OT -- Information about Bra-Mac Photo Cards...

[Archive]

Posted By: Brad Green

I acquired the Grove card below just a few days ago. I have never seen these cards before. The person I bought it from called it a Bra-Mac Photo and said it was made in the 1960's. The other cards that the person had were all of 1930's players. The card measures 3 1/2 by 4 15/16 and is glossy with a blank back. Can anyone provide more information about these cards? My specific questions are:

(1) Can anyone pinpoint the year that they were made?
(2) Who is Bra-Mac? (I would guess that Bra stands for Brace, but I don't know for sure.)

Thanks for your help!

[Milt Herbert]

The 1974 Bra-Mac 1930s set consists of 288 colorized photo cards. The photos are George Brace photos and colorized by Bill MacAlister. Hence the name Bra-Mac. Many years ago I visited Bill MacAlister at his home near Chicago and he colorized some photos while I was visiting him. There were quite a few Bra-Mac sets that were produced and sold between 1974 and 1976. Examples are the 1930's Bra-Mac Colorized Bonus Photos (I own 8 of the 12). There was a 1976 Colorized Hall of Fame Set of 156 (which I own), a 1976 Colorized New York Yankee set of 75 (which I own), an Informal Group Colorized set of 144 (which I own). There were many other sets which I do not own or have partials of such as a 1940s set of 160, Brooklyn Dodgers set, a St. Louis Browns set, a St. Louis Cardinals set, a Philadelphia A's set, a Head & Action set of 12 from 1975 (I own 9 of the 12). By the way, I am still missing 24 of the 1930's set.

[jingram058]

There are over 200 Bra-Mac photos on eBay right now. The vast majority for sale by "fritschscardauctions" at 2 to 3 times what other sellers are asking. Looks like they are copies of photos with Dymo labels applied to the originals.

[Milt Herbert]

Yes, they are copies of George Brace black and white photos that will colorized by Bill MacAlister. I went to Bill's house and saw how he did the colorization. He had files cabinets of a large quantity of George Brace postcards. They were in a partnership together in doing the Bra-Mac sets.

[whiteymet]

Hi Gang:

What can anyone tell me about a Bra-Mac card in B&W?

See the Kelleher below side by side color/B&W same pose different cropping.

Are other B&W's with the Dymo labels known?

[VintageLEV]

I recently acquired a collection that included the entire 288 card set (plus the 12 Bra-Mac Bonus cards) still in the original envelopes in which they were sent. I compiled a checklist including the collation of each envelop and post mark date. I offered the checklist to TCDB however while they include numerous "photo pack" images in their database they concluded the set does not constitute cards as is it printed on photo paper.