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⚾ An Uncut Sheet of Kirby Puckett’s 1983 Visalia Oaks Minor League Card

Y’all know I’m a big fan of uncut sheets. I’ve got the Uncut Sheet Archive, I share random examples on social media a few times a week, and I’m pretty sure I even mentioned this one on X at some point, but now I can’t find a reference to it.

What I do remember is seeing an awesome one at the National (I think for $700). Unfortunately, when I went through my photos afterward, I discovered that I apparently forgot to take a picture of it!

Luckily, another example recently popped up for sale on eBay: an uncut sheet of the 1983 Fritsch Visalia Oaks set, featuring Kirby Puckett’s great minor league card. But it looks like Fritsch also sells them directly.

Puckett spent the 1983 season with the Visalia Oaks, and his card from the team set has become one of the most desirable “pre-rookie” issues in the hobby.

Here’s an example of one of the 66 PSA Gem Mint 10s; Heritage sold it for a record $3,538 in May 2026.

There are a handful of graded examples on eBay right now, too, including an autographed copy.

And there’s a neat hobby story behind the name on the set.

If you didn’t know, Larry Fritsch was one of the hobby’s pioneering mail-order dealers. For years, reprinting old sets went against his collecting philosophy. But Fritsch later explained that once the price of a vintage set reached around $5,000, it was beyond what many collectors could afford, and he wanted more people to have an opportunity to see and enjoy those cards. That eventually led to his well-known series of vintage reprints.

Fritsch wasn’t only looking backward, though. During the 1980s, he also produced a few dozen team sets for minor league clubs, including the 1983 Visalia Oaks set.

And thanks to a young outfielder named Kirby Puckett, this particular one turned out to be a little more memorable than most.

📰 In The News

• Mantel News: Cooper Flagg’s 1-Of-1 Rookie Debut Patch Will Headline Record Fanatics Collect Auction After Wild Rhode Island Pursuit

• Collectibles on SI: SGC is the Latest Company to Raise Grading Prices

• KOLN: Lincoln police arrest USPS employee over missing sports card package

• Fanatics: Fanatics Renews Trading Card Deal Surrounding Men’s And Women’s UEFA Champions League Competitions

• Yahoo Sports: Tom Brady’s sports memorabilia store to open in downtown Indianapolis

• Yahoo Sports: NASCAR Veteran Robbed of Cherished Racing Memorabilia

• Fox Business: Teen flips ultra-rare 1-of-1 gold Jimothy rookie card for major payday on eBay

• Yahoo Sports: Karl-Anthony Towns confirms he spent $900,000 on special Aaron Judge trading card

• Heavy: Arch Manning Signs Exclusive Topps Deal Before Texas’ 2026 Opener

Want to search through hobby news? Check out Search on PostWarCards Wire!

🥊 Some Very Cool 1951 Topps Ringside Survivors

A pair of collectibles popped up for sale recently that reminded me of a third, all tied to Topps’ first full-fledged venture into boxing cards: 1951 Topps Ringside.

First, on August 25, a PSA 8-graded 1951 Topps Ringside wax pack sold for $1,843.18. Interestingly, PWCC sold the very same pack for $1,781 back in February 2019, so apparently not everything in the hobby has increased 10x over the past decade.

And the recent sales are a little all over the place. Goldin sold a PSA 7 pack for $2,684 in June, while Heritage sold another PSA 7 for $2,074 in April.

Then I noticed this Ringside advertising panel for sale. It went unsold with a starting bid of $2,499.99, and I haven’t seen it relisted yet, but there is a nice raw copy available on eBay right now.

These eight-card panels have been found with a number of different cards printed on them, from both 48-card series. That includes one featuring Rocky Marciano that REA sold for $940 way back in 2011.

But what the panel really reminded me of, and what I hope pops up for sale again someday, are the original Topps player contracts for the set.

Topps auctioned the contracts from its vault around 2010, and most were believed to have been purchased by a single collector. One did make its way back to market in 2019, when REA sold Abe Attell’s contract, along with its Topps Vault COA.

And if you’re used to seeing the more formal Topps player contracts from later years, this probably isn’t what you were expecting.

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😂 Two Packs of 1971 Topps Baseball for Just 17 Cents

In case you missed it, last week I shared the following Osco Drug ad that appeared in the Illinois State Register (Springfield, IL) on April 7, 1971, offering two packs of 1971 Topps baseball cards for 17 cents.

The best comment I saw came from a collector on Facebook who said “pass,” since it’s clearly a 1st Series box and therefore didn’t have any coins in it.

Here’s an example of a 1971 Topps 1st Series box that Heritage sold for only $138,000 in April 2021, with the matching front panel. There’s an empty display box available on eBay (BBCE-wrapped) for quite a bit less!

I say only because every pack in the Heritage box has a slight factory tear. REA more recently sold another 1st Series box for $246,000, but the photo of its front panel isn’t as clear for comparison with the ad.

Now, obviously the Facebook comment was a joke, since the first series actually has a few “good” cards.

P.S. If you like old unopened ads like this, I recently published two Unopened Market Reports chock-full of ’em: #80 (1953 Topps Baseball packs, Topps’ Bazooka Halloween Bubble Gum boxes, 1955 Bowman Baseball, and 1957 Topps Football) and #72 (1952 Bowman Baseball, 1955 Bowman Magic Pictures, 1951 Bowman Fight the Red Menace, and Mr. Mint’s The Find II).

✍️ Great Hobby Writing

• The Topps Archives: Winner’s Choice

• The OPC Completist: Fun With Flags – For Herring Chokers

• Baseball Card Breakdown: Musically shaped cards

• The Heirloom Index: What a Transistor Radio Bought

• Night Owl Cards: It’s my blog dammit

• SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee: Discovering an Underlying Pattern in the 1911 T201 Mecca Double Folders Set & When Topps Had Bottoms

• Sports Collectors Daily: 1955: The Last Great Baseball Card War Kept Collectors Searching & Finding The Missing Ink — Collector Searches For 1958 Topps ‘Blackless’ Cards

• CardBoredom: You Lost WHAT?

• Red Cardboard: Newly Acquired Bengals Vintage Oddities

• Phungo: 1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre

P.S. Don’t forget to visit PostWarCardsWire.com for even more hobby links!

🏀 The Other 1991 Upper Deck Jerry West Autograph

Most collectors are familiar with the 1991-92 Upper Deck Basketball Heroes Jerry West cards. Upper Deck inserted autographed versions of the #9 checklist card into High Series packs, with each hand-numbered to 2,500.

