1969 and 1970 MLB Photostamps Info

[Archive]

Posted By: Karl

FYI, according to a dealer acquaintance who seems very knowledgeable about this issue:

1969

216 were issued, each in two varieties, so 432 total possible. Variety Type 1 has a dotted line on the back and is printed on off-white stock, Type 2 has a solid line on the back and is printed on slicker, whiter stock. The solid line variety is more scarce. Neither variety is perforated. Some of the Type 1 stamps have additional language on the backs about pasting the stamps in the Official Album, but the players whose stamps have that language ALWAYS have that language. It's not a variation.

1970

ALL 216 of the 1969 Type 1 stamps were REISSUED in 1970. There is no way to distinguish them from the 1969s. An ADDITIONAL 75 stamps were issued - these are all players that were NOT in the 1969 set. These 75 stamps differ from the 1969s in that the cap logos are NOT airbrushed out, and they have long dashes on the backs (NOT dots or solid lines).
There was also a sheet of 12 stamps issued in 1970 that are PERFORATED with airbrushed caps and the long dash marks on the back.


To summarize:

1969 (432 possible):

216 hand-cut with dotted line backs, some have "Official Album" on backs but no players exist with both "Official Album" and regular backs

216 hand-cut solid line backs


1970 (303 possible):

216 hand-cut with dotted line backs, some have "Official Album" on backs but no players exist with both "Official Album" and regular backs - IDENTICAL RE-ISSUE OF THE 1969s

75 hand-cut with long dashes on backs, cap logos are NOT airbrushed, none of the players included in the 1969 set

12 perforated with long dashes on backs, all caps airbrushed

[bobafett72]

i was doing a search on these and stumbled across this post. fantastic information.

[sschauer]

Here are the 2 backs from Roses I have

Originally Posted by bobafett72

i was doing a search on these and stumbled across this post. fantastic information.

Thanks. It's still a work in progress, and a lot of the info was provided to me by Mark Mosier, who's probably forgotten more about baseball cards than I know.

As noted above, the original 216 stamps were on 18 sheets of 12 stamps each, they were issued with two types of stock and backs, and they were issued for baseball's 1969 centennial but then re-issued and sold throughout 1970 - so they should be listed in the Standard Catalog as "1969-70".

There are 75 stamps unique to 1970 that I've listed below. These players were NOT in the 1969 set, their cap logos are visible/NOT airbrushed, their backs have long dash marks (see scan) and they are slightly smaller than the 1969-70 issue (1 7/8" x 3" instead of 2" by 3 1/4"). These came on 7 sheets (6 had 12 players, a 7th had only 3).



Alomar
Belanger
Bolin
Bonds
Boswell
Bradford
Brand
Butler
Campbell
Cardenas
Carlton
Clendenon
Colbert
Comer
Cuellar
Davenport
Didier
Dietz
Dobson, C.
Dobson, P.
Francona
Fuller
Gladding
Granger
Green
Hansen
Hebner
Hegan
Hernandez, J
Hisle
Hoerner
Holtzman
Hovley
Jackson, G
Jackson, R
Johnson, A
Johnstone
Kelly, P
Kilkenny
Kirby
Laboy
Lemaster
Lyle
May, Rudy
McNertney
Melton
Messersmith
Moose
Murcer
Oliver, A
Oliver, B
Perranoski
Perry
Piniella
Pinson
Raymond
Reberger
Reed
Reese
Romo
Russell
Ryan
Sanguillen
Satriano
Sims
Sizemore
Sparma
Stoneman
Tatum
Tolan
Weis
Williams, W
Wilson, E
Wine
Yastrzemski

There's a THIRD stand-alone issue of MLB stamps/photostamps from 1970 that is comprised of just one sheet of 12 All-Star players. The stamps are the same size as the other 1970 stamps with the same long dash marks on the backs, but they use the same airbrushed logo photos as the 1969-70 stamps. This is also the only sheet that's PERFORATED. The 12 players are listed below. These 12 are the only players that have MLB stamps in 3 formats (2 x 3 1/4, dotted backs, off-white stock from 1969-70; 2 x 3 1/4, solid line backs, white stock from 1969-70; 1 7/8 x 3, long dash backs, perforated from 1970):

Aaron
Banks
Bench
Gibson
Howard
Killebrew
McCovey
McDowell
McLain
Powell
Seaver
Stottlemyre

Hopefully I can put together enough evidence to support getting the Standard Catalog entry fixed (if they even continue to carry this type of issue in the future). If anyone sees any errors in what I've written, please let me know. Thanks.

