Anyone Collect 1959 Bazooka Football?

[quinnsryche]

Anyone out there collect '59 Bazooka football? Would love to see some examples and possibly interesting stories about how you obtained them or to just share general knowledge about them. Have always thought they looked great but don't know much back story behind them. Go ahead and post some pics of them beauties!

[clamendo]

Picked this up on Ebay a long time ago. I got an email from the under bidder saying he had looked for this card for 10 years and offered my 3X what I paid. I hung on to it. Tracy, Groza, and Connerly are the keys.t.jpg

[jefferyepayne]

Jim Brown is a toughie as well! I love this set.

I have a lot of info on this set and completed it a few years ago. Have a bunch of doubles as well. What do you want to know about the set?

Here are the two Conerly Cards. The originally had Conerly playing for the Colts instead of the Giants but it was corrected during printing.





jeff

[quinnsryche]

I guess questions like: why are the tough ones tough? Was it limited distribution of particular players or difficulty due to geographic distribution? What are approximate quantities of various players still available (10's/100's/1000's)? Any interesting stories about production or finds (singles or groups). Much has been written about the baseball issue, not much about these.

[jefferyepayne]

In early 1959 Topps released a nine card Bazooka baseball card set on the bottom of 25 piece Bazooka gum boxes. The promotion was so popular that they added 14 additional baseball players to the set later in the season. These 14 are short prints. Late in the year Topps replaced the baseball players on Bazooka boxes with football players. It is likely that the SP's are ones added later just like the SP's in the baseball set.

I don't know the population counts for these but bet there are many more raw ones than graded ones. I was collecting them one by one and had about 1/2 the set when an opportunity presented itself to purchase a near complete set a few years ago. That's how I completed the set and why I have doubles.

jeff

[CowboysGuide]

I've seen lots of complete Bazooka boxes from the 1971 football set, but never seen any from the 1959 set. Does anyone have a complete box they could post a photo of?

[TanksAndSpartans]

I know nothing about this set, but did notice it must be popular as I've seen several cards posted here on net54 from time to time. So, you had to buy a box of gum? The store owner didn't open the boxes and allow the gum to be sold individually? Were there perforations to separate the card from the box or were these hand cut?

[skelly]

My all time favorite set. I'm biased, but doesn't get the respect it deserves in my opinion. Rather than writing a long paragraph, I'll make a few points which people can agree / disagree with add on to etc...

1. More attractive than the baseball set in my opinion. The first nine cards issued in the baseball set are so much easier than the single prints that to me the baseball set is really two separate sets.

2. The Tom Tracy card is impossible, I MEAN IMPOSSIBLE to find. I could be wrong, but I can't image that more than 50-60 total exist, and I feel I am being conservative with those numbers.

3. The Groza and the Conerly are listed as single prints, and they are tough, but not impossible if you are patient and willing to pay when you find them.

4. You would think that the Unitas and Jim Brown would sell for about the same price, but for whatever reason, the Brown seems to always sell for a couple hundred more than a Unitas in similar condition.

5. The toughest non-single prints in my opinion are the Howie Furguson ( packers ) Joe Perry ( 49ers ) and the Alan Ameche ( Colts )

6. For whatever reason, there are a decent amount of these cards out there in good shape. You would think that the large size and the fact they had to be hand cut would be problematic, but they can be found in good condition.

7. These cards are tougher than people realize. Even at the national, very few dealers have them / have access to them. I don't really consider this an "oddball" set, as it was made by topps.

[quinnsryche]

Great info and perspective. Love learning about the lesser known/collected cards of thee past. My favorite card is the Tittle. Don't know why, just like the looks of it. What would one expect to pay for an example in decent shape? Not a lot of research material available on sale prices for ones other than Brown and Unitas.

[clamendo]

50-60? I think that's high. I wish we could do a poll on these rare sets and see how many exist. It would be eye opening. I guess the population reports are the best we can do for now. There are only 4 graded Tracy's plus let's assume there are 2x ungraded. This is mostly due to the fact that they are hand cut and you'll get an authentic grade. So, I say there are 10 or so Tracy's.

[jefferyepayne]

The Tom Tracy is brutally tough. I've never seen one come up for auction besides the one I have.