But there’s another Jerry West autograph from the set that I knew nothing about until I ran across one at this year’s National.

This version consists of the complete Basketball Heroes set, but with West’s autograph on the header card, hand-numbered to just 500.

I found what appears to be the same framed piece (Auto 435/500) from the National currently offered on eBay for $908.80.

I also found an unframed set, numbered 383/500, offered for $219 on eBay. And, in March 2023, Freeman’s sold the one numbered 300/500 (in red ink) for $150.

Unfortunately that’s about where my info trail ends. Does anyone know the story behind these /500 Jerry West Basketball Heroes sets? If you have an old Upper Deck catalog, dealer material, advertisement, or anything else documenting their origin, I’d love to see it.

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📸 Before It Became a Bowman Card

I spotted this fantastic original Jim Finks photograph for sale on eBay. It’s from the Sporting News Collection and was used for his 1950 Bowman rookie card.

Put it next to the finished card and you get a great look at how Bowman transformed its source photography into the miniature works of “art” that make those early sets so appealing.

There’s also a little mystery (at least to my amateur eyes) surrounding when the photo was taken. PSA dates it c. 1949, which would put it around the beginning of Finks’ career with the Steelers; he signed with the team in August 1949. But the handwritten notes on the back include “2nd yr Steelers” and what appears to be “1950.” Since the 1950 Bowman set wasn’t produced until sometime that summer, either date could potentially work. The photo may have been taken in 1949 and annotated later, or it could actually date to 1950. If you’ve got a better idea, please let me know!

So much of the original material behind our favorite cards has disappeared into collections, or simply disappeared altogether, that I think it’s worth documenting this stuff whenever I get the chance. And while the original photo is pretty expensive, Finks’ cards themselves can still be found for pretty reasonable prices on eBay.

Also, the biggest recorded sale (by a lot) I could find for a Finks 1950 Bowman wasn’t a high-grade example. It was an autographed copy that REA sold for $4,797 in its Fall 2025 auction.

💰 A $7,925 Berk Ross Set and the Hobby’s Invisible Market

Last week, if you were browsing Facebook hobby groups, you might have seen a collector offering a complete 1951 Berk Ross set in its original boxes (72/72) for $7,925, or best offer (I’m still not sure why people bid against themselves in listings), shipped and insured.

It’s a super-cool item, and it reminded me of previous sales of the set, like the following one from Mastro & Steinbach’s August 1997 catalog.

And this complete set that Memory Lane Inc. sold for $5,918.40 in January 2025 (which I think is the exact same one being offered on FB). You can also find a ton of graded individual cards, and two-card panels, on eBay.

But what it really got me wondering, given how many four- and five-figure items you see offered on Facebook, X, Instagram, at shows, and directly between collectors and dealers, is how much of the hobby is effectively invisible from a sales-data perspective?

I’ve kicked around estimates as high as 20–25%, but I really don’t know. When a major auction house (like Heritage last week) can sell $62 million in a single auction, it takes an awful lot of private transactions to move the needle.

What do you think that number is? And has anyone come across a detailed estimate or research attempting to quantify it? I’d love to see it.

Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. As a member of the eBay Partner Network, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

🏭 Don Mattingly Treasures From the Topps Vault

There have been a boatload of Don Mattingly-related Topps Vault items popping up on eBay lately, and I wanted to highlight a few of the ones I thought were particularly cool, in case you missed them.

All four include Topps Vault COAs, the ones with the serial number handwritten in Sharpie to match the sticker on the back of the item.

First up is the black-and-white “negative” used for Mattingly’s 1985 Topps card (eBay link).

Next is the black-and-white “photo negative” for his 1987 Topps Sticker (eBay link).

Third is a paper proof for the 1985 Topps Sticker combo card featuring Mattingly, Tony Armas, Mike Schmidt, and Mark Langston (eBay link).

And finally, since we’ve been talking about them a lot lately, a proof of Mattingly’s 1986 Topps Baseball Tattoo (eBay link)!

P.S. Did you see this Don Mattingly Topps Player File Card also made an appearance online? Topps was helping ballplayers with laundry long before game-used jerseys were a thing 😉

🤔 What’s the Story With These 1989 Upper Deck Uncut Sheets?

At this year’s National, I spotted this framed 1989 Upper Deck Baseball uncut sheet for sale. If I’m reading my photo correctly, the asking price was $1,650 (although it may have been $1,150).

It’s a 100-card sheet featuring Ken Griffey Jr. in the upper-left corner, along with Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield, Sandy Alomar Jr., and other cards from Upper Deck’s landmark debut set.

These sheets haven’t been particularly expensive when they’ve hit auction, though all of these sales predate the recent increase in 1989 Upper Deck Griffey prices. REA sold examples with this same 100-card layout for $90 in February 2022 and $120 in October 2023. Heritage has sold several as well, including, most recently, one for $276 in April 2023.

There are also two on eBay right now; a framed copy for $1,200 (eBay link), an unframed copy for $499.99 (eBay link), and one without Griffey for $80 (eBay link).

But, where did these sheets actually come from? I can’t find anything documenting their origin. Given all the stories surrounding early Upper Deck production, including an employee apparently being fired for taking one, I’d love to know the real story.

Were they legitimate uncut sheets that Upper Deck sold or distributed at some point? Printer’s waste that escaped the factory? Something produced later? Fakes? Or is there another explanation entirely?

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If you're new here, the Post War Cards Newsletter remains free daily; the Unopened Market Report is the newsletter’s paid tier.

Last week I said I’d be dropping some serious eye candy you probably haven’t seen before, so let’s dive right in with a 1968 Topps Hockey wax box!

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📸 A Cool Story Connected to a 1981 Donruss Error

A few of you may remember the first generation of this newsletter. I published 65 issues, stopped for a while, then eventually relaunched it, first on my own domain and later back here on Substack.

Anyway, I was looking through some of those early issues recently, and the very first one included an item that would definitely make the newsletter today, given my focus on original photographs and photo negatives.

Back in 2022, I was scrolling through Twitter when I noticed a collector had shared a pair of 1981 Donruss Rob Picciolo cards: one with his first name incorrectly listed as Bob, and the other corrected to Rob.

I knew that a U.S. court decision in the fall of 1980 opened the door for Donruss and Fleer to enter the baseball card market and compete with Topps. The timing, however, didn’t leave them much time to develop their inaugural sets. What I hadn’t realized was just how error-filled 1981 Donruss became in the rush.

Most of the errors in the 605-card set were corrected in subsequent print runs, and few, if any, command much of a premium (which you can see in this search for ‘81 Donruss Picciolo cards on eBay). But while researching the Picciolo cards, I stumbled across a much more interesting story from one of the photographers who worked on the set.

