1955 Topps Doubleheaders

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

The artwork illustrated in this (unheralded) TOPPS set is awesome. There are only 66 cards, depicting 132 players.
Shown here are the major stars in this set. It was most likely produced with (or just shortly after) the 1st series of
the regular issue 1955 Topps set, as all the players in this set are also, in that 1st series.

As a kid, growing up in the '50s, I was a "stadium nut". So, I just love this set with its beautifully detailed stadium
backgrounds. In subsequent posts on this thread, I will show an array of these cards, which when placed together
form a continuous stadium scene.






TED Z collection

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Posted By: Anthony

Somewhere I the net I saw a scan of the entire set laid side by side. I do have a partial uncut panel, at least one can get an idea of the full picture

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Posted By: leon

That is awesome.....I love it....You guys almost make me want to start collecting 1950's....

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

ANTHONY

I always expect you to produce some neat stuff and that horizontal panel is really great. Is it old Commiskey
Park or Sportsman Park in the background ?
Now, you are motivating me to scan the cards in my set that form the Yankee Stadium background scene.


LEON

With only 66 cards in this set, and you being the ultimate type collector, this is just "super-type" set. Then,
you can arrange the cards to form the stadium scenes and call it a "stadium-type" set.

TED Z

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Posted By: Jason L

These are really cool cards...I'm embarassed to say that I have never seen them before!
I don't have access to Ebay or such at work, so I can't check...how much these cards go for (in various grades?)

very very cool stuff...they remind me of the 50 and 51 Bowmans some with those great backgrounds.

Edited to add: and is the reverse another player in the same size as the front, or is it half-size + stats, reminiscent of the T201s?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Now I never knew you could construct a panorama of the stadium by laying the cards out in a row. You can still learn something new, it's never too late!

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Posted By: Jason L

Now here's something I've never really looked into before, maybe others know (I'm sure someone does!)
With a set like this, featuring artwork as it does, rather than photography, whatever happens to the original artwork from which the cards were derived/produced?

I would think that those would be some highly prized originals?!

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Here goes guys....YANKEE STADIUM





TED Z collection

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Posted By: Jason L

awesome stuff!
thanks for sharing these.
made my lunch hour with something new !

So I gotta know: Did they do a Wrigley Field panorama!?!?!??!?!

Edited to add:
Interesting in your Yankee Stadium group that the players go from smallest to largest as you go left to right, before ending with a larger than life Big Teddy K...very funny!

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Also being a "stadium nut" (love stadium backgrounds on cards), I too, thank you Ted, for showing me something I was not aware of before. Beautiful.

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Posted By: Al

Plus a different stadium scene when folded, assuming anyone with a nice one would ever fold it

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Posted By: Anthony

Al-
I never realized that. I took my uncut panel and used photoshop to simulate the fold over. Pretty cool!

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Posted By: Mike

Those are great! I never knew the backgrounds tie together like that.

It also looks like the poses are one and the same from the regular issue poses, with Ted William's knee bent in to fit.

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Posted By: Paul S

Just when I thought the post-war board was dragging, you picked it right up, Ted, Anthony, and those to come. Totally the best! I wasn't collecting in 1955 but in the 60s when I started I never ever saw these, or I'd have had several. A lot of thought went into these to be sure. Only thing better is if they'd have left them borderless -- but I'm not complaining. Keep 'em coming!

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Posted By: Anthony

The design for '55 Doubleheaders was stolen from the T201 Mecca foldover set, which I believe was the first set to have stats on the back of the card. While they are full bleed (I agree that is the only flaw in the '55 design) putting them together does not form any sort of panorama.

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Posted By: Anthony

And add a few more details to the set, here is a pack and box

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

MIKE

You are exactly right, these action poses are the exact inset figures in the regular issue 1955 cards.
As I said in my prior post, all 132 ballplayers of this set were taken from (or simultaneously printed)
when the 1st series of 150 cards of the regular were produced by Topps.

TED Z

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Posted By: Paul S

Anthony
Terrific wax pack. Is that pack actually sealed
in plastic? If so, by GAI before being placed
in the holder? Maybe I've never noticed that
before. Great touch, if so.

*edited for word wrap

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Posted By: Anthony

Paul- they often put the thinner packs in a mylar baggie. This one didn't bother me that much, but some of the other packs don't look that great with it so I had them reslab it without.

