Vintage Racing?

[Bored5000]

I won an auction on Sunday for a set of 31 cards very similar to Justus' "Allentown Week of Wheels" cards pictured a few days ago in this thread. The weird thing about the set I won is that the cards are labeled as being from 1975 and labeled as being a "Wilkes Barre Schaefer 500 salute."

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1975-P...AAAOSw86dexBiq

The images look to be the same as the Allentown cards. From what i could see, new cards not previously known are Sammy Sessions, Mike Hiss, Bentley Warren, Jimmy Carruthers and Mel Kenyon.

The closing auction price really shocked me: $39.43 with just one other bidder besides myself above $13. I thought the cards may close at least somewhere in the neighborhood of the Marhoefer cards when those come up for auction. I wasn't expecting the price to be just over $1 a card.

The appearance of a different set of cards carrying advertising for Wilkes Barre, Pa., makes me wonder if the cards were exclusive to Woolworth's. That chain was huge in the 1970s, and Wikipedia says they did have a store in Wilkes Barre in addition to Allentown, Pa.

[Justus]

Way to go, Eddie! Do you think this set has more than 31 cards? The 1976 set has 32 known (thanks Scott!) cards.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Justus

Way to go, Eddie! Do you think this set has more than 31 cards? The 1976 set has 32 known (thanks Scott!) cards.

I don't know. I have wondered that myself. Thirty-one cards is a lot to be together in one group if that does not even include all the drivers. I also wonder if some of the drivers were replaced for 1976?

Mel Kenyon being included seems even more amazing to me than Johnny Hubbard being included in both sets. Kenyon ran one Champ Car race in 1974, none in 1975 and one in 1976. It blows my mind that a guy who ran a total of one Champ Car race in 1974-75 has a card in the 1975 set at a minimum.

I am just blown away by how large the sets are. and how obscure some of the drivers included are, compared to the Marhoefer sets from a decade earlier and the STP NASCAR set from just a few years earlier.

[Theodderthebetter]

Nice find Eddie. I don't know if this helps or not but the images are the same as the 1976 cards. Again I think the value is so low because no one knows they exist. I would not be surprised if the images use are from press kits of a press release for the race.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Theodderthebetter

Nice find Eddie. I don't know if this helps or not but the images are the same as the 1976 cards. Again I think the value is so low because no one knows they exist. I would not be surprised if the images use are from press kits of a press release for the race.

Thanks for the kind words, Scott.

[Bored5000]

I have received the 1975 "Wilkes Barre Schaefer 500" cards in the mail. In addition to the five drivers I listed earlier in the thread, Bill Simpson is another addition that is not known to be in the 1976 set.

Here is the 31-driver 1975 checklist thus far:

Bill Simpson, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Gordon Johncock, Gary Bettenhausen, Johnny Rutherford, Wally Dallenbach, Bill Vukovich, Joe Leonard, Tom Sneva, Jim McElreath, Jimmy Caruthers, Roger McCluskey, Mike Hiss, Jerry Karl, George Snider, Mel Kenyon, John Martin, Lloyd Ruby, Salt Walther, Sammy Sessions, Lee Kunzman, Mike Mosley, Bentley Warren, Steve Krisiloff, Duane Carter Jr., Johnny Parsons, Tom Bigelow and Johnny Hubbard.

[Justus]

Thanks for the list, Eddie. Bobbie Allison was in that race, it would be cool if a 32nd card turned up and it was him. Always one of my favorites.