Back In Black

Pursuant to our last installment, the missing Star Wars presentation board reappeared on my radar and I thought it had enough going for it, I could devote a full, if short post to it as we clean up following our "March Hurricane" here at the main Topps Archives Research Complex.

The missing board (missing because it did not have "Topps" in the title description on Ebay and I couldn't find it again until a helpful reader pointed me in the right direction) again being auctioned by BMW Sportscards actually was for a packaging concept for the sequel to everybody's favorite space western. The Empire Strikes Back was also a massive success at the box office and on the candy store shelves.

As you can see, Topps was using 4th series Star Wars cards for their internal presentation, with some TESF elements involved plus a marketing prototype:



I'm not sure if the collector's file ever came to fruition as my mind starts glazing over once we get into late 70's Topps products but it sure is a colorful presentation. I wonder if the lack of a large, red penciled title for the board is indicative of it coming from somewhere other than the art department at Duryea. It's also different from the earlier boards shown here as the back is black:



Kinda reminds me of deep space, or a Spinal Tap album......

Catching Up on Coins and Cards

A couple of threads to update today kiddies, namely 1952 High Numbers and 1980 Baseball Coins, with a wide and wild detour back to Presentation Boards.

I have tabulated responses to my query on a few online forums that was cleverly titled "Where Did You Buy 1952 Topps Baseball High Numbers as a Kid?" The results were mostly supportive of my distribution theories but the sample size is way too small to cement anything except distribution may have been a little wider than I thought.

Confirmed purchases took place in a suburb of Toronto (nice to have that verified), Eastern Massachusetts (presumably Boston or environs), Elizabeth and Jersey City, New Jersey (both just across the North River from Manhattan), Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (a Phildadelphia suburb) and near the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. These were late summer/fall 1952 purchases from what I can gather. North Carolina is interesting as it is well past the MLB territory of the time and gets us into the true South.

Looking westward, substantive purchases (two full runs from packs) were made by Roger Neufeldt of Sports Memories (one of the nicest guys you will ever meet) and whom I believe lived in Oklahoma City at the time of purchase (1952). That's farther afield than I would have thought and may demonstrate the spotty distribution the highs had in '52. Stabbing further westward we have Los Angeles, seemingly much later in 1952 and Rialto, CA,a San Bernardino 'burb in 1953 at a Rexall drug store (they had thousands of stores nationwide at the time) which is a connection I want to explore further as it may have something to do with the distribution of the cards. Woolworth's was allso a big seller of Topps 1952 baseball but I am not sure about their relationship with the high numbers.

There were also numerous stories of people not being able to find them in their neighborhoods after being able to find semi-highs. I did not track (yet) where they could not be found however but do note one such place was Buffalo, New York which I had previously theorized may hot have gotten the highs in '52.

There are also recollections of people buying the cards in 1953 wrapper sbut getting fistfuls of 52's. This brings up three good points: 1) Every account I have read involves highs from '52 only being bought in nickel packs, so were they sold in penny packs that year? 2) Does this explain why there are dated and undated wrappers (penny and nickel variants exist for each year) from 1953-55? 3) Did Topps therefore consistently "reload" the previous year's high numbers in current packs during this time and if so, why?

Questions, questions....now we move to an answer, or at least an advice concerning the population of 1980 Topps Baseball Coins with reports of Carew in Bronze and Silver:

Carew Bronze 3
Garvey Bronze 1
Jackson Bronze 2 (plus one unconfirmed)
Carew Silver 1 (plus one unconfirmed)
Garvey Silver 2
Jackson Gold 3

All we need for a full player/metal Master Set is a Silver Jackson and Gold Carew and Garvey. Still no word on which ones have punch holes though.

Following the coins and their state of being, a few more presentation boards have shown upon Ebay. You may recall these were used for internal Topps "pitch" meetings and were most probably created by their Art Department. A few more details are known now (hooray) thanks to four pieces being auctioned by BMW Sportscards, alas one looks to have been sold and has disappeared but we have these still):



That's the 1966 Black Bat Batman Set, which shows how far back these go (which is around the time Topps moved facilities from Brooklyn to Duryea, PA). Here is the back of the board:



The numeral "1" makes a lot of sense as these would have been placed on large easels and handled manually, so an order of presentation would need to be established.

The next year a pitch was made for Crazy Comics:



These would become a scarce set called Krazy Little Comics, which looks to have been both tested and then on a very limited basis, perhaps due to threat of a lawsuit or two from the companies the little comic books were parodying. The back loses the border but retains the numeral "1":



We then jump ahead to 1977 and the set that sold and sold-Star Wars:



It's hard to tell here but the auction description indicates the C3PO sticker is original artwork-they painted his head over a 1976 Star Trek Sticker of Dr. McCoy!! We lose the numeral on the back for this one, so this may have been prepared for an initial review and not a full "pitch":



Sorry I missed out on grabbing a scan of the fourth board but ya snooze ya lose!