Agree this set is under appreciated. It is one of my favorites.

jeff

[finalscore]

The 59 Bazooka's are one of my favorites to. Groza and Tracy were the last two I needed way back when to complete my set. Here are some scans of one of my boxes (empty of course!).

Originally Posted by CowboysGuide

I've seen lots of complete Bazooka boxes from the 1971 football set, but never seen any from the 1959 set. Does anyone have a complete box they could post a photo of?

[brian1961]

Mike---

Thanks ever so much for taking the time and trouble of posting the photos of your fabulous 1959 Bazooka Alan Ameche box. A king-sized gem.

For the gentleman who asked, Bazooka marketed a box containing a large number of individual one-cent twin chews of their wonderful bubble gum. These fit the category of penny candy, which existed at that time and was sold at small grocery stores, drug stores, and dime stores.

Topps wanted a way for kids to purchase more than a few pennies' worth of gum at one time, so they developed this type of box with 20-25 individual twin chews. I do not know exactly when Bazooka first issued a box of this design, but I am rather certain they wanted to increase sales of their product, and since they were already offering the regular wax packs and cello packs of trading cards, come 1959 they decided upon the perfect incentive to goose those sales of Bazooka gum---with a free prize baseball and then football card.

They were by no means punched off the box. As the others have said, they were purely hand cut cards, which caused all sorts of condition degradation on top of the other condition problems that arose from their manner of sale.

This is a great set, in every way.

As an aside, I am so glad Bazooka got the much better pose and natural happy expression of all-time great Johnny Unitas, rather than the looney-looking appearance Johnny gave the photographer for the other shot, chosen for the 1960 Topps. ---Brian Powell

[TanksAndSpartans]

Mike - thanks for showing the box - a picture is worth a thousand words (Anyone catch that Jeff authored one of the articles in the GG issue the box is sitting on?)

Brian - great explanation - thanks.

[jtschantz]

Looking for the Groza

[quinnsryche]

That box is AWESOME! The Jim Brown is absolutely beautiful also. Thanks everyone for sharing your pics and info.

[jefferyepayne]

Mr. Tracy himself.



jeff

[quinnsryche]

Originally Posted by jtschantz

Looking for the Groza

There's a Groza up on ebay right now if you have a spare 2K lying around.
Seriously, what's it actually worth?

[Beansballcardblog]

Again, new to the forum. Thanks to all that posted their info on this set. Didn't know anything of it. Really loving the education that I'm getting here!

-Kin

[jefferyepayne]

Glad you like this thead! In my opinion, the '59 Bazooka set is one of the nicest looking football sets ever produced. Just a really nice, clean design and I love the large card size.

There's a lot of great sets out there and lots of knowledge about them so feel free to start threads on anything as somebody here is probably very knowledgeable about it.

jeff

[CowboysGuide]

Wow...really love that box! Thanks for posting those photos.

[CowboysGuide]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Mike---

Thanks ever so much for taking the time and trouble of posting the photos of your fabulous 1959 Bazooka Alan Ameche box. A king-sized gem.

For the gentleman who asked, Bazooka marketed a box containing a large number of individual one-cent twin chews of their wonderful bubble gum. These fit the category of penny candy, which existed at that time and was sold at small grocery stores, drug stores, and dime stores.

Topps wanted a way for kids to purchase more than a few pennies' worth of gum at one time, so they developed this type of box with 20-25 individual twin chews. I do not know exactly when Bazooka first issued a box of this design, but I am rather certain they wanted to increase sales of their product, and since they were already offering the regular wax packs and cello packs of trading cards, come 1959 they decided upon the perfect incentive to goose those sales of Bazooka gum---with a free prize baseball and then football card.

They were by no means punched off the box. As the others have said, they were purely hand cut cards, which caused all sorts of condition degradation on top of the other condition problems that arose from their manner of sale.

This is a great set, in every way.

As an aside, I am so glad Bazooka got the much better pose and natural happy expression of all-time great Johnny Unitas, rather than the looney-looking appearance Johnny gave the photographer for the other shot, chosen for the 1960 Topps. ---Brian Powell

So, Topps owns/owned Bazooka, or the other way around? I didn't realize and didn't even make the connection until reading the above post.

[brian1961]

Yes, the Bazooka brand was always part of Topps. Now, precisely what the parent company was named, I do not know off hand. However, I know for certain that Topps and Bazooka are from one and the same parent company.

