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Go Back   Net54baseball.com Forums > Net54baseball Postwar Sportscard Forums > Postwar Baseball Cards Forum (Pre-1980)

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Old 10-13-2019, 05:12 PM
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akleinb611 akleinb611 is offline
Al@n Kle!nberger
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Default 1961/62 Topps Stamps

I hope that you folks don't think I'm using this site to toot my own horn, but I wrote an article for Sports Collectors Digest about 10 years ago that I'd like to present once again for the collecting community. It covers the stamp premiums issued with Topps baseball sets in 1961 and 1962. Writing for SCD back in the day didn't afford me the kind of instant feedback that's available today, and I'm genuinely interested in what everyone here thinks of the article and of the sets discussed.

SCD doesn't have this article available on line on their website, so I've cut and pasted it from my own manuscript (I've long since lost track of the tearsheets I kept, so no pdf is available).

TOPPS 1961/1962 BASEBALL STAMPS – A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA


After Topps bought out all of Bowman’s assets from the estate of that company’s founder early in 1956, they probably thought they had clear sailing from that point on. Topps had the entire sports card market to themselves - for about three years, until Fleer decided to get into the act. Their eighty-card set devoted entirely to all time great Ted Williams did pretty well in 1959, and they followed up with a set of Baseball All Time Greats (we kids called them “Oldtimers Cards”) in 1960 and 1961. They also entered the football card market by locking up the rights to the upstart AFL, competing directly with Topps and their NFL card sets. Someone at Topps decided that something must be done.

Their answer, in part, was the concept of inserts, little extras that would be included in each pack, in addition to the cards and the gum. This is pretty interesting when you consider that baseball cards themselves began life as inserts. Even as late as the Sixties, there were references to the fact that Topps was, in theory at least, selling kids their gum, with the sports cards thrown in as an extra. Yeah, right. At least half of the kids would toss the gum as they examined the cards. How many kids do you think tossed the cards so they could concentrate on chewing the gum?

What young buyers were getting were inserts with their inserts. There’s either a joke here, or a profound philosophical insight. I’m not sure which. What’s undeniable is that from 1960 until 1973, Topps offered some kind of “extra” with each of its baseball sets, sometimes more than one type of insert over the course of the season. The last significant extras were offered in 1973, the final year Topps issues its baseball sets in series form.

It’s also possible that Topps wasn’t goaded into this marketing ploy by Fleer’s threatened competition at all. Baseball in 1960 was at a crossroads. There had been talk of expansion in the air for some time, and by 1960 it was confirmed that the major leagues would be adding teams for the first time since the start of the century. Everyone felt that the game was entering a new era, and it wouldn’t have been unlikely that Topps felt it should step things up a notch.

After a perfunctory set of tattoos in 1960, Topps celebrated the big expansion year of 1961 with a truly impressive idea. Topps presented the kids of America with a pretty substantial series of stamps, over 200 of them, each one showcasing a different player. One could say that it was the first parallel set, sort of.

The stamps appeared in either the first or second series of that year’s set (I’m working from memory here, folks), and they sure were distinctive. Each was less than half the size of a card, at 1 3/8” x 1 7/8”, and was printed in a single color, bright green. Because of the small size, the stamps consisted uniformly of head shots.

More important was the issue of what you do with stamps. You stick them someplace, of course! And Topps had the answer. For only ten cents, a mere dime, any kid could buy a special album for those baseball stamps, available at the same candy shop that sold the cards. The album, featuring a bright green cover, was a fairly basic affair. Measuring about 5” x 8”, the album had a two page spread reserved for each of the eighteen teams playing major league ball that season. Each double page had a list of the pennants that team had won, team pitching and batting records, ballpark dimensions and stats, and also a list of the years they had won the World Championship. That all appeared on the left-hand side of the spread. On the right, there were ten blank rectangles, designed to hold the stamps of that team’s players.

The problem is that for the most part, Topps issued more than ten players per team. In fact, the entire 1961 stamp set totals 208 stamps, and with eighteen teams that year, it’s obvious that the math just isn’t right. This fact is borne out when you look at the albums that have survived in the hobby, many of which are well filled. It’s not uncommon for a particular team’s page to have all ten boxes filled, and with some extra players pasted to the left hand page, the inside covers of the album, or anywhere else they would fit.