Oh, Canada! (Part Deux)

We're back, with a second installment of the Topps Canadian Football League issues. This time, we'll take a peek at the last four years of Topps branded cards.

1962 brought another black and white set but with a twist:



Yes, these cards were actually minis when separated-yikes! While the 1962 Topps US football cards do have a small b&w picture they in no way resemble these. Issued in a series of 169 small cards, some are repeated with different partners on the larger "panels". I cannot find a reference showing how many different panels exist but would think 132 is a possibility. The mystery should be solved soon though as a top notch CFL card price guide is about to be issued (that link will work by the end of March 2010 by the way but you can contact the author now for more information: amalycky@telusplanet.net ).

The reverses on the 62's are also radically different from the US cards:



After two straight black and white sets, 1963 brought a nice change of pace:



A nice clean, simple design with a large picture area always works wonders on a set of cards, although these are a bit austere compared to what was going on south of the border in '63, where Topps was starting to use some daring designs on their FB cards (we'll get to those eventually, no worries) although it would take them a couple of years to get fully revved up.

88 CFL cards were issued in 1963 , so we are seeing a decline in production and I have to believe that the cards were not selling all that briskly. Indeed the attendance at CFL games with their smaller stadiums in this era was less than that in the US by more than half on a per game basis and there are just not as many Canadians as there are Americans, so the numbers may not have been adding up too well for the bean counters.

The reverses in '63 were part of a growing trend where Topps put interactive backs on many sets:



Those closely mirror the US reverses and you needed some red cello paper to check the quiz answer.

1964 brought dramatic changes and a hint of daring design at last, in another 88 card set:



Bold colors! The reverse would see a major design element repeated in two years on the backs of some Batman cards (Go here if you were a fan of the Batman TV series --still the best show ever in my book-- from 1966-68; I promise it will be worth your time) and were completely different than the US backs:



Again, you needed a special decoder to reveal the answer. These full bleed backs, a CFL card staple, make things tough these days if you collect mint cards! I have to say "Nobby" is a great nickname....

Topps ended their first CFL run in 1965 with what I consider their nicest looking card from these eight years, although they in no way, shape or form resembled the 1965 US cards:



We have 88 cards again with a really well-designed obverse. The backs are also pretty nice:



and actually share some design elements with the 1964 Topps hockey cards and 1965 US football cards, which are both infamous "tallboy" sets.

Topps would return to Canadian Football in 1968 and haltingly issue CFL cards for a few more years through its O-Pee-Chee arm. We'll take a look at the OPC cards real soon but will be back with a post on the 1960's CFL inserts before then.

Oh, Canada! (Part Un)

No, this is not a hockey post! Today we turn our eyes to the sometimes Frozen North and start looking at an eight year run of Canadian Football League cards produced by Topps. It comes as a surprise to many folks that Topps produced CFL cards but starting in 1958, when the league was founded in a forging of powerful east and west factions that were themselves outgrowths of an even older Rugby league, they were there all the while to document the players.

Now, you may have your opinions about how 110 yard fields and 3 downs make it a different game (among other things) and I certainly have mine but CFL ball is pretty close to the brand played in the NFL and the CFL cards, at least initially, were also pretty close in appearance to their NFL counterparts.

The first set in 1958 numbered 88 cards and featured the 9 teams in the CFL sans the Montreal Alouettes. They are dead ringers for the US issued 58's but these were printed in Canada by O-Pee-Chee:



Since the CFL season starts about three months prior to the NFL's, the decision to make the cards look the same on both sides of the border must have been made in the winter of 1958. White background cards in each set have black information blocks while cards with different colors don't have this distinctive two-tone look. You can also see how the oval player photo led to the design of 1959 Topps baseball cards with their circular photo.

Disregarding all the French, the backs are similar to but not 100% identical with the NFL cards; they are cut from the same cloth so to speak:



I am going to run a series of posts on both design similarities across sets and year-to-year comparisons across countries over the spring, so hang tight!

The 1959 CFL cards (still 88 subjects) also shared a front design with the NFL cards and also had some design elements that were incorporated into the 1960 baseball series, especially in the lettering of the player's names:



Backs once again are very similar to but not quite a hundred percent match with the NFL cards and French and English co-exist.



The Grey Cup, mentioned in the cartoon above, predates the professional league that now plays for it, much like the Stanley Cup does in hockey. I really like the idea of the championship game being contested for possession of a trophy that the winning team gets to display and then literally protect and wonder why the US sports of baseball, football and basketball did not follow this lead considering the history of the America's Cup.