While browsing eBay, I came across the following: an autographed photograph used for Picciolo’s card, the original negative, and the finished 1981 Donruss card.

According to the seller, who was also the photographer, (who I think was Jack Wallin, but please correct me if I’m wrong) he made two prints of each photograph. He gave one to the player and had the player autograph the other for him.

He wrote that he worked as a photographer for Donruss from 1981 through 1991 and took just over 500 of the roughly 600 photographs used in the 1981 Donruss set, shooting players at Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park, and Milwaukee County Stadium.

In the fall of 1980, he met with Donruss’s vice president and art director and showed them his collection of autographed photographs. They selected a ton of them for the upcoming set.

The photographer went on to work for Pacific Trading Cards from 1993 through 2002, returned to Donruss in 2003, and later worked for Topps until retiring in 2010.

And if you’re interested in owning a little piece of 1981 Donruss production history yourself, a few more original negatives from the set are available right now: Jim Wohlford #316 - on eBay, Dick Tidrow #551 - on eBay, and John Littlefield #309 - on eBay.

📝 On The Blog

The newsletter covers the day-to-day, but there’s always more happening on the blog. Here’s what was published over the past week.

• A 1962-63 Topps Hockey Uncut Sheet at The National

• The Surprisingly Tough 1987 TCMA Football Set

• Frank Nagy Describes His Legendary Collection in 1971

📦 1967 Who Am I Boxes, Packs & Unopened Math

Here’s a quick, random post connecting a few of my favorite things: unopened material, non-sports cards (be sure to subscribe to The Non-Sport Report for my newsletter dedicated to the niche), hobby history, and The National!

Last week, as my Unopened Collectible of the Day, I shared this 1967 Topps Who Am I? wax box across social media. Mastro offered it in its April 2004 Americana catalog.

That reminded me of another box I spotted for sale at this year’s National. This one was authenticated by BBCE and carried an asking price of $29,500.

And it turns out that wasn’t the only Who Am I? box making the rounds at the show. Another was on display with BBCE Auctions and subsequently sold for $18,687 in their latest auction, which closed August 9.

BBCE Auctions also sold this PSA 9-graded (Pop 28 total with seven 9s) 1967 Topps Who Am I? wax pack for $1,839. There aren’t any packs, but there is a lot of eight “first graded” cards, an empty box, and a wrapper for $699 on eBay.

And that brings this little Who Am I? detour right back to a topic I covered in Monday’s Unopened Market Report: When Does a Wax Box Become More Than the Sum of Its Packs?

Or, looked at from the opposite direction: When does it make financial sense to break a box, grade the packs, and sell them individually?

At $1,839 for a PSA 9 pack, compared with $18,687 for a complete box of 24 packs, you can see why the question gets interesting pretty quickly (24 * $1,839 = $44,136), but it’s, of course, not that simple.

Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. As a member of the eBay Partner Network, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

🔥 Big Cards, Big Prices at Fanatics (or 24 Star Jordans Walk Into an Auction)

Sure, last weekend’s Heritage auction had six million-dollar cards, but Fanatics wasn’t going to be left behind. Its latest Premier auction, which ended on the 27th, included two seven-figure cards of its own: this 2025 Topps Dynasty Gold Shohei Ohtani Logoman Patch Auto, which sold for $1,140,000, and a 2005 Pokemon EX Deoxys Holo Raquaza sold for $1,020,000.

I also counted 24 1984–1986 Star Michael Jordan cards in the auction, led by the $504k sale of this PSA 8-graded 1984 Jordan rookie. What you can you say at this point, these cards are more liquid than NVDA stock! And there are >500 on eBay right now, too!

From a vintage perspective, a few post-war highlights were a PSA 6-graded 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle that sold for an incredible $690k, a PSA 6-graded 1952 Topps #312 Jackie Robinson that sold for $54k (slightly faded), a PSA 8-graded 1955 Topps #123 Sandy Koufax RC that sold for $45,600, and an SGC 9-graded 1969 Topps #25 Lew Alcindor that sold for $43,200.

🖼️ Old-Timers, Yaz & Some Great Hobby Cave & Library Material

I’ve been sharing a lot of great items to plaster your hobby caves with recently, and a few weeks ago, Dan the YazMan on X shared another one you might be interested in, especially if you’re a Red Sox fan.

It’s a poster from the May 27, 1984, Old Timers’ Game featuring, oddly enough, Yaz on a Donruss card. Dan called that out since there were so many other great Yaz cards they could have used. (And do you see what’s in the lower left of the frame?!?!)

There are a gagillion of these on eBay right now for under $10 shipped. The red-covered program unfolds to reveal the green poster on the back.

But this reminded me that in 1991, Upper Deck replaced Equitable Financial Companies as the sponsor of Baseball’s Old-Timer Series (see The Upper Deck Commemorative Sheets Series: Part 1 - Baseball, on the blog, for more), renamed it the Heroes of Baseball Series, and aligned the games with special dates in baseball history.

Upper Deck also produced limited-edition Collector Series sheets for the games, and they have a prominent place in The Hobby Library. Here’s the one highlighting the 1991 series (there’s a lot/set of 22 from that year available on eBay).

And back to the Red Sox, here’s the Collector Series sheet for the May 11, 1991, game.

I also have the Red Sox Collector Series sheet from the following year.

Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. As a member of the eBay Partner Network, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

🏺 Finding a PSA 10 Indiana Jones Is Harder Than Finding the Ark

Hobby discourse on X has really improved lately. A few months ago, this sort of content probably would have gotten lost in the shuffle (though I still recommend curating your feed).

Anywho, last week OmegaDad shared a 1981 O-Pee-Chee Raiders of the Lost Ark wax box he had picked up and thought was pretty cool. It’s since been listed (and sold) on eBay where there are around a dozen other examples available, too.

Employee #84 retweeted the post and pointed out something much more interesting: there are zero PSA 10s of the Indiana Jones “rookie card,” #2.

He added that he once bought five boxes and submitted around 10 copies for grading, and none came back better than a PSA 8. He joked that finding a gem might be harder than finding the Ark of the Covenant!

And collectors will apparently pay up if you get close. The PSA 9 below sold for $750 via eBay Best Offer in June 2025, the highest-priced sale of the card I could find.

PSA’s Population Report shows just 69 graded copies of the OPC Indiana Jones, including six PSA 9s and 14 PSA 8s, and, again, zero 10s. But it isn’t just Indy that’s tough. Across the entire 1981 O-Pee-Chee Raiders of the Lost Ark set, PSA has graded 378 cards, and only six have received a 10, or about 1.5% of all submissions.

