1955 and 56 Topps Hocus Focus

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

I am slowly coming to the conclusion these have been misidentified in various guides over the years. There are two sizes, a smaller one (7/8" height) with no perforate edges, issued in 1955 and a slightly larger one (1" height) issued a year later, where each card has either one or two perforate sides (since they were issued in strips). Conventional wisdom is that the smaller '55 set is numbered to #96 and the larger '56 set has 121 subjects. I am beginning to think the opposite is true. It has been noted no cards above #96 have been spotted in the larger, '56 issue and I have to agree based upon what I have seen. The smaller cards from 1955 are thought to be much harder to find than the taller ones from 1956 and I agree with that.

They have been discussed here before:

http://tinyurl.com/5louxj

I am going to ask if anyone has front AND back scans (the back scans are the important ones) they would like to share, I will compile them into a spreadsheet database. The backs must state "HOCUS FOCUS" or they are not the right cards. The earlier Magic Photo cards do not have this phrase on the back.

Thanks!

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Posted By: Glen V

Dave,

There's a bunch of non-sport Hocus Focus cards on eBay now - they all have front/back scans: http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&shortcut=0&from=R41&query=hocus+focus&category0=

Or are you only looking for the baseball ones?

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

Looking for all of 'em-I was inspired by those Ebay auctions actually. It is one mysterious set (or sets).

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Posted By: boxingcardman

I picked up the Marciano that closed over the weekend. Hadn't seen one before, so the set must be pretty darn tough.

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

Adam-I thought you got that Marciano at a good price-the 55's are extremely hard to find, about a 40-1 ratio from what I've seen. I just picked up an airplane from the 55 set on the 'bay so now I have a type until I find a BB player.

I'm going to post on these soon-there is a lot of misinformation out there on these sets. Watch this space.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dave Hornish

Much more here, now:

http://tinyurl.com/6agg9a