D305 Bond Bread set vs SQUARE Reprints

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

One of the earliest available Post-WWII baseball card sets is the 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread issue.
The 48 black and white cards in this set were found inserted in loaves of Bond Bread. And, in order to
package these cards inside the bread loaves, their four corners were die-cut beveled (or ROUNDED).
This set includes major rookie (or 1st) cards of Yogi Berra, Gil Hodges, Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial, Jackie
Robinson and Bobby Thomson. Major Stars include Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, and Ted Williams. Since
33 players (of the 44 BB cards) in this set are from NYC and Boston teams, this set is thought of as
a regional issue; however, Bond Bread was marketed nationwide and these cards were available as far
west as St Louis.

A controversy has existed in the hobby regarding the very available SQUARE corner versions of these
original cards. My findings are....

The ROUNDED cards are the real originals printed and issued in 1947....and they are tough to find.

The SQUARE cards fall into two categories......

(1) A second printing of only 24 of these BB cards was done when the manufacturer issued a Movie Star
set sometime in the 1950's.

(2) These same 24 BB players were again REPRINTED on inferior cardboard stock (date unknown, but before their
big FIND in the early 1980's).

In any event, the SQUARE cards are not to be regarded as the original 1947 issue. However, Grading Cos. are
grading them and erroneously labeling them as "1947 Homogenized Bond Bread".

Buyers beware....these SQUARE cards are not the real "rookies".


TED Z







SQUARE cornered cards issued in the 1950's

[Archive]

Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Do the grading companies reliably distinguish between the two printings of square cornered cards?

[Archive]

Posted By: Kyle

The only companies that grade the square ones are the cheapo companies: PRO, MINT, NASA, etc.

GAI graded two square ones in the past, but as far as I know, have refused to grade anymore, admitting the others were done in error.

SGC/PSA/BGS do not graded the squares. If this has changed, please share the pictures.

-Kyle

[Archive]

Posted By: mark k. bowers

Ted:

Thanks a lot for the Bond explanation. It is the first and best I have seen and I have been wondering for a long time.

Mark

[Archive]

Posted By: Dave Hornish

OK, so who is the issuer of the square cornered cards? The 50's seem innocent enough but the later reissue seems to be more suspect. I had a rounded corner Robinson many years ago. Sold it too cheap and wish I had it now.

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

The graded SQUARE cards that I have seen at shows are the more recent reprints. The graded SQUARE ones
I have seen on ebay are uncertain.....unless their backs are scanned (which is seldom done).

The tell-tale clue when they are in a plastic holder is their backs. The BACKS of the original 1947 Bond Bread
cards, and the 1950's reprinted ones, have retained their white color. While the BACKS of the more recently
Reprinted ones have become TONED, (due to the inferior cardboard stock they were re-printed on).

If the Bond Bread cards are not graded and you can feel them, you will find that the ORIGINALS were printed
on thicker (more rigid) cardboard stock. Also, there's a slight glossy finish on the originals that does not exist
on the recent Reprints.

And finally, the recent Reprints are slightly larger than the originals.

Recall Gil.....from a prior thread that you posted, I noted that I collected these Bond Bread cards as a kid in
1947 (they were my first BB cards). And, I still have the 44 BB cards in this set.
I don't know what happened to the 4 boxing cards.

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Here's an excerpt from a seller's description of his SQUARE Bond Bread card.....

"1947 HOMOGENIZED BOND BREAD

The card is in Near Mint/Mint condition with sharp corners and edges. The coloring of the back has an antique white
due to the age of the card but otherwise is very clean."

The key words to be aware of in such descriptions are...."antique white".

Here's a scan of backs of an original 1947 card and a SQUARE reprint. The TONING effect is evident on all Reprints.
While all original cards are invariably WHITE.



TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

ted that is great info on the backs. do you also have the bond bread jackie robinson cards from your original collection? i understand the robby cards were distributed in the
N.Y. metro area only??

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

DENNIS

The 1947 Bond Bread Jackie Robinson cards were not available in my neighborhood in Hillside, NJ.

I wish they were.....I would have saved them, too.

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: DaveW

Ted - Thanks for the excellant explanation - as usual, you are a wealth of information. Now
I have to go home and look at mine and try to figure out if the square cornered ones are from
the 1950's or later.I assume that the later reprints are worth almost nothing. Are the ones from
the 50's worth anything?
- Dave

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

DAVE W

There are currently several on ebay selling for anywhere from $5 to $20 for individual SQUARE cards. The are no ROUNDED cards
currently on ebay. And, that is typical, as these originals are very tough to find.