The Topps cards are easier, but not that much easier. Of 3,521 total submissions from the Topps set, 193 have received PSA 10s, or about 5.5%. And here’s the part I find particularly interesting: the Topps Indiana Jones #2 doesn’t have a PSA 10, either.

There are only a handful of graded examples from either country’s release on eBay right now, although one that recently sold does have something a PSA 10 can’t offer: it’s signed by Harrison Ford!

OPC cards are notoriously tough grades compared with their Topps counterparts, so the low gem rate isn’t particularly shocking. What is unusual is that after all these years, neither version of Indiana Jones #2 has produced a single PSA 10. Given that there are a lot of boxes out there and an influx of new collectors into this part of the hobby, I suspect one might come sooner rather than later.

The hunt continues…

P.S. If you’re into non-sports cards, be sure to check out my other newsletter, The Non-Sport Report!

P.P.S. A little caution may be warranted after some of last week’s high-priced sales of the Indiana Jones card. As a general rule, I’m cautious whenever a bunch of high-grade examples sell in a very short period of time. The market may not be quite what it appears…

📰 In The News

• Palo Alto Online: CardVault by Tom Brady burglarized a week after opening in Palo Alto

• Upper Deck: Upper Deck Announces New Licensing Agreement With Hasbro

• Baseball America: PSA Backlog At 10.9 Million As Turnaround Time Doubles For $80 Grading Tier

• 24/7 Wall Street: His Baseball Cards Survived Five Moves and a Basement Flood. The $70,000 Auction Is What Finally Cost Him.

• Collectibles on SI: Million-Dollar Sales Headline Explosive Week in Sports Cards

• Bleacher Report: Topps Announces All NFL Rookies Will Wear ‘Debut’ Patches During 2026 Season for 2027 Trading Cards

• The Athletic: What needs to be improved in sports collectibles: Industry leaders share their thoughts

Want to search through hobby news? Check out Search on PostWarCards Wire!

🇻🇪 Does Anyone Know What These 1986 Venezuelan “Topps” Are?

A few weeks ago, one of the big sellers in the Venezuelan Topps Facebook group offered, and sold for $500, a collection of 204 strange newspaper-like baseball cutouts based on the 1986 Topps set. I guess you’d call them cut strips?

And I have no idea what they are. They share a lot of characteristics with the pricey 1990 Topps Venezuelan Grandes Ligas stickers you see all over eBay these days (there are a handful of albums out there in a variety of conditions, too).

The crude images were copied from 1986 Topps cards, printed on thin, newspaper-like paper, and glued into numbered spaces in an album. The pages are stamped “Anulado” (“cancelled”), perhaps indicating that a completed album had been redeemed. Here are the Cal Ripken and Nolan Ryan newspaper versions alongside the real 1986 Topps cards.

The seller was told they originally came from a Venezuelan newspaper, but didn’t know which one. So far, the only other reference I’ve found is from a Carlton Fisk collector, who I think bought the lot of 204 newspaper/strip cards.

Has anyone seen these before or know what newspaper or publication issued them? I’d love to figure out exactly what these things are. They, along with the 1990 cards (and 77s I suppose), remain a big gray area in this niche.

Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. As a member of the eBay Partner Network, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

🤬 The Most Iconic Error Card of a Generation

A collector in the Facebook Sports Card Nonsense group recently posted a photo of himself holding this PSA 10-graded 1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken FF Error. After looking up the price and seeing that Card Ladder values it at $1,150, despite a Gem Mint 10 population of more than 3,000, and more than 25,000 graded overall, I was NOT surprised.

There are more than 100 graded copies available on eBay right now, so this obviously isn’t a scarcity story. It’s a demand story. As the original poster wrote on Facebook, for collectors between the ages of 35 and 55, it’s literally the most iconic sports card error of all time.

And there are a couple of fun rabbit holes surrounding the card.

First, did you know there are way more than the five variations PSA recognizes: Black Box Over Error, Black Scribble Over Error, FF Error, Scribbled Out in White, and White Out Vulgarity?

For that rabbit hole, I present the 1989 Fleer Ripken F-Face #616 Baseball Card blog.

And second, did you know that the five-digit number printed on 1989 Fleer cases can help you determine whether the boxes inside may contain the FF Error?

Check out my post, Pulling the Bill Ripken FF Error from 1989 Fleer Wax Boxes, for all the details.

✍️ Great Hobby Writing

• Pre-War Collector: Paul Revere Returns. Again.

• Red Cardboard: 1979-80 Topps Basketball Complete Set AKA May The Shorts Be With You

• Jason Cards: Dark Celebration, Part 4

• Night Owl Cards: From the land with the biggest Ohtani fans

• Sports Collectors Daily: Eddie Waitkus and the Strangest “Thrill” in Baseball Card History

• Baseball Card Breakdown: Completed page of Sign Here cards

• SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee: One Page at a Time

P.S. Don’t forget to visit PostWarCardsWire.com for even more hobby links!

🖨️ When a 1964 Topps Uncut Sheet Goes Very Wrong

A collector reached out with photos of an incredible uncut sheet he’s owned for more than 30 years. It’s a 1964 Topps Baseball sheet, but flip it over and you’ll quickly realize something went wrong during the printing process.

The fronts and backs are completely misaligned, creating what are essentially wrong-back cards throughout the sheet.

By way of example:

• The back of Wes Covington is mostly Roger Maris.

• The back of Juan Marichal is Wes Covington.

• And the back of Sandy Koufax is mostly Bob Saverine.

1964 Topps Baseball uncut sheets are pretty scarce to begin with, and while this example is in rough shape and is only a partial sheet rather than a complete 132-card half-sheet, the dramatic printing error makes it particularly interesting.

But putting a value on something like this is difficult. REA sold a “complete” 1964 Topps third-series uncut 132-card sheet for just $480, but that was almost a decade ago, back in 2017. REA described the reverse as upside down and slightly misaligned, leaving each card with essentially the wrong back.

For a more modern point of reference, there’s currently an eight-card 1964 Topps wrong-back panel available on eBay featuring Carl Yastrzemski, Richie Allen, and Nellie Fox.

Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. As a member of the eBay Partner Network, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

📸 The Original Photos Behind 1963 Post Baseball

Last week, after I shared The Original Photo Behind Roberto Clemente’s 1963 Post & Jell-O Cards (see NL #362), another collector reached out to let me know about the serious cache of original photos available on eBay right now, noting how gorgeous the photos are, and what a testament they are to just how lousy the printing job on the 1963 set was!

