Here's a real rarity 1964 Sports Hereos Sticker sheet

[whiteymet]

1964 Sports Heroes Sticker sheet. They were part of a 1964 promotion for the "High Point Chamber of Commerce Night" held at Finch Field, home to the High Point-Thomasville Hi-Toms baseball team.

The Hi-Toms were a Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, in the Western Carolinas League. Seems they were given out just one night at the minor league park!

Mickey Mantle cut off a sheet sold for $15,600 last fall in and REA auction See:

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/bids/bidplace...

Here is a sheet with two HOFer's Mays and McCovey. With a graded Mays that has been sold

The sheet will be finding a new home soon

[ALR-bishop]

Neat item Fred

[raulus]

Thanks Fred for helping me to track down the Mays that I was missing!

[ALBB]

Thats a near impossible Mays item !
very cool

[nolemmings]

Really cool. I wonder though if the set isn't really from 1965. Here is a newspaper clipping from The High Point Enterprise Mon Jul 5 1965:

Another article from the same week said that this was the second year for a Chamber of Commerce Night, meaning I suppose the decals/stickers could have been issued in 1964 also, but it seems like this describes what you have shown, and would tell us the max number made was 4000, which I assume includes multiple teams.

EDITED TO ADD: I reviewed the articles more closely, and they do not mention a prior Chamber of Commerce Night; rather, the references to a second such night were made because the original game was rained out and played the following day, July 6, 1965, as part of a doubleheader. So I cannot confirm there was any such game in 1964, and it looks like the decals/stickers were handed out July 6, 1965-- perhaps also on the 5th if the crowd was allowed in before the game was called.

[raulus]

Thanks to Fred for hooking me up with the complete sheet on the left, and the solo Mays PSA piece to add to my existing sheet on the right.

[AustinMike]

Originally Posted by raulus

Thanks to Fred for hooking me up with the complete sheet on the left, and the solo Mays PSA piece to add to my existing sheet on the right.

Hi Nicolo,

I have a couple of questions/observations.

Does the solo Mays have a blue tint whereas the Mays' on the full sheet do not? If so, does that mean there are two possible variations for each player?

I have a solo Mantle sticker and it has a blue tint. The complete sheet that Fred linked to at REA has a Mantle with a blue tint also. I'm wondering whether I should be looking for a Mantle without the blue tint.

In addition, I find it strange that the two sheets you have contain four Giants on each sheet (with Mays being on each sheet) whereas the REA complete sheet had three Tigers and Mantle. That makes me very curious regarding how it was determined which stickers to place on each sheet. Although it's a very small sample size, the three sheets I've seen tend to indicate that there might be more Mays and Mantle stickers than other players.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by AustinMike

Hi Nicolo,

I have a couple of questions/observations.

Does the solo Mays have a blue tint whereas the Mays' on the full sheet do not? If so, does that mean there are two possible variations for each player?

I have a solo Mantle sticker and it has a blue tint. The complete sheet that Fred linked to at REA has a Mantle with a blue tint also. I'm wondering whether I should be looking for a Mantle without the blue tint.

In addition, I find it strange that the two sheets you have contain four Giants on each sheet (with Mays being on each sheet) whereas the REA complete sheet had three Tigers and Mantle. That makes me very curious regarding how it was determined which stickers to place on each sheet. Although it's a very small sample size, the three sheets I've seen tend to indicate that there might be more Mays and Mantle stickers than other players.

It turns out that your tint suspicions are correct. The single is definitely very blue, while the sheets are very much gray/black.

I don’t know much about the various sheet configurations, as these are the only two sheets that I’ve ever owned. I will say that the individual pieces are not well secured to the sheet, so they could theoretically be moved around onto different sheets. I’ve never attempted to move them around, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some enterprising collector could manage it without anyone being the wiser.

[AustinMike]

Originally Posted by raulus

It turns out that your tint suspicions are correct. The single is definitely very blue, while the sheets are very much gray/black.

Hmm, that makes me wonder if these were produced and handed out during two different years. Everyone identifies these as 1964, although the article Todd showed is from 1965. Could one year have had the blue tint and the other year have had the black/gray tint? I can't imagine why, when you're only making 4,000 sheets, you would split it up so that some are blue tinted and others are not. Also, if you look closely at the Mays, the tip of his neck ends at slightly different locations with respect to his name. In the blue tint, the tip of the neck isn't as pointy and ends near the E in Willie. In the black/gray tint, the tip of the neck has more of a point and ends more at the middle space between the E of Willie and M of Mays. There definitely were two printings, now we need to find out if they were during different years for different handouts. In either case, you're good. You have both versions. I need to keep an eye out for a black/gray version of Mick.

Edited to add: Going back and looking at the pictures Fred posted, both Mays look similar, other than the color difference. But for some reason, in the ones you posted they look different even though one of the ones you posted is the same one Fred posted. Maybe my eyes are going bad.