As you look at many of the photos used on the run of Bazooka baseball issues, Topps either initiated the photo with a Bazooka card, or re-used a photo from one of their mainstream regular Topps set, or even a test issue.

For example, the 1965 Bazooka Mickey Mantle photo was later seen in the 1969 Topps Super Baseball test issue. Both great cards.

Back to football, you can really tell the similarity in the setting for the Johnny Unitas photo shoot, with the nicest portrait going to the 1959 Bazooka, and the obvious Johnny mugging a "half-crazed" pose selected for the 1960 Topps release. Wish I owned a '59 Bazooka Unitas.

All the best. ---Brian Powell

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Yes, the Bazooka brand was always part of Topps. Now, precisely what the parent company was named, I do not know off hand. However, I know for certain that Topps and Bazooka are from one and the same parent company.

As you look at many of the photos used on the run of Bazooka baseball issues, Topps either initiated the photo with a Bazooka card, or re-used a photo from one of their mainstream regular Topps set, or even a test issue.

For example, the 1965 Bazooka Mickey Mantle photo was later seen in the 1969 Topps Super Baseball test issue. Both great cards.

Back to football, you can really tell the similarity in the setting for the Johnny Unitas photo shoot, with the nicest portrait going to the 1959 Bazooka, and the obvious Johnny mugging a "half-crazed" pose selected for the 1960 Topps release. Wish I owned a '59 Bazooka Unitas.

All the best. ---Brian Powell

I don't believe there is any "parent company". Topps IS the company and Bazooka is one of their bubble gum brands.

jeff

[jefferyepayne]

Anybody know how to get tape residue off a card without damaging it?

Mr. Unitas could use it.



jeff

[brian1961]

jefferypayne---

Thanks for clarifying the fact that Topps is the company. I knew Bazooka was technically one of Topps's brands, but I simply did not word that very well. I did not have time to research the matter thoroughly. I do wish to say when I have read the small print on some of the Topps products of the 50s-60s, there were other trade names used as well.

I hope you get some help on removing the tape stain from your gorgeous Johnny U. You would not be removing anything that was not originally there, nor obviously adding anything to the card. I know there's a gentleman by the name of Dick Towle (spelling may be wrong) that specializes in that sort of restoration. Wishing you the very best, bro.

For what it's worth, thanks for showing us your '59 Bazooka Unitas. I for one love it. What a great picture. In the interest of history, the Bazooka issue was released when the Colts were coming off one of the greatest games in NFL anals--their sudden death triumph over the Giants, and then they repeated as NFL champions in 1959. No doubt you more than well knew this, but I offer the historical perspective for the enlightenment of our fellow board members.

---Brian Powell

[S_GERACE]

Hi Jeff,
Here's an old article in SCD about the guy that Brian mentioned, Dick Towle. His contact info is at the bottom (don't know if it's still valid but worth a try). Good luck with Johnny U!
Scott

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...res/nerattowle

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by S_GERACE

Hi Jeff,
Here's an old article in SCD about the guy that Brian mentioned, Dick Towle. His contact info is at the bottom (don't know if it's still valid but worth a try). Good luck with Johnny U!
Scott

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...res/nerattowle

Yeah, I know his work. I'll keep it the way it is ;-)

jeff

[HRBAKER]

Just an incredibly beautiful set of cards.
By far my favorite FB issue.

[CowboysGuide]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

Just an incredibly beautiful set of cards.
By far my favorite FB issue.

Yes indeed they are! And I don't own a single one...yet .

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Jeff is exactly right, Topps is the parent company and Bazooka was and still is a brand of their gum.

I am a candy wholesaler and we used to carry Bazooka which still comes wrapped in a cartoon! In the south Super Bubble rules supreme while in the north and east it is Fleer's double bubble. Bazooka has always been a fill in product and like many old candies it is just not too popular anymore.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by Hot Springs Bathers

Jeff is exactly right, Topps is the parent company and Bazooka was and still is a brand of their gum.

I am a candy wholesaler and we used to carry Bazooka which still comes wrapped in a cartoon! In the south Super Bubble rules supreme while in the north and east it is Fleer's double bubble. Bazooka has always been a fill in product and like many old candies it is just not too popular anymore.

