1953 Glendale Meats (F-151) Prize Album
 

Wish to clarify the status of the seldom seen "Glendale Album" which pictures all 28 of the individual Tiger cards. Often referred to a promotional or salesman's item it's actually the (consolation) prize in the card return contest.
On the back of the card you're told to collect and return as many of the cards as you can. Three first prizes (World Series tickets) were to be awarded. The next 150 submissions were awarded the "valuable prize". Basically the album was returned but the submitted cards weren't. A neighbor kid, who paid the ladies on his paper route 1c per Glendale, submitted 86 (or 68) hoping to score WS tickets. I was standing there when he opened the envelope got the album instead of the tickets. Disgusted that he didn't win and had lost all his cards, he immediately sold it to me for a nickel. (See scan Wright's page )
Underneath the card front on a player's page is printed the back text-- 9 nine of the cards have status update : Friend, Houtteman and Wright traded to Cleveland; Erickson sold St.Paul, Sullivan to Little Rock, Foytack, Jordan, Madison, Carswell to Buffalo. It's possible that the booklet exists w/o the updates. Never heard who (if anyone) got the WS tickets.

Wow!
 

Great memories! Not for your friend though! ugh!

:eek:

John:

Never saw or knew of the Glendale Album. SO COOL! Great to see such rare items.

What else are you going to share? Can't wait

In the redemption process you described, how does the short printed Houtteman come in to play? Did all grand prize winners have to have a complete set including the Houtteman? Very interesting story, thanks for posting.

Really fantastic recollection! I love hearing these stories.

That is a great item! The only other I have seen is the one REA had many moons ago.

I love this set and stupidly sold all my examples during one of my collection turnovers about a decade ago. I'll rebuild one of these days.

I did keep this Houtteman press photo from early on when Historic started posting the Detroit News archives for sale. There was some great stuff that popped up.

You might recognize this pose...

Why does there appear to be short prints if you could send in any of the cards ?
Any opinions ??

I always thought maybe that 4 players ( Houtteman, Ginsberg, Friend and Wright) were pulled from the set after the June 15th , 1953 trade. Three others only played briefly ( Carswell from 4/17 to 5/30, Jordan ( 4/16 to 5/10 and Sullivan last game was 5/16.

Wonder who sent in the most cards and how many ???? Somebody out there went to the World Series !

John: Great Album and better story. Look forward to seeing you at National.

I always wondered the same. Hoeft is also listed as a scarcity. Houtteman was listed as being disproportionately more rare than the other 3 in the trade for some reason. The original VCBC article (Spring 2003) also speculates on the 3 "winners" watching the World Series and if they ate Stahl-Meyer or Glendale Meat hot dogs. Interesting stuff for an oddball set.

Houtteman was traded by the Tigers in June of 1953. I think it had more to do with that than with intentionally making it rare.

John: Any estimates of how many complete sets exist ?

Of the '53 Glendale Meats collector's I have communicated with, only 1 of us had completed the set. He had picked up the rare 4 early on and snagged the rest over the ensuing years in the pre-internet days.

Following is the VCBC article on Glendale Meats, from VCBC #36, Spring 2003.

Since this thread was created a number of Ginsberg's have popped up. I was able to acquire one, which is the last of the tough 4 (Houtteman, Wight, Ginsberg and Friend) to complete the set. It is incredibly tough to find nicely graded cards