Vintage Racing?

[Beansballcardblog]

Thanks for sharing that backstory on the card as well. It reminds me a bit of an "American Pickers" type thing where there is a great story attached to an item. I believe that's a big part of my appeal to the vintage - the actual history. I had almost left the hobby (modern cards aren't fun for me anymore), but instead have just moved onto collecting vintage, however slow it may be.

Originally Posted by Bored5000

I don't know if anyone is actually reading this thread anymore, but one of the cards near the top of my want list arrived today -- a 1972 Richard Petty card from the STP set. Like I wrote earlier, it took several years of searching for me to find a Petty card from the '72 STP set. The seller was amazing, perhaps the best seller I have ever dealt with on eBay. The seller was an older lady and she sent me a two-page letter discussing her collection and detailing that she acquired the card as a handout from an STP rep while at the 1972 Daytona 500 (which corresponds with everything I have ever read about how the set was distributed).

She wrote that it took her 25 years to complete the set (11 cards) because she could not find the near-mythical Lorenzen with car card. Over the years, she traded/bought/sold various cards from the STP set. The Lorenzen with car card she finally located at a racing memorabilia show has a thumbtack hole, but it was the only one she has ever seen. She wanted to put together a second full set but is stuck at 10 cards due to never being able to find a second Lorenzen with car card.

As I mentioned earlier, the '72 STP Petty card is always ranked somewhere in the top five among the most desirable of all NASCAR cards or racing cards in general.

Scans of the Petty card that just arrived in my mailbox on Friday:

[pawpawdiv9]

Cool stuff. I was a Nascar collector until around early 2000's, just a few yrs after Earnhardt Sr.s death...I just couldt see myself collect anymore. Just this yr, I slowly began listing some things in my collection, such as signed programs, cards/autos, and some diecast. Just listed a few things this past few days...sometimes you cant believe what you h-o-a-r-d. Love reading theres other collectors other than baseball. I always been intrigued at the oddball stuff in the back of the AH books.

[Bored5000]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I can now provide some additional information about the '72 STP set. The woman who I bought the Richard Petty card from included her phone number in the letter she sent me and invited me to call her to find out more information from her. She is 75 years old and does not do e-mail. Her daughter was the one that listed the card on eBay for her because the seller does not do anything with computers.

I felt really weird calling this older lady who I had never met before, but at the same time, I did not want to appear rude by not calling her when she wrote in her letter that she loves discussing the STP set and her collection.

I feel like I learned some stuff from her that even other collectors of the set probably do not know. Like I wrote earlier, she acquired the cards at Daytona in 1972. The cards were on a table and fans could take what they wanted. Seemingly, few people were even interested in picking up the free cards that were available. Every card was available except for the Lorenzen with car card. She did not even learn about that card until several years after the fact and believes that card was released at a later date from the other cards.

In the 1980s, she ran a couple ads in various racing publications looking to buy/trade cards from the '72 STP set. Most of the people who contacted her were looking to buy cards they were missing, however, not sell any. At one time, she had 45 total STP cards. She bought/sold/traded cards over the years and has slowly sold all her cards other than her one full set that she is keeping. She agrees that the Elmo Langley, Buddy Baker and Dave Marcis cards are more common than the rest of the set. She has never met or talked with another person who has the Lorenzen with car card. She had four of the Lorenzen portrait cards at one time. About five years ago, she had her daughter list a Lorenzen portrait card, a Bobby Allison card and a Richard Petty card for sale individually on eBay. They all sold within 30 minutes of being posted on eBay.

The seller was a huge David Pearson fan in the 1960s and '70s and also wondered why he was not included in the set. In addition, she always wondered why Fred Lorenzen (even though he was sponsored by STP at the time) has two cards in the set.

She said that she had given up on ever finding a Lorenzen with car card. She attended numerous racing trade shows/card shows at Daytona and Charlotte, but no one ever had that card. Even most NASCAR card vendors did not know that card existed. She could not believe her eyes when she finally found the Lorenzen with car card at a racing show at Stafford Motor Speedway in her home state of Connecticut. She also said she heard over the years that the cards were available at Talladega in 1972, but did not know if that was true or not.

