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Dave HornishSince I find myself with a weekend or two free of youth baseball due to my son’s sprained shoulder and am feeling like I should start a blog without actually wanting to do so, I whipped an overview of Topps Stamps from the 40's through the 70's.
Looking at Topps Stamp issues prior to the initial retail baseball inserts of 1961 requires a short hobby history lesson. In 1949 Topps released an issue of 200 tiny cards (Pirates, Cowboys & Indians and Tribesmen comprised most of the subjects) included with Pixie Gum, a one cent chew with three or four different fruit flavors. These cards are referred to as X-Ray Round-Up and are the same size as the Magic Photos issued the same year. Unlike the self-developing Magic Photos, X-Ray Round-Up used a gimmick requiring the use of special red “x ray paper”, which was placed over the reverse, which revealed a second picture. X-Ray Round-Up may have been the first Topps card issue and it seems to slightly predate the Magic Photos. Here is a scan I grabbed somewhere along the way of some advertising for the card set:
Before they issued their first baseball stamps, Topps may have dabbled in 1949 with a paper stamp derived from the X-Ray Round Up series as 100 card stamp sheets are known in the hobby, although their exact method and year of distribution is unknown. Albums exist for the cards but it is unclear if an album was issued in conjunction with the stamps.
The next year, 1950, saw the release of a dozen different Bazooka Tray Cards (that held the elongated five cent Bazooka chews) which showed picture of a valuable or interesting stamp and related a small anecdote, theoretically enticing the young ‘uns into stamp collecting (Topps also tried to get the kiddies involved with coin collecting at this time). Here is another scan I grabbed recently showing this oddball card:
Topps spent the next few years issuing more and more sets, concentrating on baseball and to some degree football to build up market share while also ramping up their non-sport offerings. While they did come up with a proof version of stamps in 1955 that looked identical to their baseball cards of that year, this fact was not well-known likely until the passing of Topps Art Director Woody Gelman in 1978 and the subsequent dispersal of his collection, which included many one of a kind and never issued proofs. Here is a block I wished I owned:
The first reference I have to the ’55 Baseball Stamps is from a Rob Lifson ad in the January 31, 1986 issue of SCD, where he was selling four examples. Modern checklists now count 24 stamps, all taken from the first sheet of the Topps baseball run, which featured 110 cards in total. My own opinion is that these proofs are somehow related to the two Sports Illustrated inserts created by Topps in 1955, which consisted of eight cards each in the April 11 and 18 issues but who knows for sure? Here is a shot I swiped of the 55 SI cards and you can see the similarity:
The next time Topps printed up stamps, they were inserts in the 1960/61 Hockey packs. These 52 different stamps were inserted as two stamp panels but it does not appear an album exists to hold them. I imagine they are scarce as I cannot find a scan to grab when I search Google.
In 1961 Topps issued a large series of 207 stamps with drab, somewhat ornate backgrounds of brown (AL) or green (NL). Al Kaline apparently appears either in color so some guides show 208 as the set count. These were inserted as two stamp panels, like the earlier Hockey stamps, into retail packs. These have the same design as the 60/61 hockey stamps and 182 different panels have been identified. The player photos are black and white then tinted slightly to match the colored background. Here are blocks of each color as they were issued from my collection:
Topps also sold Stamp Albums for ten cents at retail so kids could paste and save their stamps, possibly the first time they cross-marketed between inserts and a stand alone point of purchase item. However, the album only has space for ten stamps for each team, or 180 total so it was up to the consumer to determine which players would get pasted in as each space in the album is non-specific as to subject.
My 2005 Beckett Almanac shows thirteen teams had 12 players (156 total including Detroit) issued but it appears Baltimore had 11, Kansas City 13, the LA Angels 7, the NY Yankees 13 and Washington only had 6 (an additional total of 50 for these teams. I do not have a set of these and cannot confirm these if these team counts are accurate and expansion likely wrecked what had been planned by Topps for team designations. This all adds up to 206 stamps before counting the green Kaline so something is amiss with either the Beckett list or the accepted hobby-wide list for this issue as the count should be 208 with the extra Kaline added. Obviously, Ebay listings claiming full albums comprise a set are not accurate, although this is likely not intentional given the circumstances.
