expected development-nos. 265 to 352 are described as "extremely scarce."  In 1958 the four cards pulled to make way for extra prints of the Stan Musial and Mickey Mantle All Star cards (nos. 443, 446, 450 and 462) carry a premium of nineteen cents compared to six cents for a common.  1959 and '60 are ho-hum and there is barely a premium for 1961 highs, which are pretty tough. No premium at all for highs from 1962-66.

1967 brings no hint of the short print mania that was to come and Bazooka cards seem to be a mix of panels and singles.  Of interest are the 1967 Red Sox and Pirates Stickers, sold as a combined set of 66 for $2.95 plus P&H.  Those are described as "Very scarce!" And for a mere $1.50 you could have a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie all to yourself!  The Black & White 53's go for ten cents more then the Color cards and there is no 1954 Bowman Ted Williams

Page four is a real hodgepodge and you will note only the first series of 1960 Leaf cards are available, both could be had three years earlier.

Football?  You bet!  They get the year wrong but there are some 1951 Magic Football singles and 1952 Bowman Large cards are cheaper than the small ones (were it so today)!  Bowman Football sets are either early (1948 and 1950) or late (1955). I suspect the smaller, earlier cards were not as popular and we all know what happened in 1955 and Bowman may have been left with a lot of unsold gridiron product as a result. We also get Hockey cards from 1955 (the 1954-55 set) which seemingly confirms some of these were sold in the U.S.  Parkies, CFL and T206 cards could be purchased for nominal prices along with an adjustable baseball ring!

Larger cards abound on page 6 but supplies of 1959 Bazooka Baseball are dwindling so you better act fast!

Can you imagine buying up all those old scorecards?  Yowsers!

The Pot Luck page shows supplies of certain issues that were abundant three years earlier were running out, although some of the sets featured could still be bought fully formed two pages hence.

I believe that would be the hardcover version of the 1960 American Card Catalog available for $4.25 but there was a paperback reprint made in 1967 that surprisingly is not for sale.  Those Topps Trading Card Guild Albums for sixty cents apiece seem like a good deal as well.

And so we come to the end.  I guess if you didn't have at least 75 cents you were out of luck....