A few of my favorites include Gil Hodges (eBay link), Roman Mejias (eBay link), Roger Maris (eBay link), and Don Mossi (eBay link).

If you’re interested in a quick overview, check out SABR’s Post Cereal Issues from 1961–1963, and if you’re really into the niche, you need to track down some of Dan Mabey’s books.

And now is as good a time as any to share the coolest Post item I saw at this year’s National: a complete 1962 Post Bran Flakes box. Hello, Roberto Clemente!

And finally, some more Post-related posts from newsletters past:

• NL #118: 1961 Post Ceral Baseball Uncut Lot & 1963 Production Boards

• NL #145: 1963 Jell-O Complete Box Uncut Proof Sheet

• NL #268: 1962 Production Numbers

🔎 The Google of Hobby News?

I’ve added a couple of new features to PostWarCards Wire. First is From the Hobby Archive, where I’m sharing old hobby photos, newspaper ads, trade magazine scans, auction material, card show ephemera, and whatever else catches my eye, basically, preserving the history of the hobby, one scan at a time.

The other one surprised me a little. When I launched the site, I didn’t really think about the fact that I was also building a permanent, searchable hobby-intelligence database. Every story the Wire collects is archived, so there are already thousands of hobby articles, videos, podcasts, newsletters, and industry updates going back to launch. I’ve now made that database searchable. Type in something like 1952 Topps, Mickey Mantle, or wax pack, and you can search across everything the Wire has collected.

Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. As a member of the eBay Partner Network, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

🏆 Wagner, Mantle, Munson & More at Heritage

Like REA’s auction recap last week, there was just too much cool stuff in Heritage’s August 21–23 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction to do it justice. I recommend you visit the auction’s archive, log off (so you can’t see the prices), and just appreciate the breadth and depth of the offering as a fan of the hobby.

Anywho, the big sale was obviously the 1909–11 T206 Piedmont Honus Wagner, which sold for $5,856,000. It’s one of just three known Piedmont-back variations of The Card.

But that wasn’t the only million-dollar item. Seven-figure sales also included the 1986 Diego Maradona historic “Hand of God” and “Goal of the Century” game-used soccer ball, which sold for $3,355,000; a PSA 8-graded 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle, which sold for $3,721,000; a PSA 9-graded 1933 Goudey #181 Babe Ruth, which sold for $1,525,000; a Sandy Koufax game worn jersey, which sold for $1,311,500; and a BGS 8.5-graded 2006 Fleer 1986 Fleer Jordan Buyback Auto, which sold for $1,204,750.

I’m still debating how to incorporate the T206 Wagner and ’52 Topps Mantle more deeply into my real-time hobby engine (PostWarCardsWire.com). I have a few options, but if you have any thoughts, please reach out.

What on earth do I write about next when there were six seven-figure, and over 100 six-figure items, among an auction that totaled over $62M? I guess I’ll share one unopened product, one uncut sheet, one Hobby Library item, and one item from The Topps Vault that intrigued me.

I’m a sucker for ’52 Topps, so I’ll go with one of the two unopened wax packs they had for sale, the 5th–6th Series pack that sold for $94,550. There’s solid provenance for the pack, but that’s the sort of information I hold back for Monday’s Unopened Market Reports.

There weren’t too many uncut sheets in this offering, but one you probably won’t see again for a while is the 1994 Bumble Bee Miami Hurricanes Signed Uncut Sheets (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson & Warren Sapp), which sold for $4,893.42.

Given how much I’ve started talking about Venezuelan cards lately, of course my Hobby Library item is the 1968 Venezuela Topps Baseball complete set (in original album), which sold for $40,260. Funny, that’s not the worst-conditioned album I’ve seen!

I really only saw one item with Topps Vault pedigree, but it’s worth sharing: the 1970 Topps Vault Thurman Munson rookie photo transparency, which sold for $2,013 (you can see >175 graded examples of the card for sale on eBay).

🎨 The 1950 Bowman Football Card That Never Was

A few weeks ago, in NL #345, I shared three pieces of original Topps football artwork. Well, another piece of vintage football card artwork popped up on eBay the other day, and this one sold for a bit more than any of those are currently being offered for: $405 on August 17.

Perhaps that’s because this one was never used (and never finished either)!

The eBay listing identified the player as Bucko Kilroy, which initially made sense. The player in the painting is wearing #76, Kilroy’s number throughout his career with the Philadelphia Eagles (green jerseys).

But Kilroy appeared in the 1950 Bowman set, and his actual card looks nothing like this artwork (graded copies on eBay are limited, but affordable).

More importantly, the back of the artwork is penciled “Harry Jagade Colts.” And that identification fits remarkably well. Harry “Chick” Jagade played fullback for the Baltimore Colts in 1949, wore #76, and, unlike Kilroy, would make sense carrying the football in the painting (he was a fullback while Kilroy was a guard/tackle).

So why didn’t this become Jagade’s 1950 Bowman card?

Jagade played 10 games for Baltimore in 1949, rushing for 174 yards and two touchdowns, but was out of football in 1950. He returned with Cleveland in 1951 and eventually became a two-time Pro Bowler before finishing his career with the Chicago Bears.

Here he is several years later on a Bowman card as a Bear (rarer graded than the Kilroy on eBay, but still affordable). And, for what it’s worth, he certainly looks like the player depicted in the unused artwork.

My guess is that Bowman commissioned the artwork after the 1949 season expecting Jagade to be part of its 1950 set. When he didn’t play in 1950, the card was abandoned before the artwork was even completed (and maybe the artist tried to repurpose it).

I haven’t been able to locate the photograph used as the source for the artwork, but in 1949 the Colts produced 8×10 publicity photos of their players, and some were also used for the incredibly scarce 1949 Silber’s Bakery Colts cards, so one of Jagade might exist.

Until one turns up, though, this appears to be something pretty neat on its own: the original artwork for a Harry Jagade 1950 Bowman football card that never made it into the set. But hey, maybe I’m wrong😉

P.S. If that had your interest, another cool piece of original artwork just popped up for sale on eBay: original cartoon artwork used on the backs of 1974 Topps Football cards.

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I’m continuing this week with a few high-end deep thoughts about the unopened market, supported by some recent sales. Next week, I promise to drop some cool stuff the public market hasn’t seen in a long while, or at all, since the pieces were originally released😉

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🧺 A Chicago National Find: 1964 Glo-Art Transfer-ettes

Back at the 2024 National, I spotted a super-niche product I’d never seen in person before: a header for a 1964 Glo-Art Transfer-ette “pack.” I asked the dealer how much, he said $10, and I said sure. Here are both sides of the header.