[Big Red Machine]

I have owned a couple of the 1970 Sports Stars magazine that contained the 12 perforated cards on the insert sheet. Those are very difficult to find centered. Both of the magazines I have owned had the perforated lines way off center on the cards.

[hcv123]

I have some sheets (unfortunately I don't remember which ones). I know for sure Ryan was on one of them. I also have an album that went with the stamps. They are all unfortunately buried in storage and will be for the near to intermediate future. I'll try to find this thread when I put my hands on them. Thanks.

-Howard

[a761506]

Wow, I thought I knew this issue pretty well, but learned something new here... never knew about the back variations.

I had always known that the Standard Catalog had them listed incorrectly when it has all the players listed by team as opposed to by Series, which is how they were issued...

I have always thought that PSA doesn't know anything about them either, as they seemed to just arbitrarily assign the year as 1969 or 1970 to the ones which have always been known as the 1969 issue. I had always thought there was no such thing as a 1970 Clemente, even though PSA has graded 15 of them as such. Now, knowing of the reprinting, there technically is a 1970 issue, although, since they can't tell them apart, they really should just consider all cards from sheets labeled Series 1-18 as 1969, and all 75 cards from Series 19-25 sheets as 1970. I have always thought that those 75 cards are much tougher than the 1969 cards.

Looking at the PSA pop. report, of the 137 total graded under 1970, only 65 of them can actually be determined to be from 1970.

[sschauer]

Wanted to bring this back to light for a minute as I think I might finally have a small grasp on these. In particular the 1969 var 2 they were issued in a different booklet 4 different ones the description lists 48 in each booklet which leaves 24 shy for real 69 set found these photos from a old ebay auction so not the best pictures. I wondered does anyone own these and have better pictures and could verify the exact ones in var 2. They were separated by league and the division so

SERIES 1 AL Oakland, Minnesota, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, California
SERIES 2 AL Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Washington, New York, Cleveland
SERIES 3 NL Atlanta, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Houston, San Diego
SERIES 4 NL Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, St Louis, Philadelphia, Montreal

sschauer - yes, the variation 2/type 2 stamps were created for and included in the 4 division mini-albums, and I've been able to confirm that there were indeed only 192 "type 2" stamps (48 x 4 booklets). 12 ALers and 12 NLers don't exist as "type 2" (whiter stock and solid line on the back). I've identified most of the missing 24, and hope to know all of them soon. I'll post my findings as soon as I can.

[Harford20]

PART 1
I am bringing forward a very old thread as my father and I have been trying to “clarify” all the data regarding the MLB photostamps that were released in 1969 and 1970. Much of this work and our inspiration came from Net54 member Karl Mattson, but to our knowledge is more accurate than any other data on this topic that we have found. I have broken this into two reports, the “1969” (or so-called 1969) and the “1970” just to try to remain readable.

1969 MLB PhotoStamps -- (408 possible):
Variety/Type 1 with backs a&b = 216
Variety/Type 2 = 192

1969 Variety 1 (aka. Type 1) with backs a&b – (just for the sake of clarity, I have given an “a” and “b” designation to the differing back variations). This set of 216 hand-cut stamps with dotted line backs (the 1-7/8”x~3” (height was >15/16” & >3”) to the “cut lines) were on 18 sheets -- AL. 1-9 and NL 1-9 printed on off-white stock, with some having "Official Album" verbiage (the “b” back) on backs but no players exist with both "Official Album" AND Regular Backs. These are listed in the Sports Collectors Digest Standard Catalog (SCD) by sheet and in the Beckett Almanac (Beckett’s) listing has the 216 players listed alphabetically in groups of 9 players undivided by team name (team designation is cited in the general verbiage).

[Harford20]

PART 2
1969 Variety 2 (aka. Type 2) – The Variety/Type 2 set was first issued early in 1969 in 4 booklets each containing 48 -- 1-7/8” by 3" PhotoStamps (4 to a ½ page – totaling 192). When affixed in the albums the players would correspond to each division -- NL West & East, and AL West& East. The back had a “shortened solid” line separating the gluing instructions and is printed on slicker, whiter stock. This “solid line” variety is more scarce, particularly in both AL booklets, as well as the NL West booklet.