It’s important to remember that this was a product that was aimed at kids, and kids don’t always take these products seriously. I recall that nobody thought that these stamps were “real,” at least not in the sense that the baseball cards themselves were “real.” As spring gave way to summer and school approached its end, you would find random stamps stuck to the backs of seats in the school auditorium, to the covers of students’ composition notebooks, everywhere really. They were stamps, so they were designed to be stuck.

After a couple of card series came and went, there was a surprise waiting for us in the packs. A new series of players appeared, this time on stamps that were colored a rich chocolate-like brown. This constituted the second half of the stamp issue. There were a few interesting differences between the two series, that clearly indicated that the green stamps had been prepared quite early in the year, earlier in fact than all but the earliest series of cards. First off, the green series featured at least one player depicted with the wrong team, his 1960 team, a player whose 1961 card showed him with his new affiliation. That was pitcher Joe Jay, the big hurler who had played for the Milwaukee Braves since coming up as a bonus baby in the early Fifties, and who was traded to the Cincinnati Reds during the off-season. He’s a Red on his 1961 (mid-series) card, but he’s still a Brave on his green stamp.

The player he was traded for was shortstop Roy McMillan, who turns up in the brown series, using the same photo used in the card set – showing him with his correct new team, the Braves.

Additionally, the green series features a couple of players who didn’t even get a card in the regular set. Bob Hartman is shown with the A’s; he had a rookie card in the 1960 set, but by the time Topps put together their 1961 set, he was gone from the majors for good. Even more interesting is the strange case of Frank “Pancho” Herrera. The Phillies infielder had been in the majors and in Topps’ sets for several years, and he has a green stamp in the mix. But the only card he has in the 1961 regular set is a high number series All-Star card – no regular card in his name at all. And that was it for Herrera in the majors.

Even more interestingly, the two expansion clubs, the new Washington Senators (the old Senators having moved to Minnesota) and the Angels ONLY appear in the brown series. Collectors who had been eager to see what the new clubs’ uniforms would look like just had to wait. The brown series had obviously been prepared after the season began, and so they were able to show the players in their new duds.

It’s also interesting to consider the fact that Topps was able to scrape together only seven stamps each for the two expansion clubs. Young collectors would have been left with three blank spots on each of those pages, while overflowing with players for most of the other teams. The fact that the set consisted of 208 stamps makes up an odd number. Is it possible that the set was supposed to showcase 180 stamps, ten for each team, and was expanded to over 200 at the last minute? That’s exactly what happened to the 1962 Salada coin set, so it may also have happened here.

There are also some enduring mysteries to the set’s player selection, interesting grist for speculation. The most obvious of these is that there two Al Kaline stamps, one green and one brown. They use different photos, and one wonders if Topps simply lost track of who had appeared in the first series and who had not. Kaline was a fine player, but he’s an odd choice for a double-dip.

There are also some notable omissions among the players involved. The Dodgers showcase most of their top players, but Sandy Koufax is nowhere to be found. It’s true that by the end of the 1960 season, Koufax had just begun to come out of his early career funk, and he was not yet established as the astounding and dynamic pitcher he was soon to become. Still, he was already promising enough to be included. But he wasn’t.

Also among the missing is Bob Gibson with the Cardinals set. Again, it’s true that he had only two seasons under his belt at that point and was not yet the perennial All Star that he soon became. But it feels odd that he’s not there.

Most puzzling is the non-appearance of Roberto Clemente (or “Bob” Clemente as he was still known on his Topps cards). Clemente had been in the league since 1955, and he had already established himself as a rising star, even as a major star. He had batted .310 with three RBI in the previous year’s World Series victory against the Yankees, and yet there’s no sign of him at all in this set. Puzzling.

Overall, the set gives collectors a nice selection of rookies (seven of them, or 3.4% of the set) and of Hall of Famers (a whopping 28, or 13.5% of the set). No less than 48 of the stamps use the same photo that was used in the regular set that year (23%), as well as many photos that were used over the course of the next few years. Topps had a vast photo library, that’s for sure.

As for prices, like so many of the inserts of the Sixties, the stamps remain relatively affordable due to low interest, a relatively low profile leading to a lack of awareness on the part of the collecting public, and some concerns about condition. The stamps were printed on rather thin paper, after all, so they have a tendency to show every dent, ding and crease. Then there’s the question of whether or not a stamp can be considered to be in top condition if it no longer has the glue intact on the back.

