1953-1954 Mascot Dog Food Cards - The Journey to Figure Out the Complete 11-Card Set

[Jay Wolt]

Chuck thanks for all the info, very cool obscure set

[cardinalcollector]

I find it very interesting that Specs Toporcer is included in this set as a member of the Rochester Red Wings. He played with them from 1929-34 as a player and manager. Toporcer has a fascinating story. Here is a SABR write up on him: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/specs-toporcer/

I just can't find a tie-in with him and this set. Rochester is 340 miles from Philadelphia (home of Mascot dog food), so he isn't a local hero.

Does anybody know why he would be included in this set?

This entire set is mysterious.

[chuckw]

Specs got a slice of the sales of Mascot Dog Food along with others in the set:
A fellow Net54er (JLange) searched on GenealogyBank in PA and NJ for ads from 1952-56 and got this the April 27, 1954 Evening Star out of Washington, D.C. in "The Baseball Beat" column by Burton Hawkins. The text reads,
"Bucky Harris is a business associate of Al Rosen, Ed Mathews, Robin Roberts, Yogi Berra, Ed Lopat, Monte Irvin and Specs Toporcer. Their pictures appear on cans of Mascot dog food and they get a slice of the sales."

[swarmee]

Looks like that would be enough to be a full checklist. Should be able to get them in PSA slabs now, if that is the owners' druthers.

I guess you were able to confirm pbruderer's set as authentic, then?

[chuckw]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Looks like that would be enough to be a full checklist. Should be able to get them in PSA slabs now, if that is the owners' druthers.

I guess you were able to confirm pbruderer's set as authentic, then?

Yes - we now have the full checklist of 11 cards (and photos of the front and back of each). I will provide the information to PSA and Beckett and hopefully with that, it will be good enough to get the checklist published and allow both to grade them if any owners are interested. I am not sure if pbrunerer (a poster on here) is with one of the two families that I've been working with (they could be associated with the 10-card owners). Inspecting the membership card, 8x10 photo, cards, and envelope provided great provenance for me with one family. The second family has all 11 cards and received them back in 1953-1954 direct from the dog food company - and the owner gave detailed information on the dog food and the redemption program.