192 hand-cut cards with short solid line (between glue instructions) backs (the stamps were 1-7/8”x 3” to the back side “cut lines). These 192 photostamps were issued in early 1969 in 4 booklets of 48 stamps (printed on slicker, whiter stock of less weight than the Type 1) in the team arrangement below:

SERIES 1 AL Oakland, Minnesota, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, California = 48 stamps
SERIES 2 AL Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Washington, New York, Cleveland = 48 stamps
SERIES 3 NL Atlanta, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Houston, San Diego = 48 stamps
SERIES 4 NL Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, St Louis, Philadelphia, Montreal = 48 stamps

[Harford20]

You will quickly notice two things about these 1969 Type 2 card fronts. First, if you compare the Clemente fronts from the 12-player sheet in the Type 1 section and the 8-player sheet above, you will see they look identical. The only difference comes in the paper weight and whiter stock color, OR when you see the stamp back. Second, on a stamp like the PSA 1969 MLB stamp of Hank Aaron above, the “yellow” header is always present in these 12-player sheets, but there is no yellow on any 8-player sheet so for stamps in the Aaron position on the 12-player sheets, both the fronts AND backs are different between the Type 1 and Type 2 in 1969.

These are not specifically noted in either the SCD or the Beckett’s. The following 24 players (alphabetically) of the above cited group (Type 1) of 216 were NOT issued in the earlier "Type 2" group:

*1969 Variation Player Differences -- Present ONLY in Type 1 stamps/ Absent in Type 2:
AL
Andy Etchebarren - Orioles
Bob Allison - Twins
Bob Rogers - Angels
Chico Salmon - Pilots
Ed Stroud - Senators
John Donaldson - A's
Jose Santiago - Red Sox
Ken Berry - White Sox
Larry Brown - Indians
Mickey Stanley - Tigers
Steve Hamilton - Yankees
Steve Whitaker - Royals
NL
Bob Aspromonte - Braves
Bill Hands - Cubs
Tony Cloninger - Reds
Jesus Alou - Astros
Len Gabrielson - Dodgers
Jim Fairey - Expos
Bud Harrelson - Mets
Rick Wise - Phillies
Jerry May - Pirates
Dick Selma - Padres
Mike McCormick - Giants
Dal Maxville - Cardinals



In Summary:

1969 MLB PhotoStamps

While the Variety /Type 1 set was issued for baseball's 1969 Centennial is well cataloged, there is a variation to it. We believe that the 4 booklets each containing 48 stamps corresponding to each division NLwest, east, AL west, east, listed at Variety/Type 2, actually were released early in 1969 with only the 192 player stamps available. Then the Variety /Type 1 stamps (216) were re-released later on in the year in the traditional 18 sheets of 12. This made for the addition of 24 extra players for the second set.

Variety/Type 1 (a & b) were issued on18 sheets (A.L. 1-9 and N.L 1-9) of 12 random players each (Note: the actual AL & NL Albums were formatted for 9 players for each of 24 teams = 216 total). This printing has a “dotted” line on the back separating the gluing instructions replacing the “shortened solid” line on the back of the earlier photostamp, and is printed on off-white stock. The Type 1b stamps have additional language on the backs about pasting the stamps in the Official Album, but the players whose stamps have that language ALWAYS have that language -- It's not a variation. And, no players exist with both with both back types.

The variation between the two printings is mainly on the back and the total number of players. The photos are identical although on many you may find they are cropped a hair different (or have the yellow border as noted in the Aaron above). The Variety/Type 2 (first print run) stamps are much scarcer and have a solid line on the back while the Variety /Type 1 set (second print run) carries a dotted line.

Neither variety of 1969 PhotoStamps is tear-perforated.

[Harford20]

As the 1970 MLB Photostamps are even less well described, I will break down these variations similar to the 1969 MLB variations for clarity only. These are not described this way in any documentation (i.e. SCD, Becketts), but we feel it is difficult to describe the information without this separation.

