Little Sun Cards/Glory of Their Times
 

I’m working on picking up cards of the pre-war players profiled in Lawerence Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times and stumbled upon this 1990 Little Sun card of him. Looks like it’s the only card of him and it was cheap so I couldn’t resist. Figured it would be a fun addition to the collection.
Does anyone know anything about this company? Looks like they were out of Monrovia, CA but I can’t find anything else about the company. Not sure if their primary business was making cards or if they were a publishing house that used this card set to promote authors’ books. Would be interested in knowing more.
Also, if you have any suggestions for other collectibles related to The Glory of Their Times please let me know. I’ll add this card to the autographed copy of the book I have.

It may be the same company that made the 1992 High School Prospect card of Derek Jeter.

Little Sun did indeed make the high school prospect sets, including the Jeter. The 1990 Baseball Writers set is one of their rarer sets, but Little Sun is not really a recognized company by most collectors.

Here’s a little write up
https://sportscardinfo.wordpress.com...pany-relevant/

Completely disagree about Little Sun. Many collectors collect the Manny Ramirez and the Derek Jeter Pre rookie cards from Little Sun set. The owner of Little Sun decided to stop making cards in late 90s or early 2000s. Check out what a Little Sun Jeter Auto sells for or an unopened sealed set.

Little Sun never made larger print runs and normally kept it small as I’m thinking it was 3K for the Jeter and 5k for Manny . It wasn't until later after Little Sun stop producing cards did the reprints start coming out.

I remember hearing how Star wasn’t a recognized card company and check out the Jordan cards now.

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I wasn’t demeaning Little Sun, just that they have little knowledge or recognition from the majority of collectors. The initial post starting this thread is an example of that.

They are certainly not Broders, but more TCMA in my mind. Some of which have strong values.

I do see no comparison to Star however. Star had a NBA license and created professional cards which include true rookies of many of the greatest players of the 80s. Little Sun has Jeters high school card, Manny and a couple other players that made the show , but no other superstars. It is truly the inclusion of the auto cards in those sets that gave a memorable impression

Ah, TCMA I'm familiar with - thanks for highlighting them as a benchmark.

Their first release was a set of 15 Black Sox cards, a lot cheaper look than the later sets. I've always assumed this was effectively a one or two man operation rather than a real 'company'. Presumably this 1988 set was released to tie into the Eight Men Out movie without any official blessing from anyone. One of the few cards of Rothstein is in it, and also one of Abe Attell chilling on the beach (I bought the set for him). Supposedly limited to 5,000 copies like some of their other sets, but there's not really much of a way to know if that's true or not.

The late 80's and early 90's had a lot of fun little amateur sets like these getting in on the baseball card trend as the hobby exploded. They are mostly all cheap but lots of fun and range all over the map in scarcity.

The players used to send signed copies of yellow TGOTT informational cards to those requesting autographs. You can find those on eBay fairly often. Seems like Fred Snodgrass and Harry Hooper signed a bunch of those. Rube Marquard promoted the book in return letters to fans. And there are letters between the players and Larry Ritter in the hobby, as well as royalty checks endorsed by the players. It’s a fun little niche, which crosses over into my T206 player autograph pursuits.

Here is an example (not mine):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185394156881

Nice picture of Larry. Never seen that card before, makes me wonder if he ever got one or even knew. As for memorabilia, the royalty checks from Ritter to the players, of which the original universe has to be in the several hundreds, are great, and pop up from time to time. Value would depend on the player and their endorsement. And Larry did sign a quantity of "Glory" copies, including that entry in a set of famous baseball books that came out sometime in the 90s, but unfortunately without dust jackets. I've seen those go for cheap. There are the two record albums that came out in 1966 in promotion of the book, produced by Larry from the original tapes and issued by his publisher, MacMillan. One of those is a gorgeous "gatefold" edition typical of that golden era of LPs. When Neal McCabe and I worked with Larry on the four-CD audio set of "Glory," I of course got Larry to sign everything I had collected as a fan of the book, and my file of correspondence with him, mostly in the course of producing that set in the mid-90s, is one heck of a collectible all its own. As for the Little Sun card, I think if more collector fans of GOTT knew about it, it would have achieved some status in the hobby. And the legend of Larry and "Glory" will only grow in time, I predict.

The man behind "Little Sun" was the late Terry Cannon. He liked to produce items in overlooked areas of the hobby and sports. He is also the man behind the Baseball Reliquary, which recognized many unsung heroes. His sets of cards may not be mainstream, but they have a niche market, like Charles Mandel at Helmar.

Here's the promo card for the 1919 Black Sox Scandal Set of 15 cards:

Very cool to have the experience of working directly with Larry on the audio side. You're correct about the autographed editions. An autographed first ed/first printing was sold last year for a few hundred bucks but other copies/versions are easy to find and quite affordable. Will have to keep my eyes out for the royalty checks - didn't know about them. Thanks for background.

Thanks for the tips! Made a few purchases on ebay last night.

Thanks for the comments everyone - gone down a few more rabbit holes already!