Somehow, I’d never seen a complete pack until this year’s National, when I spotted two while browsing the show floor. I didn’t buy either because they’re actually pretty large, the player sheets measure just under 9” x 11”, plus the header, and I wasn’t sure how I’d get them home.

But it makes sense that I finally saw them in Chicago rather than Cleveland. These “novelty items” were only produced for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. Each team has black, blue, and red sheets of players designed to be transferred onto T-shirts, which is why you’ll sometimes see them referred to as iron-ons.

Anyway, after digging around a bit, it looks like there are four complete packs available on eBay right now, each containing red, blue, and black sheets: a blue-on-top White Sox pack (eBay link), a black-on-top White Sox pack (eBay link), a red-on-top Cubs pack (eBay link), and another red-on-top Cubs pack (eBay link).

And despite the promise on the packages that other teams were “coming soon,” I’ve yet to see evidence that any were actually produced.

📝 On The Blog

The newsletter covers the day-to-day, but there’s always more happening on the blog. Here’s what was published over the past week.

• When $612 Bought a 1962 Topps High Number Proof Sheet

• When $600,000 in Baseball Cards Disappeared at the 1991 National

• The Lionel Carter Collection in SGC Collector Magazine

📸 A New-to-Me 1952 Topps Baseball Black Back Panel

Any 1952 Topps uncut sheet or panel is worth highlighting, given how little material from the landmark set has survived. That’s especially true when one comes from a newsletter subscriber!

And this is one I hadn’t seen before: an eight-card black-backed panel featuring Ed Lopat, Bob Mahoney, Robin Roberts, Sid Hudson, Willie Jones, Joe Page (corrected), Johnny Sain (corrected), and Marv Rickert.

An intact panel like this isn’t exactly an everyday eBay find, but individual PSA graded 1952 Topps cards from the eight players certainly are.

And if 1952 Topps uncut material is your thing, here are five more pieces I’ve featured in the Uncut Sheet Archive:

• 1952 Topps Baseball High Number Partial Uncut Sheet With Eddie Mathews

• 1952 Topps Progressive Proofs Uncut Sheets

• A Look Back at the 1952 Topps Partial Uncut Sheet Auctioned at the 1992 National

• Rough But Rare: 1952 Topps Uncut Panels & Strips Featuring 199 Final Process Cards

• A Stunning 1952 Topps Semi-High Number Panel

Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links. As a member of the eBay Partner Network, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

📸 The Photo Behind Cal Ripken Jr.’s 1986 Topps Tattoo (and a Hobby Library Bonus)!

A quick follow-up to my piece from NL #356, where I shared the artwork used for Cal Ripken Jr.’s 1986 Topps Tattoo.

Bill Haelig, who owns the piece and has been a Ripken family collector for more than 40 years, checked his records and noted that the Topps Vault described it as “paste-up art.”

Bill also believes Topps sourced the image from an Orioles team photo from the mid-1980s, when Mort Tadder was the team photographer.

And with a little photo-editing magic, it looks awfully close to me!

P.S. I’ve also been a Cal Ripken Jr. collector in the past. Having grown up in Baltimore during his playing years, Ripken was one of my childhood heroes. So, naturally, The Hobby Library has a pair of books dedicated to his collectibles. It took me years to finally track down these copies, and I haven’t seen either for sale in a while, but you may have better luck!

🔎 Three Versions of the 1987 Donruss Roberto Clemente

There are a lot of player collectors out there, and a lot of variations that even some of the most dedicated ones might not know about. I learned about a new one from Rich McKee on X: it turns out there are three variations of the 1987 Donruss #612 Roberto Clemente card. (There are a few PSA-graded copies on eBay, including the following Gem Mt 10 example.)

The differences are all on the back: one has a 5 mm space between the bio and copyright line, another has an 11 mm space, and the factory set version has an 8 mm space, with the bottom of the back matching up with the left side of the front.

Here are the examples TCDB has for each back, 5 mm, 8 mm, and 11 mm, top to bottom.

📸 A Quick Warren Spahn Photo Clarification

A quick clarification on yesterday’s Warren Spahn photo: I got the image from someone who believed it was connected to Spahn’s 1958 Topps card. I noted that it wasn’t an exact match, but I should have been more careful with the attribution.

Topps was shooting its own images by 1956 (in color), and the image used for Spahn’s 1958 card likely came from a 1957 shoot at the Polo Grounds, not Spring Training, other negatives from that same shoot are known.

So, while the photo I shared is still an interesting Spahn image, it shouldn’t have been presented as being connected to his 1958 Topps card. Thanks to those who reached out with the additional information and correction.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

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⚾ An Extra Innings Auction Right in My Wheelhouse

It’s not every Extra Innings Auction that has several high-end items squarely in my wheelhouse, but Mile High Card Company’s latest, which closed on the 19th, certainly did. First, you have the ISA 9 graded 1951 Bowman #305 Willie Mays card that was originally part of the Dimitri Young Collection, and formerly a PSA 9 that sold for $87,238.54.

Mile High Card Co. was transparent in the auction description, explaining that the card had once been in a PSA 9 slab, but that after several attempts, PSA wouldn’t regrade it a nine. By the way, there are eight 1951 Bowman Mays PSA 9s, and Card Ladder values them at $908K. And if you aren’t familiar with the Dimitri Young Collection, you can still occasionally find SCP Auctions’ May 18/19 2012 catalogs featuring the collection on eBay, and there’s also a 1969 Topps Rollie Fingers PSA 10 RC from the collection on eBay now. I’ll update an old blog post about the auction and repost it soon, too.

Next, there’s the Gem Mt 10 1969 Topps Super Roberto Clemente card that sold for $13,734.76. It’s a pop 14 card and Card Ladder hadn’t shown a sale since July 2018 and had predicted its value at $25k before auction close.

Two more interesting sales, first they sold a BGS 8 graded 1986-87 Fleer #57 Michael Jordan card for $11,494.84, putting it below the range of PSA 7s (which have been selling for between $13k-$14k lately). And Mile High sold the 14th-ranked 1965 Topps set on the PSA Set Registry for $113,908.96, more than the aggregate total of the bids on the individual cards ($65,057 + BP). Maybe I’m being optimistic, but that gives me some hope the buyer intends to keep the set intact.