The reason for that last concern is that the stamps frequently turn up having been soaked out of an album. It’s been 25 years since I saw any large mint dealer’s lot offered, but a quick look at Ebay shows that many of the albums have survived and are regularly offered. Many of the albums have a substantial number of stamps in them. It’s relatively easy to remove the album’s staples, soak the pages individually to get the stamps off, dry everything carefully, and wind up with a presentable (empty) album as well as any number of stamps.

Prices on Ebay vary. I haven’t seen any complete sets lately, but albums with varying amounts of stamps go for between $25 and $100, depending of course on how many stamps there are, and on who’s included. Long story short, there’s the Mantle factor. If Mickey’s in there, that’ll add $15 to $20 to the price. Individually, common players go for between $1 to $3 mostly, with Hall of Famers between $5 and $10, and Mantle going for $25, give or take.

Then there are the attached pairs to consider. The stamps were originally issued in pairs, attached with a small white tab on one side. Some of these have survived in the hobby, and so a brave few have tried to collect the set this way – in spite of the fact that there are multiple permutations of players. Expect to pay a premium for such untouched pieces.

That’s about all for the 1961 stamps, which gave kids everywhere a little something extra for their nickels and dimes. The response must have been pretty good – because the stamps were back the next year. The big difference for the new, improved 1962 stamps can be summed up in a single word – COLOR!!

That’s right, Topps eagerly moved the technology bandwagon forward. Like the previous year, the stamps were offered in pairs in wax and cellophane wrapped packs of cards. Like the previous year, an album was offered for a dime at the local candy store, to be filled up by eager kids happily licking the stamps. But there were also a few differences.

As mentioned already, the stamps were in color. The design was a little bit plainer, so as not to distract from the color portrait. Each player was shown from the neck up, against a single-color background, consisting of either bright yellow or orange-red. Interestingly, there was no pattern to the yellow or red backgrounds. Unlike the green or brown stamps of the previous year, the different colors were issued at the same time, often appearing together on the attached strips of two found in each pack.

The album offered as a final resting place for the stamps was distinctly different in a number of ways. The cover was a bright orange rather than green, and instead of featuring a close-up drawing of a batter, it featured a full drawing of a pitcher in mid-stride.

Inside was the most dramatic change from the previous year. Each pair of pages set aside for the twenty major league teams (the New York Mets and the Houston Colt 45’s having joined the National League) featured photos of the stamps themselves in the album. That’s right; no more improvisation was required; you knew exactly which players made up the set and which ones you were missing, because black and white pictures of the entire set were provided.

Also, the team histories were replaced by each player’s vital stats for the previous season and for his career, nine players per team.

What’s that? You thought that the set consisted of 200 stamps, ten per team? You’re correct, but that total only takes into account nine players per team – and a team logo stamp. That’s right, a colorful team logo was included for every team, to be placed at the head of each team’s album page.

I distinctly remember that our reaction to those logos at the time could be summed with the phrase – “nuts.” We hated those things. We thought that they were a waste of time, and that they might as well have been team cards or checklists.

Aesthetically, it’s a judgment call as to which set was more pleasing. There are many who will always prefer color to black and white (or green or brown as the case may be). But the color process was by no means perfected by 1962 – the stamps suffered from slight registry problems, so many of them do seem a bit blurry. A greater number of the 1962 stamps seem to turn up badly miscut, for reasons that aren’t clear.

The makeup of the set is roughly the same as the previous year – there are 27 Hall of Famers (13% of the set), and 28 of the stamps (13.5%) use the same photos as that year’s card set. Only two of the players in the set can be termed rookies (Ty Cline and Bob Rodgers). And only one player is shown with the “wrong” team – pitcher Bob Shaw is shown with the Kansas City A’s, whereas his card (appearing in the set’s first series) has his affiliation updated to show him with the Milwaukee Braves. That seems to indicate that the stamp set was prepared really, really early in the 1961/1962 off-season.

As for players among the missing, Koufax and Clemente made it to the 1962 set, but Bob Gibson is STILL not there. Of course, the 1962 set is more exclusive than the previous year was—Topps went from producing 208 stamps showing 207 different players, in a season with 18 teams in the majors - to producing a set with only 180 players spread over 20 teams. Not many marginal players making the cut.

The mint attached pairs seem to have survived a bit more plentifully for the 1962 set than for the previous year, but it’s not a big difference. In fact, most values for the two sets are about the same, whether it’s for commons, Hall of Famers or for the albums.

