Truer North

Bonjour et nous saluons le retour!  Today we continue our foray into the nether realms of 1960's Topps and O-Pee-Chee Hockey, moving on to 1962-63, a year which, to me, marks the beginning of Hockey cards being true Canadian products and began the linking years leading to the massive explosion in hockey cards that occurred in 1968-69.

A bit of blue for '62:

Check out this 1962-63 wrapper, which I had to nick from the first edition of the Vintage Hockey Collector Price Guide, which not only has a nice ad for Bozo gumballs, but is also a very French information/ingredient panel. The wax wrapper for this year is a tough one, while cello packs were possibly distributed (without the Hockey Bucks, which might explain that insert's relative scarcity); perhaps Quebec got the wax and the rest of of the country got the cello (if they were even issued)? Everything was clearly Canadian at this point:

In their last year of competition with Parkhurst things went horizontal for 1963-64:

Wrapper-wise, this guy looks a little goofy, doesn't he?

All Canadian again, even the Bazooka ad!

With no competition for 1964-65, all six NHL teams joined the party and Topps stretched their cards:

The tallboys would see daylight again for the 1965 Football release but they don't seem to have weathered the production process well and the experiment would be shut down until the 1969 Basketball set was released.

The O-Pee-Chee indicia was beginning to normalize though:

I like the Giant Size moniker, a nod to the 1952-56 issues from Topps.  It's interesting to note there are 5 cent and unpriced wrapper variants for this year and the next. Once again I wonder if they bifurcated them between Quebec and R.O.C. (Rest of Canada). I had to snag that wrapper scan from a cool website, whose name and link I promptly lost! If it's yours, ping me and I'll add the link.

Lots of pucks came at you in 1965-66.  This is one of the better 60's Hockey designs I feel:

As mentioned above, there were priced and unpriced variant wrappers this season. Here in an unpriced version I once again had to snag from Bobby Burrell's Vintage Hockey Collector Price Guide. Bobby, by the way, is not sure that there was a Quebec specific wrapper at all so more research is needed:

Dig that premium offer!  Unlike in the US, where Topps used third parties to process premiums, O-Pee-Chee fulfilled the orders for the pucks directly. And isn't "rondelle" a much nicer name than "puck"? That is a tough wrapper; it's thought the set was mostly sold in cello packs (once again, if they actually exist) and vending.

The 1966-67 release would give us woodies and an odd way of showing each player's stats:

This year is a doozy as there is a '67 notation added to some wrappers.  Why?  I'm not really sure.

But wait, there's more!! Topps also released a test version of the set this year in the US.  In a very Bowman-esque move the wood grain was lighter than on the Canadian release while in a very Topps-esque move they retained the anglicized spelling for "Center" ("Defence" would also remain):

Since they changed the backs you would think they would also change the fronts!  Bizarre...

Topps also changed the wrapper for the US release: (which I once again nabbed from VHC): 

If you think that looks extra crinkly, you're right-it's a cello wrapper.  And dig that 1967 commodity number (a.k.a. product code), its product number (the second batch of numbers) is just one behind 1967 Football!  The USA set is thought by Mr. Burrell to have come out well into 1967, possibly even as late as October. In addition, he thinks it's a bit less testy than most test issues of the era. It may have been more of a limited release, as the pop on the Orr rookie is pretty high for a true test (around 80 graded by PSA right now) and a few collectors recall buying some packs off ice cream trucks in California.

That is one rare wrapper kids-one known! It's certainly possible both the cards and wrapper material were both being tested. The Topps/O-Pee-Chee split information is also a sign of how Topps was printing wrappers by then.  It was easier to put all the information on both the US and Canadian wrappers instead of dividing them up by country of distribution and you see this on all kinds of issues going forward. I don't think these were issued in Canada but you never know....

The end of this era looked like this for 1967-68; I can't say I'm a fan of this design:

Topps barely redesigned the reverse from the prior season.  Cheapskates!