1970 MLB PhotoStamps -- (303 possible -- 87 unique to 1970):
Variety/Type 1 with backs a&b = 216
Variety/Type 2 = 75
Variety/Type 3 =12

1970 Variety/Type 1 a&b -- 216 hand-cut with dotted line backs, some have "Official Album" verbiage on backs but no players exist with both back types. This is an IDENTICAL Re-issue (continued issue?) of the 1969 216 PhotoStamps (1-7/8”x~3” (height was >15/16”& >3”) to the “cut lines). As noted above in the 1969 discussion, the original 216 stamps were on 18 sheets (AL. 1-9 and NL 1-9) of 12 PhotoStamps each (not grouped by team or listed alphabetically) though they were issued with two types of backs and possibly some variance in card stock.
Due to these 1970 Variety/Type 1 a&b cards being identical to the 1969 version, many refer to
ALL these photostamps as 1969/1970 versions (as we did above in the 1969 section)

Note: The photo examples here are the same as in the 1969 Variety/Type 1 above

1970 Variety/Type 2 -- 75 hand-cut with long dashes on backs, cap logos are NOT airbrushed and players are not included in any previous 1969 set. These stamps, unique to 1970 are listed below. These players were NOT in the 1969/1970 set of 216, their cap logos ARE visible (NOT airbrushed), and their backs have long dash marks (NOT dotted or solid lines) separating the gluing instructions (see scan). These PhotoStamps are printed on paper lighter in color and marginally lighter weight. These came on 7 sheets (6 had 12 players, a 7th had only 3 players).

The SCD for the 1970 MLB Photostamps lists 288 of the total 291 players by team (the 3 players on the final sheet #25 are not included). The Beckett’s listing has the 288 players listed alphabetically in groups of 12 players undivided by team name (team designation is cited in the general verbiage).

[ALR-bishop]

Great post Dave. Now I am going to have to go back through mine and compare what I have to your roadmap

[Harford20]

The following are the 75 1970 unique Type 2 Player PhotoStamps by print sheet designation (the 1-7/8”x~3” (height was >15/16” & >3”) did not have “cut lines but were separate by a white margin -- cutting these stamps to the back solid outline would produce a card -- this was chancy and depended upon exact front/back printing registration):

Sheet 19 -- Lou Piniella, Dick Green, Rich Reese, Mike Kilkenny, Dave Boswell ,Al Weis, Mike Hegan, Chuck Dobson, Bob Oliver, Ron Perranoski, Bill Butler & Bobby Bolin
Sheet 20 -- Bobby Wine, Al Oliver, Ron Brand, Rudy May, Tom Satriano, Steve Carlton, Frank Reberger, Nolan Ryan, Jay Johnson, Coco Labay, Bob Moore & Bill Stoneman
Sheet 21 -- Reggie Jackson, Pat Dobson, Sparky Lyle, Andy Messersmith, Duke Sims, Bobby Murcer, Leo Cardenas, Mike Cuellar, Vern Fuller, Earl Wilson, Mark Belanger & Grant Jackson
Sheet 22 -- Bill Russell, Ted Sizemore, Bobby Tolan, Nate Colbert, Joe Hoerner, Larry Hisle, Alex Johnson, Wayne Granger, Denny Lemaster, Donn Clendenon, Fred Gladding & Jackie Hernandez
Sheet 23 -- Dave Campbell, Wayne Comer, Harold Kelly, Tito Francona, Dick Dietz, Gerry McNertney, Vada Pinson, Joe Perry, Ron Hansen, Vicente Romo, Bill Melton & Joe Sparma
Sheet 24 -- Bob Didier, Claude Raymond, Sandy Alomar, Buddy Bradford, Clay Kirby, Richie Hebner, Ken Tatum, Bobby Bonds, Ken Holtzman, Ron Reed, Carl Yastrzemski & Manny Sanguillen
Sheet 25 -- Jim Davenport, Steve Hovley & Walt Williams

1970 Type 3-- [/B](All-Star -- 1970 Baseball Stars Album Centerfold Starter Set)[/B] -- 12 tear-perforated with long dashes on backs, and all caps are airbrushed. This THIRD stand-alone issue of MLB PhotoStamps unique to 1970 is comprised of just one sheet of 12 All-Star “starter” player stamps for the 1970 Edition of the Sports Stars Album. The stamps are the same size as the Type 2 1970 stamps with the same long dash marks on the backs, but they use the same airbrushed logo photos as the 1969/70 stamps. This is the only TEAR-PERFORATED PhotoStamp sheet.