Maybe they could CHANGE the product ... it still tastes like it did in 1972. Of course for us 'vintage' people, that is just fine but I've had hubba bubble, double bubble, super bubble, XYZ bubble and they are all awesome tasting products and can see why the young'uns like it.

jeff

[DBesse27]

That Tittle is AWESOME!!

[clamendo]

http://sgccard.com/registry/cards/us5965.jpg
They look nice in the sgc holders


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[clamendo]

This is a tough card
http://sgccard.com/imageconverter.as...rds/us5966.jpg


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[supplex55]

I recently posted my 1959 Bazooka set on imageevent.com. It took me almost 20 years to complete, with the Groza being the last card to finish the set. I had to borrow 600.00 from my Dad in the 1996 to purchase it as I had just returned from the National Sports Collector's Convention in fruitless pursuit of finishing the set (but spending my last dollar anyway), and a letter arrived from Don Niemi telling me he had one! According to Don, he felt the Groza was the toughest in the set and that there were less than 15 or so in existence (don't know how he came by those numbers). He also said he felt it was one of the 5 rarest football cards in the hobby.
http://imageevent.com/supplex55/1959bazookafootballset

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by supplex55

I recently posted my 1959 Bazooka set on imageevent.com. It took me almost 20 years to complete, with the Groza being the last card to finish the set. I had to borrow 600.00 from my Dad in the 1996 to purchase it as I had just returned from the National Sports Collector's Convention in fruitless pursuit of finishing the set (but spending my last dollar anyway), and a letter arrived from Don Niemi telling me he had one! According to Don, he felt the Groza was the toughest in the set and that there were less than 15 or so in existence (don't know how he came by those numbers). He also said he felt it was one of the 5 rarest football cards in the hobby.
http://imageevent.com/supplex55/1959bazookafootballset

Damn that is impressive.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by supplex55

I recently posted my 1959 Bazooka set on imageevent.com. It took me almost 20 years to complete, with the Groza being the last card to finish the set. I had to borrow 600.00 from my Dad in the 1996 to purchase it as I had just returned from the National Sports Collector's Convention in fruitless pursuit of finishing the set (but spending my last dollar anyway), and a letter arrived from Don Niemi telling me he had one! According to Don, he felt the Groza was the toughest in the set and that there were less than 15 or so in existence (don't know how he came by those numbers). He also said he felt it was one of the 5 rarest football cards in the hobby.
http://imageevent.com/supplex55/1959bazookafootballset

Great set and images!

The 1959 Bazooka set is one of my favorites. They are just beautiful cards. I would say at this point, though, that the Groza is not one of the 5 rarest football cards in the hobby as so many oddball and obscure sets have been identified since Don told you that decades ago. It is still a very difficult card to find, though. I've been trying to upgrade mine for years without any luck. Same for Tom Tracy.

jeff

[Justus]

http://imageevent.com/supplex55/1959bazookafootballset[/QUOTE]

Wow, that is incredible!

[samosa4u]

A few things I want to say about this set:

I didn't know that Bazooka made a smaller box for these cards. I always thought that all the Bazooka boxes from this period were of the same size and that kids would just buy these gums individually and a lucky one in the end would be given the empty box by the store owner. So the only way to get your hands on these cards was to purchase a sealed box, correct? How much did the box cost? Anyone have a clue?

Now I agree that these cards look awesome, but I hate how almost all of them are portrait shots. The Jim Brown card is awesome because it is an action shot and Bazooka should have included more action shots in this football set.

And speaking of the Jim Brown card, I would love to own one, but the people listing them on eBay are asking for INSANE amounts of money for theirs. Now I don't mind overpaying a little for it, but I am not going to spend thousands of dollars for it. I have seen beautiful ungraded examples selling for less than $1,000 USD at auction.

[spec]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

A few things I want to say about this set:

I didn't know that Bazooka made a smaller box for these cards. I always thought that all the Bazooka boxes from this period were of the same size and that kids would just buy these gums individually and a lucky one in the end would be given the empty box by the store owner. So the only way to get your hands on these cards was to purchase a sealed box, correct? How much did the box cost? Anyone have a clue?

Now I agree that these cards look awesome, but I hate how almost all of them are portrait shots. The Jim Brown card is awesome because it is an action shot and Bazooka should have included more action shots in this football set.