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Posted By: Anthony

Jason-
Sorry, missed your previous question. Here's the other side of the panel

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Posted By: Jason L

Oh, so they are exact replicas of the T201 style with the half stat-half player flip. Very interesting.
and loved your other post - the flip players also form a panorama!

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Posted By: Jason L

Anthony, looks as though that pack is so short, it must contain an already bent card...
so how would these things grade? Aside from an uncut sheet, there's not anything higher than a PSA 3 in existence?!!?!

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Posted By: Jason L

a 55 Double header next to its regular Topps issue counterpart, to demonstrate the same image used...?
that would be fun to see...
thanks!

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Posted By: Anthony

I checked the pops and the set registry, lots of 8's with some 9's in there. I don't know if there was a large find of ones that were never folded into packs, or if PSA and SGC take this into account. Bob F and a few others went in on a high grade large lot of these a few years back, perhaps he'll chime in.
I've also seen a few sets that were unperforated- SGC grades them as such.

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Posted By: Bob

Here are a couple 55 Doubleheaders next to the regular issue card so you can see the matching poses:

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Posted By: Bob

Anthony,

The ones we picked up were supposedly high grade, but the centering was all over the place, and quite a few had gum stains (or paper loss) on the back. We picked up over 550 cards and made about four decent sets and a couple more EX sets. The corners on all of them were very nice though. The highest grade that SGC gave us on any of the cards was an 84 (tough grader that day).

PSA won't grade the unperforated ones but SGC does. Most of the really high grade SGC ones you see on eBay are unperforated. PSA doesn't count off for the folds, but it feels like SGC does.

Price has been fairly stable on the set for the last 25 years. I checked a 1982 price guide yesterday and noticed that the '55 Doubleheader set had a price listed of $1,250. Compare that to the '52 Topps price of $6,000, the '55 Topps price of $500, the '57 Topps price of $600, '69 Topps price of $225, etc., etc.

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Posted By: dennis

ebbets field?

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

DENNIS

I'm not sure if it's Ebbetts Field. I will look at the adjacent cards that make up the rest of the stadium.
The way it works is that 5 (or 6) cards in numerical order complete the stadium scene.

But, I think the only stadium backgrounds are Yankee, Polo Gnds. and Ebbetts. This is understandable,
since Topps was based in Brooklyn and photographed all the players in NYC.

TED Z

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Posted By: Fred Y

Here are a few of my '55 DHeaders:

Just as all the football cards I posted, I had these stored away since they were issued. I had about 3/4 of the set, including all the Stars except the Williams. Had them graded a few yrs ago & have since sold them all but 1, which I kept as a type-card.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Hey guys.....I'll try to display all the Stadium scenes. I started with the Hi#s for my 1st Yankee stadium scene.
With all the remaining 60 card fronts in my set, I think I should be able to construct 10 more scenes.

But, if anyone of you beat me to the punch, be my guest. These scenes are terrific. I'm sure Topps contracted
this artwork out to professional artists (as they did their 1953 cards); but, I really have to give them credit for
the clever way they designed these cards.

TED Z

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Posted By: Paul S

It appears Fred has promptly ended the high-grade question.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Even if I was into graded cards, like most on this forum, this is one set of cards that I would never
get graded. They are too much fun having them in their original "naked" state and being able to ar-
range them into stadium scenes, fold them, etc.....as they were intended to be.

And, the stars in my set would probably grade very high. But no, it's not for me.

TED Z

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Posted By: Paul S

One day I will get my first graded card (just to say, "I did it!") I'll post nominees on the forum and everyone can vote on the card and the grading co.

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Posted By: Al

Not that you need anyone to second you Ted, but I do anyway

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Cards #89-96 form an Ebbets Field background








TED Z

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Posted By: dennis

paul,i too have never sent a card in to the grading company's. i display all my cards in plastic sheets in binders. i just really like how they look in binders. i have thought about sending in my nicest hall of famers to be graded. the reason is, that if they graded higher than nm., i could sell them and buy the same card(maybe in ex or exmint) and have some money to spend on other cards. but i just would hate to spend money on slabs when i could be spending it on cards.

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Posted By: Paul S

Dennis -- I probably noticed that in the past, since raws tend to catch my eye, although I don't always remember who uploaded. I'm about the same as you in regard to cost -- it's prohibitive when compared to the cards I could purchase. I flirt with the idea of one or two because I'm so darn curious. And, as you say, for selling purposes.

