1948 topps "magic photos"
 

Can anyone suggest a Gridiron Greats or other article to learn more about this set? I recently added one to my collection although I don't have it in hand yet. I know its a multi-sport set with two football subsets and that collectors were expected to develop these themselves so I'm guessing they didn't know what player they got until the card was developed which is kind of cool. I also believe its the first Topps set of any kind? Thanks.

Hi John,

Issue #9 and #19 of GG both have information about this set according to my database.

jeff

Thanks Jeff!

Here's one for the database. Also, two different Albums. Variations exist on the front...sold my set years ago in Heritage. I actually had the send away-envelope and still have some of its contents. A real challenge to complete.

"Dogs" seem to be the toughest. 2nd series football tougher than first. Dilemma higher grade and light picture or better developed picture. I like the better picture.

Thanks Carl. I would go for the better developed picture too. I picked up a psa 4 George Connor that I thought had a pretty well developed picture relative to the other ones I'd seen.

I got curious about the history after seeing that great image of a box you posted and found what Topps had to say on their site. They list this set as 1949, but other than that confirm that it was the first set with trading cards and they were issued undeveloped (I had never personally thought about this set before recently.):

https://www.topps.com/corporate/history

Pretty sad they have so many incorrect facts about their own history on the official website.

Yeah, the 1948 date is right on the wrapper. Did you catch other errors?

This reminds me, here is an image of the example I picked up. I'm also interested in the Bednarik and Walker at some point. Seems like the odds would have been against 3 HOFers with such a small subset of football players included.