We'll end it today with the last of the Topps/O-Pee-Chee wrappers. After the 1967-68 season Topps would issue their own set in the US while O-Pee-Chee did the same, usually in a more expanded edition, in Canada.  No more wrapper variants for the final year of Topps-only, just this:

Notice how it took another nickel to get the hockey puck premium this year! That's another blatant grab by me from VHC-that wrapper is scarce yo!

If you are curious why I am hedging my bets on cello packs being issued in  Canada, Bobby Burrell is not 100% convinced they are all legitimate.  So the jury is out until it can be shown there were promotional materials or retail boxes made for these products.

More hockey coming your way, stay tuned........

Up North (Or Not)

Pretty much any collector of vintage cards is familiar with the Canadian firm O-Pee-Chee, which was founded as a confectioner in 1911 and started issuing, or distributing under license, various sports and non-sports cards in the 1930's, including several classic baseball and hockey sets and even a glass gun in the very early days prior to that. I'm not sure if the prewar issues they licensed were done so out of economic necessity or due to Canadian packaging laws of the era but after the end of World War 2 O-Pee-Chee went dark for a while on the trading card front, relying upon their confectionery line to sustain them.

Topps meanwhile, started selling Bazooka in Canada around 1948 and, at a minimum, Tatoo gum as well.  They also were selling their bulk gumballs, known as Bozo, in Canada and may have made that product Canadian only for a decade or so to boot.  Meanwhile, after watching Parkhurst issue a popular string of hockey cards up North, Topps launched their Hockey card line in 1954-55 before shutting it down after what were probably fairly dismal sales.  Topps only had the four US NHL teams for their inaugural issue while Parkhurst had all six. It's thought by hockey card guru Bobby Burrell that this set was imported into Canada and did not see sales in the United States, although the Bazooka prize and premium inserts that came in the pack have a Brooklyn mailing address so it's up in the air I guess.  The set was definitely printed in the US and imported.  In addition to the indicia on the cards and wrapper, I have read about an accident involving a shipment of these from Detroit (O-Pee-Chee HQ was in London, Ontario about 100 miles northeast of Motor City) but can't locate that article now but do recall a number of cards were destroyed. I would put this set in the top five of all Topps card designs by the way:

Topps bailed on the 1955-56 season and then it seems like a license problem (meddling by Topps?) prevented Parkhurst from putting out a set in 1956-57 . Topps also missed 1956-57 as did Parkhurst but both companies came back strong in 1957-58 with sets; Parkhurst now only featured the two Canadian teams while Topps had the four US entries.  This truncating of the Parkhurst issue strongly suggests to me that Topps managed to cause enough havoc with the NHL, or the individual teams, to prevent anything coming out for the 1956-57 season.  It's thought that Topps issued their cards near the beginning of the season and then Parkhurst issued theirs after the New Year, a pattern that would seemingly continue as long as the two firms competed with each other.

This 2/4 split of teams would continue until 1960-61, when Parkhurst managed to snag the Detroit Red Wings for their set, likely meaning that each team was able to negotiate their own licensing deals at the time. 3/3 would be the pattern until Parkhurst gave up issuing cards after their 1963-64 issue.

Now back to 1957-58, where the cards are definitely from the lower 48 but also have been French-i-fied:

Every source I've seen indicates the Topps and O-Pee-Chee licencing arrangements commenced in 1958 across multiple product lines and that year is cited as the year the cards started being printed in Canada. But looky here:

What exactly was made where? There are two manufacturers and two countries of manufacture listed, with no breakdown of what was done where. The cards were made in the USA, but was the wrapper or gum?  How can you tell?!

Following this, for the 1958-59 season, as Topps seems to have determined their business model in Canada would be a lot more sustainable if a Canadian firm actually handled the manufacture and distribution of their products. There is a cohesive body of thought in the hobby that for the next decade O-Pee-Chee made all their Hockey sets from Topps production materials starting with this season but it's not quite as simple as that as once again the cards were from the U.S.:

The ultra scarce 1958-59 wrapper is at odds with the cards, noting everything was made, distributed and printed in Canada under License with Topps.