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

Some of the backgrounds even go from light to dark as you sweep across the panorama. BB Cards magazine had a full color spread of the fronts many, many years ago as eye candy for the masses. I had a scan of that, not sure if I lost it in my hard drive crash but I'll post it if I find it.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

DAVE

I have The BB Card Mags. issue #1 to ?......do you recall what issue these are in ?

TED Z

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Posted By: Bob

Ted,

There was an article by Bill Bossert in the October 1984 issue of BB Cards. Here are the scans from the magazine:

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Posted By: dennis

that baseball cards magazine was really great for about the first 4 years or so of it's existance!

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Posted By: Paul S

Thanks for posting those Bob. Man, that is sooooo good, soooo good!

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Posted By: Bob Lemke

Here's a little inside dope about the photo of Bill Bossert's Doubleheaders that ran in BBC.

Bill's set was an unfolded example, in singles form. He sent us the set (or I picked them up on loan at a loan) to make the composite photo. I told our photograher that I wanted them laid out as shown here . . . but I didn't tell her NOT to glue them to a backing board so they would stay put for shooting. So each of these rare unfolded examples was rubber-cemented to a large backing board. Thankfully this was in the days before a lot of today's really good glues were available, so we were able to carefully peel the cards off the board, damaging only three or so with creases in the process. I recall one of the damaged cards was Killebrew; don't recall the others.

As those who know him would expect, Bill took the news like a gentleman and we were able to come to an amicable settlement with him for the damages.

In a similar vein, but before my time at Krause, they had a photographer who was shooting an extremely rare and valuable proof $20 gold piece (I believe the coin was Chet Krause's personal property) for Coins magazine and the annual coin calendar. The photog was working "without a net" and when he fumbled the coin, it fell to the hard floor and sustained a very visible rim dent. At the time (early 1960s), the damage was only a couple of thousand dollars' worth, as the years went by, the difference in value between that damaged coin and an unblemished piece reached $80,000 or so in the 1980s, and today is probably well into six figures.

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Posted By: Rich Klein

The 1955 Topps Double Headers Set was and still is a particular favorite of Kit Young. Check out the old TTS from 1978-80 or so for more details. Whenever I see Kit, we still joke about this

Regards
Rich

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Posted By: Ted Holden

1955 was the first year that is still recoverable from my memory bank: baseball cards section, opening packs. I know from the collection I had as a kid that I opened packs before that, but that particular memory does not go back before age 8. That year had the 55 Bowman TV cards, the 55 Topps regular issue and the good ole doubleheaders.

Back when I was 8, I had no clue about the stadiums in the backgroud. In fact, this thread is the first I heard of it. What I knew then was that my friends and I thought the doubleheaders were the worst idea ever. We used our cards to form teams and play baseball games with a deck of cards. We kept track of stats like home runs, RBI's etc. The doubleheaders posed a real problem for us however. Which of the two players was in the game? You don't get to have another guy on the mound when the first guy is pitching. So the first problem was that it messed up our game.

The second issue was the perforations. On many occasions our youthful exuberance and lack of coordination resulted in the doubleheader ending up in two parts. While we would tape them together, it just wasn't the same.

Lastly, their difference in size made it tough to put the team together and hold them in place with a rubber band. The shorter cards tended to slip out.

I think we all ditched our doubleheaders and concentrated on our Bowman TV cards. After all they were in color, and we were intrigued with the idea of color TV.

Does anybody else recall with a shudder dumb stuff you did with cards when you were a kid? Perhaps this needs to be a totally new thread. I just may start one.

Texas Ted

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

TED H

In 1949 when we were collecting Leaf BB cards, flipping them wasn't as much fun as scaling them towards our front porch steps.
And, these cards were perfect for doing this since they were made of thicker cardboard. If you were good at scaling a card that
would lean between the pavement and the side of the step, then you took all the prior scaled cards that were on the pavement.
And, of course if it was your turn next and you knocked down the leaner with your card, then you took all the cards in play. Just
imagine that this game was the BB card version of playing horseshoes.

I still have all those Leaf cards and they show a lot of wear....except for my Babe Ruth which I would not flip or scale....Ruth was
a special card.

TED Z