Stan Musial Topps card question

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Posted By: Doug

How come Stan Musial is pictured on the '56 and '57 Topps Cardinals team cards and has a '58 Topps All Star card, but doesn't get a regular issue card until '59?

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Posted By: Ejm1

Guess...58 was a high number and topps and Stan hammered out a deal in time for it to appear. The other two don't really know, maybe had a deal with MLB for team photos and since Stan was not under contract with another card co. his image was used.

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Posted By: Red

He is also on the 1951 Topps team card. He was one of the top heavyweight stars of the era so like Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle he was able to shop himself around for better endorsement deals. Bowman kept him away from Topps in the early years and then he probably made good money with Rawlings for a while. Topps probably came up with a good deal for him then in 1958. You can probably get the whole story here. http://www.stan-the-man.com/

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Posted By: Doug

I figured maybe it was a contract issue, but he doesn't have any Bowman or Topps cards in '54 and '55. The theory about him signing a deal with Topps late in '58 makes sense, but does that mean they didn't have to have his permission to use his image on the '56 and '57 team cards? I guess another option is that he had a contract with Bowman that ran out in '53 and he just wasn't in any hurry to sign another deal.

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

Musial AS (and Mantle AS) are triple prints. 4 other common cards were pulled from the sheetto cover the extra prints (I have those names somewhere) and they are harder to find than normal commons.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Here's the pattern....it's interesting how these 2 Stars alternated every 2 years at the beginning.

1948 Bowman....Musial

1949 Bowman....Musial

1950 Bowman....Williams

1951 Bowman....Williams

1952 Bowman....Musial....(Williams in Korean war)
1952 Berk-Ross....Musial and Williams

1953 Bowman....Musial....(Williams in Korean war)

1954 Topps.......Williams (#1 and #250)......Topps VP, Sy Berger, was an avid Ted Williams fan.

1954 Bowman....Williams (removed due to contract dispute with Topps)

1955 Topps.......Williams

1956 Topps.......Williams

1957 Topps.......Williams

1958 Topps.......Williams (#2 and All-Star)
1958 Topps.......Musial (All-Star)

1959 Topps.......Musial

1959 Fleer........Williams (Fleer outbid Topps for the rights to Ted)


TED Z

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Posted By: Paul

Ted, I've always thought the alternating Musial / Williams thing was interesting too, with no real explanation for it.

I still don't understand why there is no regular 58 Topps Musial. If Topps had enough time to prepare an All Star card, they had enough time to prepare a regular card. My theory has always been that Sport Magazine (which sponsored the Topps all star cards in 1958) had Musial's permission to use his picture in any way they wanted, so they allowed Topps to include him in their All Star subset.

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Posted By: dennis

i was told a long time ago that the reason musial had no cards issued in 1955,1956,1957& 1958 was that he had signed an exclusive 4 year contract with rawlings. the contract expired in mid 58 and then topps was able to use his image in the late series as back then that series came out a few months after the 1st series. so his 54 red heart was his last card till the all star issue in 58.

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Posted By: Wayne Grove

We had Musial at a card show in Dallas in the 1980's and we asked him the question of why he was not on any cards from 54 to 58. His reply to us was that he would not sign a contract to be included because they did not offer enough money. He said that he thought he was worth more than the small amount they were offering. Guess we would have to agree considering they were not offered much back then. Guess also that he changed his mind sometime during the 1958 season.

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Posted By: Doug

I guess either Topps offered him more money in '58 or he decided something was better than nothing. Thanks for the info!