About 25 years ago, she called STP and inquired if they had any cards from the '72 set for sale or could give her a lead on a Lorenzen with car card. She talked with a couple different people at STP, and they did not have any idea what she was even talking about. She finally talked with an employee at STP that was at least familiar with the cards, but said they were a free promotional item that the company never tracked or kept additional cards in stock once they were gone.

When the seller was younger, she attended several of the card shows at White Plains., N.Y. She has some vintage baseball cards (the conversation went back to the STP cards and I forgot to ask her about her baseball cards), but racing was her first love. She stopped collecting baseball because the cards became too expensive.

For all the scammers and rip-off artists that populate eBay, it is amazing to encounter someone like that selling cards on eBay. The seller reminded me of my grandmother from when I was young. She had a very Jefferson Burdick-like philosophy that the thrill was in collecting and the hunt. But I suppose racing cards aren't very popular with scammers because even the iconic. impossible to find cards are only worth a few hundred dollars each,

[Beansballcardblog]

Thank you for that additional post, Eddie. I'm not into NASCAR anymore, but was from the mid-90s to mid-2000s. However, I have such an appreciation for the history. Sometimes I feel like I'm one of those "old souls." I have loved every bit of reading about this.

I am adding the Bobby Allison to my want list. Hopefully, one will come up some day. I'm an IndyCar guy and since he raced in the Indy 500, it would be a great addition. I would gladly take one that's "well loved." I have some of those in my football collection, no need to be picky on the racing collection.

Originally Posted by Bored5000

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I can now provide some additional information about the '72 STP set. The woman who I bought the Richard Petty card from included her phone number in the letter she sent me and invited me to call her to find out more information from her. She is 75 years old and does not do e-mail. Her daughter was the one that listed the card on eBay for her because the seller does not do anything with computers.

I felt really weird calling this older lady who I had never met before, but at the same time, I did not want to appear rude by not calling her when she wrote in her letter that she loves discussing the STP set and her collection.

I feel like I learned some stuff from her that even other collectors of the set probably do not know. Like I wrote earlier, she acquired the cards at Daytona in 1972. The cards were on a table and fans could take what they wanted. Seemingly, few people were even interested in picking up the free cards that were available. Every card was available except for the Lorenzen with car card. She did not even learn about that card until several years after the fact and believes that card was released at a later date from the other cards.

In the 1980s, she ran a couple ads in various racing publications looking to buy/trade cards from the '72 STP set. Most of the people who contacted her were looking to buy cards they were missing, however, not sell any. At one time, she had 45 total STP cards. She bought/sold/traded cards over the years and has slowly sold all her cards other than her one full set that she is keeping. She agrees that the Elmo Langley, Buddy Baker and Dave Marcis cards are far more common than the rest of the set. She has never met or talked with another person who has the Lorenzen with car card. She had four of the Lorenzen portrait cards at one time. About five years ago, she had her daughter list a Lorenzen portrait card, a Bobby Allison card and a Richard Petty card for sale individually on eBay. They all sold within 30 minutes of being posted on eBay.

The seller was a huge David Pearson fan in the 1960s and '70s and also wondered why he was not included in the set. In addition, she always wondered why Fred Lorenzen (even though he was sponsored by STP at the time) has two cards in the set.

She said that she had given up on ever finding a Lorenzen with car card. She attended numerous racing trade shows/card shows at Daytona and Charlotte, but no one ever had that card. Even most NASCAR card vendors did not know that card existed. She could not believe her eyes when she finally found the Lorenzen with car card at a racing show at Stafford Motor Speedway in her home state of Connecticut. She also said she heard over the years that the cards were available at Talladega in 1972, but did not know if that was true or not.