There is also a partial set of 24 with a BIN of $399. These are all the SQUARE cards and I cannot tell if they are the 1950's cards
or the more recent Reprints.

I do NOT recommend buying these cards from ebay. The only way to buy these cards is at a Show and from a dealer who is very
knowledgeable on them.


TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Jason L

This is fantastic and interesting information.
I don't have any interest in these cards, nor could I afford them, but this is great reading...Thank you very much for this post.

PS - did you receive my email regarding Sov. T206s for sale?

Jason

[Archive]

Posted By: Scott Mt. Joy

Thanks for the info Ted. I purchased a Kiner for $8 on ebay about 1.5 years ago, sent it into PSA and they sent it back as a reprint, I had no idea why. So now I know, thanks and I'm glad I only wasted a small amount on the card.

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Received your email and will respond no later than Monday. I am glad to enlighten.

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: boxingcardman

I can add a few points:

There are four boxers. The Joe Louis and Primo Carnera are available with the square corners and are easily located. The Marcel Cerdan and Jake La Motta are not and are difficult to find.

SGC used to grade the square cornered cards. I had an SGC 92 square Louis.

Some of the cards were issued in a square cornered perforated edge format in boxes. These have movie stars on one side and athletes on the other side. Here is a scan:

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

ADAM W

That's been my experience in tracking down the 4 boxers for my set.

Thanks for this additional insight into these "mysterious " cards.

Can you elaborate more on the Sports/Movie Star connection ?
I have been unable to pin down a year when these were issued in
1950's (or perhaps in 1949).

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Here are the more common SQUARE card reprints that are available......

BB players......

PHIL RIZZUTO
JACKIE ROBINSON
TED WILLIAMS
RALPH KINER
STAN MUSIAL
BOB FELLER
KEN KELTNER
LOU BOUDREAU
TOMMY HOLMES
JOHNNY PESKY
AARON ROBINSON
VERN STEPHENS
JOHN SAIN
EWELL BLACKWELL
ENOS SLAUGHTER
JOE GORDON
JOHNNY MIZE
DEL ENNIS
ANDY PAFKO
BOBBIE DOERR
HARRY BRECHEEN
BOB ELLIOTT

Boxers......

JOE LOUIS
PRIMO CARNERA


I have to go thru all these cards in my collection as I think there are a few BB players in this group that I have left out.


TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Here is a Checklist of the 1947 BOND BREAD original cards (ROUNDED corners).

44 BB players......

REX BARNEY
LARRY BERRA
EWELL BLACKWELL
LOU BOUDREAU
RALPH BRANCA
HARRY BRECHEEN
DOM DIMAGGIO
JOE DIMAGGIO
BOBBIE DOERR
BRUCE EDWARDS
BOB ELLIOTT
DEL ENNIS
BOB FELLER
CARL FURILLO
JOE GORDON
JOE HATTEN
SID GORDON
GIL HODGES
TOMMY HOLMES
LARRY JANSEN
EDDIE JOOST
SHELDON JONES
CHARLIE KELLER
KEN KELTNER
BUDDY KERR
RALPH KINER
JOHNNY LINDELL
WHITEY LOCKMAN
WILLARD MARSHALL
JOHNNY MIZE
STAN MUSIAL
ANDY PAFKO
JOHNNY PESKY
PEE WEE REESE
PHIL RIZZUTO
AARON ROBINSON
JACKIE ROBINSON
JOHN SAIN
ENOS SLAUGHTER
VERN STEPHENS
BIRDIE TEBBETTS
BOBBY THOMSON
JOHNNY VANDERMEER
TED WILLIAMS

Boxers......

PRIMO CARNERA
MARCEL CERDAN
JAKE LAMOTTA
JOE LOUIS


TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank K. Ward

Some cards are found in a size just slightly smaller that an exhibit card.

[Archive]

Posted By: Paul

With the history behind the regular size cards, I have always been concerned about the legitimacy of the Exhibit size cards. Are they really legit?