📰 In The News

• Sports Collectors Daily: Jordan, LeBron, World Cup Stars Push eBay July Sales to $290 Million

• Mantel News: The Hobby’s Theft Crisis: How My Stolen Cards Ended Up In A High-End Repack

• TheBayNet: Waldorf Man Accused Of Stealing Nearly $5,000 In Trading Cards From Two Lowe’s Stores

• Front Office Sports: Panini Says Fanatics Cheated to Win NBA, NFL Card Deals

• Sports Collectors Daily: Shohei Ohtani Tokyo Series Shoes Set Baseball Footwear Auction Record

• The Athletic: Why Dick’s Sporting Goods is getting into the trading card business

• MLB.com: Meet ‘PoKikémon,’ the alter ego of beloved Dodgers utility man & Card collecting both a ‘hobby and semi-obsession’ for Straw

• CNN: One Cooper Flagg card changed this collector’s life in an instant

• Sports Collectors Daily: 1997-98 Jordan PMG Red Sets Auction Record at $1.47 Million

• Business Insider: Bad cards

📸 A Near-Match for Warren Spahn’s 1958 Topps Card

I’ve been sitting on a lot of incredible collectibles that many of you have been sending me: high-grade cards, rare unopened material, items from the Topps Archives, uncut sheets, advertising pieces, and more. Please keep them coming, and I’ll keep sharing them here and on the blog!

One such piece is another rare pre-1960 Topps photo negative. It was originally believed to be the image used for Warren Spahn’s 1958 Topps card, but on closer inspection, it’s slightly different. Look at Spahn’s head position, glove, and fingers. Perhaps the photos came from the same shoot as they’re otherwise quite similar.

I believe this negative sold on eBay for $356 in November 2009. That’s nothing compared to what high-grade 1958 Topps Spahn cards command today, though. Memory Lane Inc. sold the Mint 9 shown above for $5,509 in September 2024.

And the lone Gem Mt 10 in the PSA Pop Report sold for $12,117.17 back in September 2019. Luckily, for the rest of us, mid-grade copies are much more affordable on eBay.

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📸 The Original Photo Behind Roberto Clemente’s 1963 Post & Jell-O Cards

After I shared the 1962 Jell-O Whitey Ford last week in NL #353, the owner of the L.E.S. Collection (see NL #198) reached out with a pair of collectibles he thought I’d enjoy. I just had to share them with you, since they fit in so perfectly here in The Post War Cards Newsletter: the “one-of-a-kind” Type 1 original production photograph used for Roberto Clemente’s 1963 Post and Jell-O boxes/cards, plus an incredibly nice example of a hand-cut 1963 Post Clemente.

The photo is ~4” x 5” and has “Pitts Pirates/143/Clemente” written in pencil on the back.

And while Card Ladder now prices that PSA 8 Clemente at $1,135 (and PSA 8 Jell-O cards at $1,697), putting them out of range for many collectors, there are a few PSA-graded 1963 Post/Jell-O Clementes on eBay for <$100 with great eye appeal.

✍️ Great Hobby Writing

• SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee: Topps Traded Leaderboard

• Pre-War Collector: Back to the 60s — The 1860s

• Nine Pockets: Completed Set: 1982 Topps Baseball

• The Topps Archives: Topps Topics: Studies in Uncut Sheet Arrays - The Update

• cards as I see them: time to sample the samplers again - 1952 topps is back in a binder!

• Night owl Cards: Where it all started

• Baseball Cars Come to Life: 1910 Standard Caramel Deacon Philippe

• Tan Man Baseball Fan: Will the Real Honus Wagner Rookie Please Stand Up?

• The Collector: The Collector: Origins

P.S. Don’t forget to visit PostWarCardsWire.com to follow the hobby for updates as they happen! Now tracking 238 sources AND preserving 26 images!

🤦‍♂️ The 1977 Laughlin “Erorrs” Set: One of the Hobby’s Greatest Mistakes

Much thanks to Timothy Jenkins on X for reminding me about one of the greatest baseball sets ever produced: the 1977 Laughlin “Erorrs” set of 40, with the intentional misspelling.

The 40-card blank-backed set, including the title card, references errors from previously released baseball cards.

I’ve read that the set was available directly from the artist via mail for $3 at the time of issue, but I’ve yet to find an advertisement for it in The Hobby Library (please reach out if you have one). However, a friend of the newsletter who primarily collects Laughlin sets ranks this among the toughest. Maybe Laughlin barely advertised it 🤷‍♂️.

My contact’s Laughlin list, in terms of scarcity (baseball only), is:

1. Full sheets of 1967 original B&W set.

2. Full set of individual 1967 set of B&W cards

3. Full set of 7 Extension cards of the 1971 Fleer Laughlin WS set (distributed in 1978 by Good Humor company).

4. Black Stars set

5. 1976 Indianapolis Clowns set

6. 1977 Laughlin Errors set

Given that Laughlin’s non-Fleer sets are still a little niche, prices aren’t that crazy. However, some complete sets have sold for more than $500. That said, most singles on eBay, including a bunch of gorgeous CGC-graded examples, are around $20.

By the way, the set doesn’t appear in my 2010 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards!

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📦 REA’s Latest Auction Was Loaded With Hobby Rarities

REA closed another smashing success of a catalog auction on the 16th, led by the $1,107,000 sale of a 1952 Topps Baseball Five-Cent Wax Pack brick of eight that I had highlighted in UMR #79 and that was a star attraction at The National in Chicago.

The catalog included a lot of other scarce unopened material, a niche that continues to gain in popularity and whose items continue to, generally speaking, go exponential in price (but not all, hence why you should upgrade your subscription to get Monday’s Unopened Market Reports). Highlights included a 1986 Fleer Basketball Wax Box that sold for $239,850, a 1987 Fleer Basketball Wax Case (these cards were printed in far lower quantities than the ’86s) that sold for $332,100, a 1962 Topps Football Wax Box that sold for $196,800, a 1961 Topps Football Wax Box that sold for $221,400, a 1971 Topps Baseball First Series Wax Box that sold for $246,000, and a 1971 Topps Baseball Fourth Series Wax Box that sold for $246,000.

There’s so much to cover, but I’ll try to be brief. From a pre-war card perspective, I’ve been starting to chronicle all of the 1916 Zeenut PCL Jimmy Claxton cards (the first American-issued baseball card featuring a Black player), and REA offered a gorgeous PSA 2 example that sold for $41,820. From a Hobby Library perspective, the 1953 Glendal Meats Advertising booklet that sold for $2,829 was certainly a highlight—who knows when we’ll see another? From a memorabilia-adjacent perspective, seeing an original 1969 NBAP Member Basketball Box with the Chamberlain/Russell/West cards was a treat (it sold for $17,220), as were the Converse All Star Basketball Advertising pair that sold for $1,046 and the Feller Dreamcicle/Maris Gold Mine Icicle Advertising pair that sold for $800. I got smashed out on the 1948-52 W468 Bednarik checklist card that sold for $3,936. And from a non-sport perspective (don’t forget to subscribe to The Non-Sport Report!), a few highlights were the 1936 R144 Strange But True Stories complete set that sold for $11,685, a 1977 Topps Star Wars Fourth Series Uncut Sheet with the C-3PO Error that sold for $5,289, and the 1953 Bowman TV & Radio Stars display box that sold for $492.