[Harford20]

In Summary

1970 MLB PhotoStamps

ALL 216 of the 1969 Variety/Type 1 (a & b) (1-7/8”x~3” (height was >15/16” & >3”) to the “cut lines) PhotoStamps cited above were REISSUED as 1970 Variety/Type 1 (a & b). They are indistinguishable from the 1969 printing (printed as the same 18 sheets of 12 players, on the same weight/color of paper) and may have been a “continued” printing although actual print schedule is not available. They were originally issued for Baseball's 1969 Centennial and then re-issued and sold throughout 1970. So, these 216 PhotoStamps should be listed in the SCD and Beckett’s as "1969-70."

The 1970 Variety/Type 2 set continues the 6 sheets of 12-player stamps with 2 exceptions. The last sheet only has 3 cards, and the 1970 All-Star Album (that held the 1970 Variety/Type 3) had an extra perforated sheet of 12 cards. The “perforated All-Star” starter set of photostamps were found as the centerfold of the “Official” 1970 Album. These “perfs” only came from this original ablum – not printed separately in any format. All 1970s are easy to tell apart when in sheet form but when cut out biggest difference is they do not have airbrushed logos.

Inexplicably, the 1970 Edition of the Sports Stars Album had spaces for 288 player PhotoStamps (seemingly logical at 12 players for each of the 24 teams), but this forced a choice from the available 303 PhotoStamps distributed in 1970. Following this format, the SCD indicates the players by team for 1970 and is an apparent non-differentiated mixture of the 3 types of PhotoStamps cited above. The Beckett Almanac chooses to list the 288 player alphabetically, also an apparent mixture of PhotoStamps.


OF NOTE:
The 12 players listed below are the ONLY players with MLB PhotoStamps in 3 DIFFERENT formats
1. The “dotted line” backs on off-white stock from 1969-70 Variety/Type 1
2. The “solid line” backs on whiter stock issued first, 1969 Variety/Type 2
3. The long “dashed line” backed tear-perforated PhotoStamps from the 1970 Album centerfold 1970 Variety/Type 3

Denny McLain, Hank Aaron, Frank Howard, Tom Seaver; Sam McDowell, Willie McCovey, John “Boog” Powell, Ernie Banks; Johnny Bench, Mel Stottlemyre, Harmon Killebrew & Bob Gibson



There you have it, “clear as mud”. You can easily see why there is often confusion and difficulty classifying these stamps.

Sorry about the small photos.

Dave

[Harford20]

Of note, as I was still struggling to get out of diapers when my father was collecting these stamps originally, the research credit is HIS. He has collected each and every album, stamp and stamp sheet of every one of these years/variations, with the exception of needing the 1969 Variety 2 (Type 2) NL West 8-Stamp page SHEETS from that album. If anyone has the 6 different SHEETS of these 8-stamps (48 stamps total) in sheets, I would like to purchase any for sale.

Dave

[ALR-bishop]

Dave--Great info. After going through it and what I have, I am missing only the 69 Variety 2/Type 2 AL East Album and related stamps. Sorry, no dupes of the NL West album and stamps, but do have them.

I was between high school and college when they came out , but did not start collecting them until later

[Harford20]

Thanks Al.

My dad read this thread and quickly noted that he is looking for the 1969 Variety type 2 AL West stamp sheets and not the NL West that I listed. Just putting that correction out in case someone has these sheets for sale.

[ALR-bishop]

Well, at least your Dad and I won't be competing for the one we need .

As you noted the smaller albums and and related stamps come up much less often. Same with the 70 Album

[BoyWonder089]

Great information guys! I recently received a PSA 9 hand cut pairing of the 1969 Killebrew/Odom pairing as a gift. I really appreciate all the research you guys have done as I was looking for more information on what they were originally used for. I think I will now be looking to pick up an album to complete the complete the collection story...

[Big Red Machine]

I was very happy to pick up a complete 1969 Variation 2 Photostamp set that is still in the original packaging. I know this version is much more difficult to find but unsure of the value.