Interesting that the Bazooka ad is American and Canadian-oriented at the same time!

1959-60? More of the same:

Bobby Burrell was kind enough to forward a scan of the almost impossible 1959-60 wrapper; it's virtually the same as the prior year, just with the primary graphic color being yellow.  The indicia remained the same though but dig those felt initials, a Topps premium mainstay since the 1940's:

For 1960-61 though, it's a different story entirely. The cards are still American made:

While both Topps and O-Pee-Chee information is on the wrapper; as you can see there is a bit of a conflict:

As with the 1957-58 issue, I'm going to take the last "Printed In U.S.A" as referring to the wrapper, although that could be incorrect as the mailing address for the premium album (which we have seen here) is in Ontario- not to mention the cards once again stating they were printed in the USA!

                                                                                                                                                                    

Beginning in 1961-62 the cards themselves started displaying Canadian indicia, although Topps (T.C.G.) was still shown as the manufacturer; it would seem they truly began sharing production materials with OPC at this juncture. This is the only Hockey set that mentions lithography by the way:

The 1961-62 wrapper added a twist-English and French, snug as bugs in a rug:

Basically I am of the opinion that the sets were more Topps than O-Pee-Chee until this year, and then more O-Pee-Chee than Topps accordingly going forward.  Clearly the Canadian production of all materials and confections associated with the Hockey sets commenced in 1961-62.

Stay tuned, we'll look at most of the rest of the 60's tout suite, next time out.

A Tale Of Two Banquets

Over the course of this decade, as my collecting interests have moved more and more toward Topps Chewing Gum, the company (as compared to the cards they sold) I've accumulated a few old PR photos of various events, many of which have appeared on this blog over the years.  Two of my favorites are from the Topps All Star Rookie banquets, which were held from 1959-66 (and thereafter renamed the Baseball Achievement Awards, which continue on to this day).

The first picture has a mysterious element to it as I cannot identify two of the dais-sitters nor the year of the event:

Tilting rightward from the lectern, we have a waiter laying out rolls (the butter is already on the table), Sy Berger of course, then a gentleman who looks familiar to me but I can't identify, Shag Shaughnessy, Joe Garagiola (the ever-present MC for these events), and finally another unidentified man.  The banner behind the dais portrays a generic All Star Rookie Trophy and reads:

TOPPS

All Star Rookie

Young America's Favorite

As we can see here, the players name, team, position and year would be engraved as well, thanks to an offering from Lelands awhile back:

I'm not certain there was always such a large wood component in all years and have to confess I never realized the ballplayer icon stands atop well, a top hat!

Friend o'the Archive Keith Olbermann thinks the dating would be no later than 1962 based upon how Joe Garagiola looks. I can state it's not from 1966 as the setting was different for that luncheon, namely the Hotel Americana in NYC:

That dais has no mysterious element at all, except maybe what kind of cheese was being served. Even if it wasn't obvious to me who was who, the back is helpfully captioned:

It's also not the 1960 Banquet.  As Mr. Olbermann helpfully pointed out, the 1961 program has some photos of the 1960 event, which was held at the Hotel Manhattan. Here Joel Shorin is presenting MC Joe Garagiola with an oversized 1960 Topps card they created especially for the occasion:

Below,  Shag Shaugnessy is presenting a trophy to pitcher Al Cicotte, who was the Topps Rookie Player of the Year for 1960. Cicotte went on to have a mediocre major league career and his biggest claim to fame turned out to be his lineage: he was the grand nephew of Black Sox pitched Ed Cicotte. Shag was an integral part of the selection committee and retired as President of the International League in 1960.  Did you know he's a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame?

Here's the 1960 All Star Rookie selections:

I can also state it's not the 1963 Banquet, which had a different banner (Fifth Annual). It's also not from 1959 despite there being no mention of the annual progression on the banner but maybe they did not show it each year. The 1959 luncheon was held at the Hotel Manhattan.