[JollyElm]

Allow me, if I may...

Taking the pic of the blue and black stickers from Post #6 in this thread, I laid one atop the other (since the source is a photograph and not a scan where both participants would truly be flat, plus one is inside of a slab, it's not a perfect comparison, but it's pretty damn close) and the black version has a more fuller (read as wider) picture of Mays than the significantly thinner-faced blue Willie.

And, as mentioned, the point of the neck differs as well. In blue Willie, it seems the art department (purposely or 'accidentally') ended up creating some white space for the top of the 'E.'
Additionally, it could be from the usual vagaries of the printing of the black plate, but his name is much further away from "GIANTS" in the blue version than the black. (Of course, along with the slight misalignment of the name/team name, it's possible this resulted from the printing of the red plate alone.)

We'd have to know if these differences consistently appear on other versions of these stickers to verify it, but, gentlemen, it appears what you got yourselves here is a VARIATION.


The differences are pretty evident when the stickers are placed side by side...

1964maysstickercomp.jpg

[nolemmings]

In thinking a little more about it, it seems there were more than 4000 available that night and I wonder if they could have been sold as singles, pairs or other formats. Note that below the stickers on the sheets it advises that you can obtain other players' "monograms" at the concession stand, suggesting that the freebies were an enticement for fans to collect more. It's possible that singles were given out and you could buy the sheets or vice-versa.

[AustinMike]

[QUOTE=JollyElm;2432913]Allow me, if I may...

Taking the pic of the blue and black stickers from Post #6 in this thread, I laid one atop the other (since the source is a photograph and not a scan where both participants would truly be flat, plus one is inside of a slab, it's not a perfect comparison, but it's pretty damn close) and the black version has a more fuller (read as wider) picture of Mays than the significantly thinner-faced blue Willie.

And, as mentioned, the point of the neck differs as well. In blue Willie, it seems the art department (purposely or 'accidentally') ended up creating some white space for the top of the 'E.'
Additionally, it could be from the usual vagaries of the printing of the black plate, but his name is much further away from "GIANTS" in the blue version than the black. (Of course, along with the slight misalignment of the name/team name, it's possible this resulted from the printing of the red plate alone.)

We'd have to know if these differences consistently appear on other versions of these stickers to verify it, but, gentlemen, it appears what you got yourselves here is a VARIATION.


The differences are pretty evident when the stickers are placed side by side...

Well done Darren

[sflayank]

The sheets come only with the same team
The mantle sticker was added to the tiger sheet
They can easily be moved around to make any sheet you want
Psa has graded(holdered) stickers with the cardboard backing...and without it
They put numbered grades on the 1st 3 I
submitted and then changed their minds to authentic only..who know why..
Tigers cardinals giants pirates and Yankees are the only ones known right now

[whiteymet]

Originally Posted by sflayank

The sheets come only with the same team
The mantle sticker was added to the tiger sheet
They can easily be moved around to make any sheet you want
Psa has graded(holdered) stickers with the cardboard backing...and without it
They put numbered grades on the 1st 3 I
submitted and then changed their minds to authentic only..who know why..
Tigers cardinals giants pirates and Yankees are the only ones known right now

What Tiger was removed to be replaced by Mantle?

[sflayank]

this is known checklist
if you know others ..please fill in
mantle,ford ,tresh,maris,howard YANKEES
mays,mccovey,cepeda,j.alou,davenport,haller,hart.. ...GIANTS
demeter,freehan,kaline TIGERS
white,k.boyer,flood,broglio CARDINALS
clemente,clendenon,friend,maz PIRATES
who is the 4th tiger? dont know

[raulus]

Originally Posted by sflayank

The sheets come only with the same team

Hi Larry - not disputing your statement, but I am curious how you know? Is it just based on seeing a lot of sheets? Or were you there to get the sheets as they were handed out? Or are the details of how the sheets were produced documented somewhere?

[sflayank]

Just logical..all the other teams are team sheets of 4
So why 3 tigers?
You never know though

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by sflayank

this is known checklist
if you know others ..please fill in
mantle,ford ,tresh,maris,howard YANKEES
mays,mccovey,cepeda,j.alou,davenport,haller,hart.. ...GIANTS
demeter,freehan,kaline TIGERS
white,k.boyer,flood,broglio CARDINALS
clemente,clendenon,friend,maz PIRATES
who is the 4th tiger? dont know

Good stuff Larry. Including Broglio with the Cardinals is probably why this set is dated to 1964, since he was gone from St. Louis in the Brock trade mid-season that year. Still, I have not seen any newspaper accounts of an event from where these were given out in 1964. Then again I focused my search in Carolina-- maybe these were also distributed elsewhere?

Kind of strange that a ballpark giveaway for a Twins farm club would not include players from the parent team.