1971 House of Jazz Baseball Set
 

Wow is this an esoteric set. A small record shop in Glenside, PA produced these cards that are reminiscent of the Bond Bread cards. It's a tribute set to retired players. There are 35 in the set but two are super short printed Stan Lopata and Mickey Mantle. Story is that they were pulled before the set started circulating. Apparently you got one card with each record purchase at the house of Jazz. Some of these actually have a House of Jazz return address label on the blank reverse!

We'll have 33/35 in an upcoming auction, not sure when just yet. Will post pictures soon, but would love if anyone has a Lopata or a Mantle or any other knowledge on this set to share it here!

Nice find Scott!

Very, very, difficult set to find. I searched a few years for the Herman Franks card after I learned of their existence. They showed up in the Beckett Almanac one year with no sample pic if I remember correctly.

Not sure if we're going to break it for player/team collectors or sell it as a near set. The consignor is from the Glenside area, so I assume there are likely more of them in that area. He didn't even mention them when we were going over things lol.

TCDB has the set listed with only a handul of scans but does have scans of the Lopata and the Mantle, and the Franks.

Love that set, great pick up Scott.

House of Jazz
 

Scott:

I am from the Philly area and had a complete set of these back in the day. Just have Ashburn left. Sold quite a few on ebay years back and got some good prices and some not so good as would be expected.

They are one of the early "collector" or "Broder"issued sets. It is widely held that Ted Taylor was the creator of these sets. Ted along with Bob Schmierer ran the original Philly show at various locations, most notably at Willow Grove, and Fort Washington, PA.

Not sure if Ted ever "came clean" about these being his work, but that was and is the general feeling among us old head Philly are collectors.

Good Luck with them in your auction

Great info, thanks Fred! I assumed something like that which is why I was surprised PSA graded them! I was a regular attendee at Fort Washington, but Willow Grove was before I came to PA.