Here are some exterior and interior Album scans. The whole affair is printed on very pulpy paper and has a cheap appearance. Also included were two pages of batting and pitching stats for the 1960 season and an index page.
In 1962 Topps came up with a much more colorful selection of 200 stamps, including a logo for each team and again sold stand alone albums for a dime apiece. AL players were shown against a vivid solid yellow background and NL’ers against bright red. Player photos were in color this time around. 200 stamps were issued (ten per team, obviously) in 245 different two stamp panels and allegedly Roy Sievers can be found with either the Kansas City A’s or Philadelphia Phillies as his team, the latter being correct. There is some speculation the KC version does not exist and is merely an old checklisting typo and I would love to see a scan of the KC one. Here is a panel missing the rightmost stamp:
The ’62 Album had a glossy cover and used better paper for the interior pages than in ’61. Here are some scans of mine; you can see a slight diamond cut leads to double page numbering. Each individual stamp is also identified and on the whole this is a much nicer effort than the year prior. Since two expansion teams were added for the 1962 season, the album does not include the two pages of statistics that were printed in 1961. There is a table of contents, though I do not know why it was thought to be necessary.
Here are some scnas I grabbed showing the album box and a proof sheet of stamps:
Topps also issued 80 stamps a year later in a series properly called Stamp Gum but usually referred to as Famous American Stamps. Two baseball subjects exist in this 1983 offering: Gehrig and Ruth. The stamps were issued with orange flavored gum in penny packs and no accompanying album was created. These stamps commonly have a horizontal fold line near the middle. The two baseball players are hard to find and the entire series is scarce, as one would expect from an early 60’s series solely sold in Penny Packs. The Ruth is not mine, nor is the sell sheet but I can always hope!
The next time Topps issued baseball stamps it was in boxes of Bazooka gum in 1964 in a set of 100 covering ten different sheets of ten stamps each. An album has not been identified for these. Each stamp is a nice color photo with a colored box at the bottom with the players name, team and position noted. These are quite attractive but not commonly seen, altho' a bunch are on Ebay right now, where I grabbed this shot:
After a few years off, Topps issued stamps again in 1969, this time as a stand alone set. In one five cent pack you got a slab of gum, a sheet of twelve stamps and a team album with a garish orange cover. Each album has a spot for ten stamps, making 240 total in the set but 288 total stamps issued over 24 sheets. The stamps and albums are common. Here are scans of my entire NY Mets album, which is partially filled (btw Cleon Jones is still one of my favorite Mets); as you can see, diamond cuts are very possible with the albums. The Table of Contents just kills me!
The pack and box proof are not mine:
Topps last baseball stamp effort was in 1974 and it was essentially distributed as the ‘69’s were (albeit in 10 cent packs), except this set is much harder to find and the album covers are fairly plain. 240 players were issued over twenty four 12 cards sheets, yielding 288 stamps. The stamps are seen with some regularity and uncut sheets, especially those with close trimmed ends, can be found occasionally. Here is one trimmed tight on the left:
The albums are much, much tougher to find and rank as one of the more difficult to find 70’s Topps oddball items. Miscut albums are the norm from what I have seen. The back cover looks very similar to the back of the ’69 and there is that darn TOC again! Please forgive the unruly scans, I don’t want to completely flatten the album on the scanner bed as both these and the 69’s have a page that seems glued and bound in. If anyone can post a wrapper, I would appreciate it.
From time to time some Carl Yastrzemski stamps surface, showing his regular issue Topps cards from various years on small stamps. These are aftermarket products and were not made by Topps. In addition to the examples shown here (not mine) I have seen a block of 4 uncut Yaz stamps all showing his ’75 card as well.
09-02-2008, 10:12 AM
Topps Baseball Stamps - An Overview
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