And like I wasn’t going to share the four 1957 Topps Baseball Salesman Sample sales! The one with Ted Williams in the middle sold for $10,148 while the other three sold for $1,230, $738, and $800.

🏀 A Million-Dollar Lew Alcindor UCLA Jersey

I’ve been wanting to share a little more memorabilia in the newsletter, though it’s an area of the hobby where I think a healthy dose of caution is warranted. Still, when something sells for seven figures, it’s worth highlighting, especially for those of us who don’t follow the game-used market quite as closely.

Grey Flannel Auctions wrapped up its 2026 Photo-Matched Auction (their 67th offering) on August 16, and the headliner was a 1967-69 Lew Alcindor UCLA game-used jersey that sold for $1,254,918.84.

The jersey was photo-matched to the net-cutting celebration following the 1968 NCAA Championship and to the 1969 Final Four. The lot was accompanied by a Sports Investors Authentication photo-match letter (Cert. #260715M3) and a PSA photo-match letter (Cert. #AT00363), which seems about as good as you can do in this industry 🤷‍♂️.

It’s the only known photo-matched Lew Alcindor UCLA game-used jersey to have surfaced.

A few other auction highlights included a Kobe Bryant game-used jersey that sold for $257,609.10 (with an NBA COA), a Tom Brady game-used jersey that sold for $273,106.76 (with an NFL COA), and a LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers playoff game-used jersey that sold for $212,899.76 (with an NBA COA).

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🏀 Lelands’ 2026 Summer Classic Highlights

Lelands’ 2026 Summer Classic ended Saturday night, led (from a card perspective) by the sale of a fresh-to-the-hobby 1996 Flair Showcase Michael Jordan Legacy Collection Row 0 #24/150 PSA 8.5 graded card that sold for $75,729. MJ continues to dominate the modern basketball collecting landscape despite having been retired for 23 years (23!), having played his last pro game in April 2003. Or, if you’re from Chicago, his retirement came in 98/99.

If you want to try and rip a copy from a pack yourself, there’s a 1996-97 Flair Showcase box listed for $21k on eBay right now (BBCE wrapped), but I believe Legacy Collection cards (Row 0, 1, or 2) were only inserted 1:30 packs.

A few other items I wanted to highlight were a 1957 Topps Basketball PSA 7 Wax Pack with Bob Pettit showing on the back that sold for $70,066 (my blog post tracking sales of these packs has been updated), an SGC 4 graded 1948 1949 Leaf Jackie Robinson that sold for $24,653, and the highest-graded 1962 Wilt Chamberlain 100-point Game Ticket Stub that sold for $48,814 (though it is marked on the back, some argue it improves the item).

💰 Goldin’s 7th Monthly Sports Elite Auction

Goldin’s 7th Monthly Sports Elite Auction of 2026 ended on the 15th, with some of its pricier items being a 1998 Pokemon Japanese Promos CoroCoro Comics Holo Illustrator Pikachu that sold for $1,006,500, a 2024-25 UD Young Guns Outburst Gold 1/1 Macklin Celebrini that sold for $1,281,000 (more than his salary this year), and a 2015-16 Panini Flawless Greats Dual Memorabilia Auto Emerald Kobe Bryant that sold for $367,830, among its 38 six-figure sales.

Gosh, modern card titles are LONG!

Three other items you may have missed amongst the glitz and glam were an SGC 10 1976 Topps #148 Walter Payton RC that sold for $39,755, the only PSA-certified Type 1 photo of Barkley, Ewing, Malone, Magic, and MJ used for the Dream Team SI cover that sold for $36,957, and an awesome 1976-77 Topps Basketball uncut sheet of 72 tall boy basketball cards that sold for $5,490.

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A handful of vintage GAI-graded Topps baseball wax packs with some pretty desirable cards showing on the back have sold on eBay over the past couple of weeks, so I thought they were worth sharing and taking a closer look at. Someone actually reached out to me while the auctions were still running and asked what I thought of the packs, so I spent a little more time looking through the photos than I otherwise might have.

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✍️ Yesterday’s Heroes and a Signed 1948 Bowman Flashback

Last week, Yesterday’s Heroes posted a few more of his pickups from the National, which included these six awesome signed 1948 Bowman baseball cards (plus a Joe DiMaggio-signed index card).

I was once just a few cards away from completing the 1948 Bowman set signed, and the reason I started it was simple: these black-and-white cards look incredible autographed. The signatures, especially in blue, just pop off the cards.

I joked that maybe one or two of his had once belonged to me, but it turns out that wasn’t true. Here are the same players that once resided in my PC.

And here are a few of the bigger stars I used to own. I know I had Spahn too, just can’t track down the scan.

If you’re considering jumping into this set today, Yesterday’s Heroes did mention that they can be hard to comp, but there are quite a few signed copies available for sale on eBay right now, including a few nice Stan Musial examples.

📝 On The Blog

The newsletter covers the day-to-day, but there’s always more happening on the blog. Here’s what was published over the past week.

• The Hobby Library Strikes Again: Bob Lemke’s “The Bowmans That Never Were”

• Introducing PostWarCards Wire: A New Home for Hobby News

• Building the Complete 1957 Topps Baseball Wrapper Run

🎞️ A Topps Vault Color Negative That Actually Got Used

You’ve seen me say a few times that most Topps Vault color negatives went unused, so seeing ones that were actually used is rare. Well, here’s another for a player you may not recognize: Willie Alexander, who played nine seasons, all for the Houston Oilers.

You may not have noticed the color negative since it’s being advertised as being from 1963, when it’s actually a match for his 1973 Topps rookie card (he had a 1972 Sunoco Stamps card, too). The photo negative is available on eBay for $45.

Here it is next to the priciest sale of his rookie card, a Pop 2 Gem Mint 10 copy that sold for $209.50 in March 2018. Card Ladder now estimates its value at $1,386.

Also, what are the chances that all four of Alexander’s solo Topps cards used photos from the same shoot?!?! They at least all appear to be from the same location.