[Archive]

Posted By: Gilbert Maines

So, if I've got this straight, in 1947 Bond Bread produced a set of round
corner cards consisting of 44 baseball players and four boxers.
Then, two or more years later they produced a partial reprint set with square
corners consisting of 22 baseball players and two boxers.
Then, quite a bit later, and termed "recently", an unidentified source
produced an additional reprint of square cornered cards on different stock
which consists of unspecified cards, most or all of which are baseball. This
last set is not considered a legitimate hobby issue.
There may be movie star representations associated with any of these issuances.
There also exists larger cards, of approximately postcard size, which
includes images identical to the original set. However, the number of cards,
the breakdown of the sports portrayed and the origin of this group is not known.
What?
No tint variations?

[Archive]

Posted By: fkw

As far as the large exhibit style cards. There are actually 45 different known, including a Walker Cooper who is not found in the normal (round corner) cards. None of the 4 Boxers have been found yet.

The exhibit sized cards are fairly scarce. Im always looking for them, but rarely see them compared to normal cards.

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I have seen a Walker Cooper with SQUARE corners pasted in an album collection which had a lot of Movie Stars.
There were a few of the BB players (also SQUARE cards) in this collection and if I recall correctly they were all
NY Giants. If this is correct, then we can say that these 1st reprinted cards from the original 1947 Homogenized
Bond Bread issue were subsequently printed sometime in 1949, as Walker Cooper was traded from the Giants on
June 13, 1949.

Do you have either the SQUARE card or the Exhibit of Walker Cooper, so you can indeed confirm that he is depicted
as NY Giant ?
This information would be very valuable in unraveling this mystery of when the initial SQUARE cards were produced.

Thanks very much for your input on this subject,

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

i find it rather odd that since these were distributed in loaves of bread that there was no advertising to appear on a blank backed card.

[Archive]

Posted By: boxingcardman

The boxes shown are, I believe, how the legitimate reprints were sold.

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Not really unusual that the original Bread cards are blank-backed. My theory on these is that Bond Bread in 1947
was on a advertising campaign to compete with the other Bread company's (Silvercup, Tip Top, Wonder, etc) as
I recall with large newspaper advs. And, the BB season ended in 1947 with one of the most exciting World Series
ever. So, Bond Bread latched onto this national wave of excitement by having BB card premiums to go with their
product.

Now, the Bond Bread Plant didn't produce these cards, they were contracted out to a printing firm, who provided
the cards to Bond Bread. This printing outfit (unknown) was in the business of producing many other picture cards
(Movie Stars, etc.) similar to this style of cards.

The front design of these BB cards are from the exact photos of the Stadium Photo Packs handed out at many of
the Major League parks in the 1940's thru the 1950's.

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I would like to see the actual cards (front & back) contained in those packages.

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: TONY

Ted.....I have a Exhibit size Cooper, I will pull it tomorrow & let u know what I find for you

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

Adam B

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

And don't forget the larger premiums.



Adam B

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

ANONYMOUS

Thank you for posting your Walker Cooper card....just as I recalled, Cooper is pictured as a NY Giant. This definitely tells us
that the legitimate SQUARE cornered Bond Bread cards were produced sometime in early 1949 (or, perhaps 1948). My initial
post here, stating that these were issued in the early 1950's, stands corrected.

And, these SQUARE cards are absolutely not a 1947 issue. Walker Cooper is not in the original set of the 48 cards (ROUNDED
corners) issued in 1947.

Is this a great example of the investigative power of this forum at its best ? Gee, when we pool our information, rather than
quibbling over some inane issue....anything is possible.

Now, can we figure out when the more recent (1970-1980 ?) reprinted 24 cards with the SQUARE corners were produced ?

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Steve Murray

Has anyone thought to ask David Festberg about those square cornered cards? He was selling them through SCD in the late 80's and seemed to have an inexhaustible supply. BTW, they were $139 for a set of 24. ( I bit, but have subsequently sold off 16 or so and actually made a profit. )

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I asked David this back in the early 1980's (when he was involved with the warehouse find of these cards); but, I
don't think he had a clue. The last time I saw David was several years ago at the Ft Washington Show. Does any
one know where he is, lately ?

TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Harry Wallace (HW)

Ted,

How do you know that the "reprints" were not a 1947 issue? Why would the inclusion of Walker Cooper prohibit it from being issued in 1947?

[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I am confident in that the "1949 Reprints" (as I am referring to them in order to differentiate them from the original
Round cornered issue) are not a 1947 issue for the following reasons......