One thing that should be addressed is the question of rarities and varieties. There aren’t any. That’s right, as far as I can tell, there are no stamps that are any tougher to find than any other stamps.

That’s particularly important for the 1962 set, because there’s an ongoing urban legend about Roy Sievers. Sievers, a heavy hitting first baseman whose career stretched from the early Fifties to the mid-Sixties, was with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1962, and he’s shown with them in that year’s album. However, most checklists for the set, including SCD’s ultimate checklist book, list a variation that shows Sievers with the Kansas City Athletics. I’m here to say that this stamp is probably an urban legend.

I’ve been collecting for a long, long time, and I’ve never seen a Sievers stamp showing him with the A’s, nor have I ever spoken with anyone who actually had one, or has even seen one. It doesn’t make any sense anyway; Sievers never played for the Athletics. The best theory I’ve heard, which I heard somewhere, sometime, from someone (there’s a clear-cut citation!), is that some long-ago collector who assembled an early checklist (remember, there was no organized hobby at the time) noted that Sievers was with “Philadelphia” and absentmindedly listed him with the Athletics – remember that in 1962, the A’s had only been in Kansas City for eight years.

Anyway, unless some reader can send me a photocopy of the Sievers Athletics stamp or some other proof, I think we can go ahead with the assumption that the 1962 set consists of 200 stamps – 180 players and 20 team emblems.

So, that sums up Topps’ first two major insert sets, those little something extras they threw in for the price of a pack. They’re unique and collectible, and they deserve the interest of true hobbyists – to say nothing of the fact that they’re still a real bargain.
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Old 10-13-2019, 06:17 PM
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J0hn Raff3rty
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Thanks for the article. They are definitely important pieces for those supercollectors who want every card from their favorite player's playing days.
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Old 10-13-2019, 07:39 PM
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Very good article. Thanks for posting, Alan. I have both sets and a blank album for both years. But my sets are in singles with only a few example panels.

Agree with you on the Sievers. I looked for it a long time because as you note it was in the SCD Catalog. I once asked Bob Lemke about it and he said he usually did not include something in the Catalog unless he had seen some example or proof but he could not specifically recall seeing the Sievers. I think he may have even later asked for verification in an SCD article or his blog but do not believe any example showed up. Your explanation about it's origin is certainly possible

Last edited by ALR-bishop; 10-13-2019 at 07:41 PM.
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Old 10-13-2019, 09:17 PM
Rich Klein Rich Klein is offline
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Sometimes back in the day, Larry Fritsch would say he owned a certain variation of a card and no one else ever found any of them. There is a funky last text line on the 1968 Bill Stoneman and the 1959 Bill White supposedly has both a trade and no trade line. Neither have ever been found but IIRC the rumours of both variations came from Fritsch.

I'm sure there are others as well. Some of which (T-206 Doyle) are later proven to be true so keep looking as one never knows

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Old 10-14-2019, 07:54 AM
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Rich-- I looked for the White as well. It was never in SCD but I had heard the rumors. Did not know Fritsch was the source. I had not heard about Stoneman. What is the "variation" for it ?
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Old 10-14-2019, 09:15 AM
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Cliff Bowman Cliff Bowman is offline
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The last line on the 1968 Bill Stoneman bio is cut off at ‘Bill was used sparingly but still’. For years there has been mention of a card that has the incomplete sentence omitted but I am convinced it doesn’t exist. I have the card in Topps, OPC, Milton Bradley, and Venezuelan and all of them have the incomplete sentence.
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Last edited by Cliff Bowman; 10-14-2019 at 09:26 AM. Reason: Grammar
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Old 10-14-2019, 11:56 AM
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Thanks Cliff




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Old 10-14-2019, 04:25 PM
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Alan,
nice research and great article...I say you gotta toot it ..you have to !
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Old 10-14-2019, 05:37 PM
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Thanks for posting that Alan. I fell in love with the '61 stamps when my friends and I were pulling them out of packs. A few years ago I found a decent album with a few stamps in it and decided to make filling it up a casual project.

It's been a lot of fun. I'm about 3/4 of the way there. Some teams have a slot or two open. For some reason filling the Cleveland page has proven tough, I need seven of them to fill the 12 spots. I'll get there.

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Last edited by commishbob; 10-14-2019 at 05:40 PM.
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Old 10-15-2019, 06:21 PM
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Great read I think your 180 theory is correct, the math sure works.
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