About 25 years ago, she called STP and inquired if they had any cards from the '72 set for sale or could give her a lead on a Lorenzen with car card. She talked with a couple different people at STP, and they did not have any idea what she was even talking about. She finally talked with an employee at STP that was at least familiar with the cards, but said they were a free promotional item that the company never tracked or kept additional cards in stock once they were gone.

When the seller was younger, she attended several of the card shows at White Plains., N.Y. She has some vintage baseball cards (the conversation went back to the STP cards and I forgot to ask her about her baseball cards), but racing was her first love. She stopped collecting baseball because the cards became too expensive.

For all the scammers and rip-off artists that populate eBay, it is amazing to encounter someone like that selling cards on eBay. The seller reminded me of my grandmother from when I was young. She had a very Jefferson Burdick-like philosophy that the thrill was in collecting and the hunt. But I suppose racing cards aren't very popular with scammers because even the iconic. impossible to find cards are only worth a few hundred dollars each,

[Bored5000]

Thanks. WVU. The seller also said that she had several of her cards signed over the years at autograph sessions (Petty, Allison, Marcis, Langley) Some of the other people she knew who collected cards told her she was ruining her cards by getting them signed, but she wanted them signed anyway. Her complete set is clean and does not contain autographs.

She believes the reason there seems to be a lot of Elmo Langley cards around is because he had a stash of his card that he would hand out after his career had ended and he was driving the pace car for NASCAR.

This can't be said of many items on eBay, but perhaps she has left some money on the table by offering her cards as BINs rather than at auction. I don't know if I overpaid, underpaid or paid just right for the Petty card? The Baker, Langley and Marcis cards can be had on eBay for well under $100 a card. I had never seen a '72 Petty card for sale before and SMR does not even list prices for the STP cards that rarely/never sell at auction.

The seller said she thinks her complete set would be worth $1,500-2,000 if she ever decided to sell it. I guess that number is probably in the ballpark, but who knows? The Lorenzen with car card is like hunting a unicorn. The mere inclusion of that card, even in damaged condition, could drive the price higher. I know racing is nowhere near as popular or collected as other sports/subjects, but crazy things happen when unicorns like the William McKinley card from the 1932 U.S. Caramel Presidents set or Rocky Graziano from the 1948 Leaf boxing set go to auction in otherwise "affordable" sets.

Bobby Allison is also tough in the STP set. I realize that not everyone chooses to get their cards graded and some raw cards buried in collections are out there yet, but PSA has only graded three Bobby Allison cards. The PSA graded population for the STP set has been stuck at 74 total cards among the 11 different cards for a while now.

[nsaddict]

If you click on the non-sport card icon, top right corner of this main page, you will find many threads on this subject. One collector has been collecting these type cards for 30 years and is very knowledgeable about every set printed.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by nsaddict

If you click on the non-sport card icon, top right corner of this main page, you will find many threads on this subject. One collector has been collecting these type cards for 30 years and is very knowledgeable about every set printed.

Wow, thanks. The whole time I have been posting on this site, I never noticed that link or even realized that the non-sports board was still active or existed anymore. One of the earlier threads I linked to in this thread was a link to a Jon Hardgrove thread about finally acquiring a Lorenzen with car card after 28 years of searching that I found through a Google search.

[Beansballcardblog]

I wouldn't have even checked "non-sports" for racing. Thank you for the info!

Originally Posted by nsaddict

If you click on the non-sport card icon, top right corner of this main page, you will find many threads on this subject. One collector has been collecting these type cards for 30 years and is very knowledgeable about every set printed.

[Beansballcardblog]

Finally took a good look at that thread, thank you! I just learned about a new IndyCar set. Had no idea about the Fleer set.

I decided NOT auto tell the wifey about a new "project."

Originally Posted by nsaddict

If you click on the non-sport card icon, top right corner of this main page, you will find many threads on this subject. One collector has been collecting these type cards for 30 years and is very knowledgeable about every set printed.

[Bored5000]

Sorry, double post. Not that this is really a big deal, but the blue mark that is shown the back scan of the Petty card I posted earlier was a spot on the protective case, not on the card itself.