1st....As a kid in 1947, I collected and still have my original Round cornered 44 BB cards; and, I can say with 100%
certainty that Walker Cooper was not in this issue. Furthermore, Price Guides and Checklists support this fact.

2nd.....The BaseBall "1949 Reprints" are a slightly larger in their dimensions than the Round cards; and, are consis-
tent with the size of the Movie Star issue.

This indicates to me that these cards were not produced with the original printing of the Round issue. Incidently,
the Rounded cards are amazingly consistent in their size and this is to be expected since they were inserted in a
tight location in the Bond bread loaves.

3rd.....The album collection (that I noted in an above post here) had many of the Movie Star cards and just a few
SQUARE BB cards (all NY Giants). Also, there were many other BB cards in this album from the early 1950's. There
were NO cards from the ROUND issue. And, no BB cards earlier than 1949 in this album.

Finally, I'd say that these B/W cards of the Movie Stars were already in production at this (unknown) printing firm.
And, Bond Bread was first to contract them to produce the original 48 cards.....specifically for them to be used as
premiums included with their bread.
Remember, these 1947 Bond Bread cards and the Tip Top Bread cards represent the 1st major BB card issues after
WWII; and, believe me when I tell you that there was "BaseBall fever" throughout our nation....as, many of our BB
heroes were returning to the ballparks after their service in the war and the 1947 World Series was one of the most
exciting ever.


TED Z

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

Just throwing this link out there. Nothing of substance is revealed in the article (it talks about the '47 D305 Homogenized cards), but the fact that "Ted Zanidakis" is quoted in the sports section of a newspaper is kinda' cool.



http://www.redding.com/news/2007/nov/01/finding-original-1947-bond-bread-cards-no-easy-tas/


Wait a minute, how come my local sports section doesn't have article's on old baseball cards???


-Lovely Day, Iggy...

[Johnphotoman]

I am not good with computers, I apologize for being all over the post about this subject. To tell you the truth I don't even know whose posts I have responded to. But here it goes...to add to my confusion I see the cards are distinguished as D305. Also, there is called a "Premium" set size 6 5/8x 9, and then there is another set...3 3/8x5 5/8. Are all these cards D305? I believe the rounder 1947 cards are 2 1/4x3 1/2?
To get this straight... There is a 1947 Bond Homogenized Bread set with rounded and squared corners.
There is a two-set "Premium" 1947 Bond Homogenized Bread set that is larger in size, and all these sets are distinguished by D305 sets! Help!!!! I will not touch the Robinson 13 set called Bond Bread, leaving out the word Homogenized.
See>https://sabrbaseballcards.blog/categ...es/bond-bread/

[Exhibitman]

The PC-sized ones are often called 'Bond Bread Exhibit Cards' because they resemble Exhibit Supply Co products.



They and the other oddball items with the same artwork were likely either made by or licensed by Chicago-based Aarco Playing Cards.

The round-cornered cards were even licensed to a dairy in 1949:

[Johnphotoman]

Originally Posted by Archive

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Here is a Checklist of the 1947 BOND BREAD original cards (ROUNDED corners).

44 BB players......

REX BARNEY
LARRY BERRA
EWELL BLACKWELL
LOU BOUDREAU
RALPH BRANCA
HARRY BRECHEEN
DOM DIMAGGIO
JOE DIMAGGIO
BOBBIE DOERR
BRUCE EDWARDS
BOB ELLIOTT
DEL ENNIS
BOB FELLER
CARL FURILLO
JOE GORDON
JOE HATTEN
SID GORDON
GIL HODGES
TOMMY HOLMES
LARRY JANSEN
EDDIE JOOST
SHELDON JONES
CHARLIE KELLER
KEN KELTNER
BUDDY KERR
RALPH KINER
JOHNNY LINDELL
WHITEY LOCKMAN
WILLARD MARSHALL
JOHNNY MIZE
STAN MUSIAL
ANDY PAFKO
JOHNNY PESKY
PEE WEE REESE
PHIL RIZZUTO
AARON ROBINSON
JACKIE ROBINSON
JOHN SAIN
ENOS SLAUGHTER
VERN STEPHENS
BIRDIE TEBBETTS
BOBBY THOMSON
JOHNNY VANDERMEER
TED WILLIAMS

Boxers......

PRIMO CARNERA
MARCEL CERDAN
JAKE LAMOTTA
JOE LOUIS


TED Z

Thanks, Ted, Are the images on the squared card, different than the D305 rounded cards? Thanks John.