And speaking of the Jim Brown card, I would love to own one, but the people listing them on eBay are asking for INSANE amounts of money for theirs. Now I don't mind overpaying a little for it, but I am not going to spend thousands of dollars for it. I have seen beautiful ungraded examples selling for less than $1,000 USD at auction.

As I recall, the Bazooka boxes cost about a quarter, far more than 12-year-old me could spend on a single card. I should have bought the boxes and sold the gum at school as I did in later years when I realized it made more sense to buy a box of each Topps series rather than try to piece them together pack by pack.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

A few things I want to say about this set:

I didn't know that Bazooka made a smaller box for these cards. I always thought that all the Bazooka boxes from this period were of the same size and that kids would just buy these gums individually and a lucky one in the end would be given the empty box by the store owner. So the only way to get your hands on these cards was to purchase a sealed box, correct? How much did the box cost? Anyone have a clue?

Now I agree that these cards look awesome, but I hate how almost all of them are portrait shots. The Jim Brown card is awesome because it is an action shot and Bazooka should have included more action shots in this football set.

And speaking of the Jim Brown card, I would love to own one, but the people listing them on eBay are asking for INSANE amounts of money for theirs. Now I don't mind overpaying a little for it, but I am not going to spend thousands of dollars for it. I have seen beautiful ungraded examples selling for less than $1,000 USD at auction.

Yeah same reaction to the ebay prices.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by spec

As I recall, the Bazooka boxes cost about a quarter, far more than 12-year-old me could spend on a single card. I should have bought the boxes and sold the gum at school as I did in later years when I realized it made more sense to buy a box of each Topps series rather than try to piece them together pack by pack.

I believe the boxes had 25 pieces of gum in it that were each 1 cent so 25 cents to purchase the entire box.

I complete this set probably four or five years ago and really love it! What a beautiful set it is.

jeff

[samosa4u]

Alright, this is getting a little confusing now. Somebody here posted a picture of a box that once had 20 pieces of gum inside (Alan Ameche). Now I found this Jim Brown box online:



This is a 40 pack box. So we now know that there were at least two different sizes. This got me thinking about one thing: if you wanted to get your hands on one of the stars, such as Jim Brown or John Unitas, then maybe you had to purchase the 40 pack box. In other words, to get the stars, you had to spend more money. Only the less popular players were found on the 20 pack boxes - what do you guys think? I just came across another 20 pack box now with Chuck Conerly on it and this further supports my above argument. Here it is below:

[jefferyepayne]

No we don't. The first one is of a reprint set done much later.

jeff

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

The first one is of a reprint set done much later.

That Jim Brown bazooka box is a reprint? Really? So Bazooka reprinted this set again or did a different company do it? What year did they do this?

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

That Jim Brown bazooka box is a reprint? Really? So Bazooka reprinted this set again or did a different company do it? What year did they do this?

I may have been too flippant with my response. I've never seen a 40 pack box before but that doesn't mean it isn't original. I'd want to see it up close.

I do know that there have been many attempts at replicating / reprinting these cards. If you go to ebay you will see all sorts of additional players (vintage and new) with this design. I'm not sure if the box you are showing is from 1959 or not but I would just be careful ...

Typically the replicated / reprinted cards are fairly easy to spot as the background white is much brighter than you see on the originals. I expect if you look at the printing technique and compare one you know is an original with one you are not sure, that you will be able to detect a fake.

jeff

[samosa4u]

I do see some "personally made" 1959 Bazooka football cards on eBay, but these ones use different pictures and different players who were never featured in the original set. I'm not too bothered by this.

Have you ever seen any counterfeits of the originals on eBay? I don't see any up at the moment. If I want to purchase a raw Unitas, for example, are you saying that there is a chance it might not be real? Counterfeiters tend to target cards that have become really popular among collectors, and I hate to say this, but I don't think the 1959 Bazooka football cards have reached this level yet. This could obviously change in the future though.

[jefferyepayne]

I could swear I've seen a Brown that looked suspect on ebay but its definitely not there now.

jeff

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

I could swear I've seen a Brown that looked suspect on ebay but its definitely not there now.

jeff

I have seen a Brown that PSA graded despite being cut well inside the cut lines.