So we have a checklist of sorts for the annual luncheon honoring the All Star Rookies (and now updated thanks to our comments section):

1959 Hotel Manhattan

1960 Hotel Manhattan

1961 Waldorf-Astoria 

1962 Waldorf-Astoria 

1963 Waldorf-Astoria 

1964 Waldorf-Astoria 

1965 ????

1966 Hotel Americana

If anyone has thoughts on the first picture's mystery subjects and can confirm the year of the event, I'm all ears!

Secondary To None

You think you've seen it all when it come to strange Topps offerings, right?  From gubernatorial candidates to baseball commissioners to little kids who won a contest, over the years Topps has put out some strange ones.  While it's nothing now for them to reel off a single subject printing (same day even) or a small set designed for a specific purpose such as the 1964 Rookie Banquet, before the dawn of digital photography and graphics software it used to take a lot of design and production work to do so. Yet they constantly did this right into the modern digital age.

In 1989 Topps made what is known in the financial world as a secondary offering of their stock. What that means is either an existing public company issued more shares of stock to raise additional capital or that current shareholders offered for sale, as a group, some of their existing shares.

The first Topps stock sale was, obviously, when they went public:

(Courtesy http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/)

It's involved but Topps Chewing Gum redeemed all of its outstanding preferred stock (3,150 Series A shares and 4,157 B shares) on April 27, 1972, which represented the shares that were privately and primarily held by directors of the Company (mostly the Shorin family). The next day they did a 380-for-1 stock split of their common stock, ownership of which was still held within the company. Five million shares of common stock were priced at 10 cents a share a then retroactively applied back to February 28, 1971.

On March 3, 1973 100,000 shares of common stock were reserved for future stock options to be granted by the company. This was done to align with the Topps fiscal year from what I can make out. Eventually 60,000 shares of common stock were offered in an IPO on June 15, 1972. I would call Topps Chewing Gum a closely held public company as of that date.

You can see that Joel Shorin signed (or had his signature reproduced) as President and Louis Walker did the same as Treasurer, Agent and Registrar. Manufacturers Hanover Trust, the Shorin's longtime bank dating back to the founding of the American Leaf Tobacco Company in 1908, was the transfer agent, meaning they handled all stock transactions. Here's Louis now, standing in front of an ancient data storage system that could probably fit on my cell phone with room to spare:

Also of interest is the corporate seal:

Those of you who have been reading this blog or my book know that Topps was founded in 1938, incorporated briefly and then unincorporated around the start of World War 2, likely to avoid public scrutiny of their plans to buy up struggling candy companies due to looming sugar quotas. They then reincorporated following the death of their patriarch Morris Shorin in 1947.

Topps went private again in 1984 in a Leveraged Buy Out and subsequently reincorporated in Delaware. By 1987, wanting to take advantage of the roaring bull market, they went public again, only to watch the stock market come crashing down in October of that year. I lose the thread a bit after that but in 1989, with Upper Deck joining a host of competitors, Topps made a secondary offering of common stock. 2.5 million shares were underwritten by Alex. Brown & Sons and to commemorate this event, Topps created a set of cards featuring the financial gurus who put the deal together. Thanks to the recently concluded REA auction, we can take a look at these cards, featuring the ABS team:

There are some really ill-fitting caps in some shots-yikes! I do like how they kept the 1989 Baseball design intact though. And I doubt you could use full MLB uniforms on such cards today but it was a simpler time back then.

The backs give a little biographical detail for each subject:

Here's one that caught my eye, sorry it's a little blurry:

I have to say "Mouthpiece" is a pretty awesome nickname!  My enthusiasm though, was dampened considerably upon reading that Mr. Greer's hobbies are "Investment Banking and other games of chance."  Dude.......

I actually own a share of Topps stock, although it's long since been rendered worthless as the issue was redeemed some time ago.  I think these were issued with collectors in mind given the par value but can't quite recall. 1994 seems to be the year of issuance:

Arthur Shorin was Chairman at the time. Nice to see the Shorin's kept their historical banking institution in the mix (Chemical Bank merged with Manufacturers Hanover in 1991).

A long overdue tip o' the cap to Dale Beaumont for arranging that I get that share!