Things start diverging dramatically in 1960 as a horizontal format is used:



I quite like the b&w action background. Now, did this card combine some elements from the 1959 baseball (circular photo) and 1960 baseball cards (horizontal format)? Very possibly, says moi. Still, the set remained at 88 cards and the back, even allowing for the French, is very, very close to the NFL reverses:



We will end today's foray with the radically different '61 CFL obverse as the set adds 44 cards to leave 132 subjects displayed in glorious black & white:



Once again, the backs are pretty close to the 1961 NFL cards:



Meco's name really adds some Italian flair and almost makes this reverse trilingual!

Next time out we will see even more dramatic changes-stay tuned!

Coin Flip

My recent posts on the 1980 Topps Baseball Coins have generated the most interest of anything blogged about here since the 1966 Punchboards had their checklist inflated out of the blue a while back. I'm a little surprised at all the attention but these are pretty rare birds after all and we are not done with them quite yet as another surprise is in store.

Our story begins today with scans of the Reggie Jackson and Steve Garvey coins in their aboriginal state, namely on an internal Topps presentation "pitch" of a type seen previously, and clinches the fact for me that these were internally produced proofs for a set that never got the green light. This set is slowly revealing its secrets:



Shown are a front and reverse each of the gold Jackson and silver Garvey we saw here last time out, held on with double sided tape when purchased by our present lucky owner. This particular one predates the Scott Gaynor buyout of a former Topps sales rep earlier this century as it was purchased in 1995, at a flea market no less!

Back in 1980 you didn't use Powerpoint to make a a concept pitch to management, you had the Art Dept. create it for you, at least at Topps. The other metal (bronze) and player (Carew) known in this set probably also had their own board at some point, possibly shared with a bronze Jackson. Here are the back details of our two boys, first Reggie:



Then Steve:




The presently known population of the coins is small:

Carew Bronze 2
Garvey Bronze 1
Jackson Bronze 2
Garvey Silver 2
Jackson Gold 3

There is a credible report of a silver Carew and a possible third bronze Reggie. Some have a hole punched in the top, and I will post scans of these if I can get them. I am thinking there have to be at least two of each coin produced so a front and back could have been mounted for the pitch but still don't know if each is player minted in each type of metal, especially since only the Bronze run features all three at present. So we still would like to find a silver Jackson and gold Carew and Garvey. Given possible mixes and matches in the presentation, I think about four of each metal/player would have been produced in this type of scenario. Topps must have had an outside vendor cast these. I am also advised they are quite light and do not have the heft of a regular coin.

More to come folks!

Counting Coins

I was working on what I thought would be a pretty quick update to my 1952 high numbers post, which has now turned into a seven course meal that will be taking its sweet time to write itself and so was suddenly in need of something to blog about to end February with. As luck would have it I received via e-mail scans of a couple of 1980 Topps Baseball Coins that completes the known assortment of "metals" used in their production and puts us at the other end of the Topps golden era while I get my notes in order on the highs.

I'll let our contributor stay anonymous unless he wants the publicity but here are a gold Reggie Jackson:



and a Silver Steve Garvey:



To quote Homer J. Simpson "oooh, shiny!"

You can clearly see now that the Carew coin featured previously is of the "bronze" variety, as is the other Reggie. Bronze looks to be the poor stepsister to the gold and silver, it's luster is faded compared to the other two. I have to say the gold looks real sharp.

We remain at three players in the known checklist and now have all three metals accounted for. Perhaps one of the "holed" versions will show up i my mailbox someday. I also wonder if all players come in all metals or not. More data is needed but that might be tough with these bad boys.

Berger Boss

I haven't really been a wholehearted embracer of the various Burger King cards Topps was rolling off the presses in the late 70's, probably for the same reason I don't really take to the mid 70's Hostess cards (a Topps production photo-wise)-they just seem like separate food issues. There is a story worth telling though concerning the most valuable of the Topps produced Burger King cards-#23 in the 1977 Yankees set, namely one Lou Piniella.



I looked on Ebay for a scan, that was the only one for sale.

I'll get into the vagaries of the different BK sets eventually (maybe) but the '77 Piniella appears in the first set Topps produced for the home of the Whopper. The BK cards resemble the regular issue Topps cards for the five years they were issued but sometimes baffle novice collectors since many of the specialty cards have the same fronts and backs as the normal Topps cards but with their own numbering, usually from 1-22. The '77 Yankees set was intended to have 22 cards but it took the intervention of George Steinbrenner to have a card of ol' loudmouth Lou included.

To hear Sy Berger tell it, in an articleI found online at Google Books (from an old edition of Inside Sports magazine), the scuttlebutt in Spring Training was that Piniella was going to be traded and Sy made the executive decision to leave him out of the set. To quote the article Berger stated Piniella got off to a hot start and "George Steinbrenner called me up and said there was no way we could distribute Yankee cards without Piniella." It must have been a heated discussion as the article notes Berger winced when recounting it.

The Piniella card sells for a multiple of about 100 times what a common goes for and does seem to be in short supply. Not scarce but perhaps a hoarded card.

There is some more here, on the Gothamist that is well worth reading (as is Gothamist generally).