FS: Added 15 Unopened Wax Packs (one hockey pack) in December

[Steve_NY]

My new wax packs that I have added to my inventory on Dec. 20, 2024 include:

1 and 2 – 1933 Sport Kings

3 – 1934 Goudey Baseball

4 – 1935 Goudey Baseball

5 – 1934-6 Diamond Stars Baseball – Blue wrapper

6 – 1934-6 Diamond Stars Baseball – Yellow/Red wrapper

7 – 1934 National Chicle Football

8 – 1939 Play Ball Baseball

9 and 10 – 1940 Play Ball Baseball

11 and 12 – 1941 Double Play Baseball

13 – 1950 Bowman Baseball 1 cent

14 – 1955 Topps Baseball 1 cent

15 – 1964/65 Topps Hockey

*************

If you would like to see my up to date for sale unopened wax packs list,
contact me at DynamicTwo@aol.com.

After a very successful National, I have stayed quiet for a while. It's likely I will not add any more packs to my inventory until April or May even though
I am in the process of buying them now.

Regards,

Steve
DynamicTwo@aol.com

[Balticfox]

Is the 1964-65 Topps Hockey pack from the first or second series?

I remember first series packs being sold for ten cents in my neck of the woods so those would be the ones with no price on the wrapper. Although the quantity of cards may have been increased from four to either five or six per pack (my memory is hazy on this detail), this made the 1964-65 Tall Boy issue relatively unpopular with kids. O-Pee-Chee therefore adjusted its pricing strategy for the second series. Second series packs would therefore be the ones marked 5 cents (if I'm correct in my thinking).

[Steve_NY]

I suspect it’s 1st series - I can send you a picture - but it has a 5 cent price on it.

[Steve_NY]

I just found a picture of a first series pack, and it matches the one I have.

[Balticfox]

Hmmmm. Well then either my memory is flawed or O-Pee-Chee was testing a ten cent price point in my neck of the woods in late 1964 to see how it impacted sales.

[Steve_NY]

I found this in an article from 2012 on the Tall-Boys:

The backs also indicate that these cards were printed in Canada. **** says this was the case for most Topps Hockey issues during this era. Topps had the license, but the cards were manufactured at the O-Pee-Chee plant in London, Ontario.

The Tall Boys were distributed in five-cent packs that housed four cards and a stick of gum. The wrappers trumpeted them as "GIANT SIZE N.H.L. HOCKEY PICTURE CARDS." Unopened packs are extremely rare and highly coveted. Dezoete estimates that an unopened pack would fetch more than $5,000.

[GrayGhost]

Pictures?

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Steve_NY

I found this in an article from 2012 on the Tall-Boys:

That's this article:

The 1964 Topps "Tall Boy" Hockey Card Set - PSA

Originally Posted by Steve_NY

The Tall Boys were distributed in five-cent packs that housed four cards and a stick of gum.

Well... It is true that card packs in Canada from 1956 or so through most of the 1960's contained four cards plus a sheet of gum (a four sectioned sheet of Bazooka in the case of Topps/O-Pee-Chee). What I don't remember is whether O-Pee-Chee included five (or even six) cards in each pack of these 1964-65 Hockey cards instead of just four. But I have a fairly distinct memory of my buddies and I scowling when the 1964-65 Hockey packs appeared for ten cents in corner stores. I also remember doing the value calculation in my head (which implies that there must have been over four cards in each pack) and concluding I/we were being ripped off by the ten cent price. And for what? Taller cards, which we didn't like because they didn't fit into our pockets! I mean what the hell? That's why the set wasn't very popular at the time, and is accordingly tougher to find these days.

The fact that one of the two different wrappers that's been found does not feature a 5 cent price marker would also seem to imply some kind of pricing chicanery or shenanigans on O-Pee-Chee's part.

While Bobby Burrell has done a wonderful job cataloguing hockey cards and such, he's not dead on correct about everything.

Originally Posted by Rob Dezoete

It's one of the top vintage hockey sets of all-time.... If it's not at the top, it's second to 1951-52 Parkhurst. To me, it's the best hockey set ever produced.

I'd agree with Rob if all the cards were like the first series:



With a few exceptions, the first series cards feature absolutely fabulous full body shots. The second series though is mainly very boring (at best) head shots:



The second series therefore sold even more poorly than the first series even if the price was subsequently dropped to a nickel.

I got close to completing a 1964-65 set nearly twenty years ago but then lost enthusiasm about completing it. Quite simply, the few cards I still needed (with the exception of Henri Richard) were cards that were short printed on the second series sheet. As short prints, they were rather costly - but still very ugly head shots like the ones above! And there's no shortage of cards and other collectibles competing for my money.

[Steve_NY]

I have only had three packs of the 1964-65 Tall Boys in the past 7-10 years. One I sold in the last 2 years, one I kept for myself and one I now have for sale. I will let you know if I ever turn up one with no price on the wrapper.

Does anyone have a picture of the wrapper without the 5 cent price?

[Balticfox]

Both packs are pictured on page 37 of Bobby Burrell's Vintage Hockey Collector book:



Other than the 5 cent notation, they're identical.

I really am wondering now whether O-Pee-Chee was test marketing a ten cent price (perhaps with an additional card or two per pack) in London and area.