Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1967 Philadelphia football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I have not seen an actual uncut sheet, but by looking at badly miscut cards, I concluded that 1967 Philadelphia sheets were numbered like 1966 Philadelphia sheets. I have seen a picture of a 1966 sheet, so I used it to construct the 1967 virtual sheet.

Like the 1966 Philadelphia set, the 1967 Philadelphia set contains 66 double prints, but they are not documented in the price guides. The virtual sheet shows which cards are double prints.

(Click on the image to see the full sheet.)

Happy Tuesday! Here are this week’s interesting eBay auctions.

• I haven’t seen this card before: a 1969 NFL vending card of Bobby Joe Green. According to the listing, these were sold in little plastic capsules, I presume from machines that resembled gumball machines. I haven’t been able to find more information on the cards, though, and I don’t see a copyright on the Green card. I did find a similar card of Dave Kopay in a completed auction.
• I’ve seen quite a few yellow proof cards of 1960 Fleer cards, but never a full set in uncut strips.
• No book collection is complete without a copy of O.J. Simpson’s 1983 Football Card Price Guide!
• Here is a complete set of 1960 Fleer AFL decals, tied for #1 in the PSA set registry. These were inserts in packs of 1960 Fleer football cards. I believe that 1960 was the first year that the card companies put inserts in football card packs. Topps put homely metallic stickers in their football card packs that year.
• Here’s one for the Bart Starr collector: a 1968 American Oil Bart Starr card, the only one graded PSA 8. The card was originally attached to a card of racing driver Parnelli Jones. If you collected both the left side and right side for an athlete, you won!
• Finally, a couple of foreign cards honoring American football: a 1960s French trade card and a 1979 card from the UK that supposedly pictures the Super Bowl Trophy. I checked, though, and found that the Lombardi Trophy has had its present shape since Super Bowl I.

Don’t ask me how I got there, but the other day I found myself thinking about players with “Mad” nicknames. Here are four I thought of: Daryle “Mad Bomber” Lamonica, on his 1968 Topps Stand Up insert; Ted “Mad Stork” Hendricks, on his 1975 Wonder Bread card; Alex “The Mad Duck” Karras, on his 1966 Philadelphia card, and Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich, on his 1976 Topps card.

Can you think of more?

I finished moving footballcardgallery.com to a different hosting service today. It appears to be working properly, but if you see a hitch, please let me know. I think the site is faster now, too, but I could be imagining it.

They say it will take 24-48 hours for everyone to see the change. If you see a Green Bay Packers bobblehead in the top right corner of the Gallery home page, you are looking at the new host.

I moved nearmintcards.com earlier this week. Everyone should see it on the new host now.

Thanks for checking them out!

Joe Krupa, a defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1956 to 1964, passed away on September 13. The Chicago Sun-Times web site has a report. Krupa was a Pro Bowler for the Steelers in 1963.

The cards pictured here are Krupa’s rookie card, a 1958 Topps, and his 1964 Philadelphia card. He also appeared on a 1959 Topps card, and on a number of minor issues. You can see all of Joe Krupa’s football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

It’s long overdue, but I am finally moving nearmintcards.com and footballcardgallery.com to a different (and I hope more reliable) web hosting service. Chances are good that I will forget something in the moves, so if you see anything funky on the sites in the next week or two, please let me know. I finished nearmintcards.com today (you’re looking at it!), and I will be working on footballcardgallery.com later this week.

It’s Tuesday, time for this week’s interesting eBay auctions!

• Here’s a 1954 Blue Ribbon Tea CFL card of Bud Grant. I believe it is the only card that shows him as a player. The grade looks like a mistake, though, doesn’t it? I thought perhaps the brown stains were common in the issue, the other Blue Ribbon Tea cards on eBay don’t have them. (By the way, did you know that Grant is a member of both the CFL Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and that he also played two seasons for the NBA’s Minnesota Lakers?)
• For the football collector who must have everything: a full set of 1961 Fleer Magic Message inserts. According to the 1961 Fleer wrappers (see my vintage football card wrapper page), the inserts were included in both 1st and 2nd series packs.
• Two tough 1961 Lake to Lake Packers short prints are available at the moment: Ray Nitschke and Henry Jordan. The Nitschke is a pre-rookie card, as are a few other cards in the set. You can see the others on my pre-rookie card page.
• This U.S.A. football card is part of the 1930 British American Tobacco Company Sports and Games set. You can see the composition of the set on the PSA web site.
• Mike Garrett is wearing a heck of a facemask on his 1968 Champion Corn Flakes pre-rookie card. (His rookie card is a 1970 Topps.)
• The starting price is nice on this PSA 8 1969 Topps Larry Csonka rookie card. The seller also has lots of other high-grade 1969 Topps cards starting at 99 cents.

Robert “Buddy” Tinsley, a member of the CFL Hall of Fame, passed away on September 14. After spending one year, 1949, with the AAFC’s Los Angeles Dons, Tinsley played eleven seasons for the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers. In those eleven seasons, he played in five Grey Cup (CFL championship) games. The Blue Bombers won two of them, in 1958 and 1959.

Though he never played in the NFL, Tinsley appeared on a 1950 Bowman card for the Pittsburgh Steelers. When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, the AAFC’s Colts, 49ers, and Browns joined the NFL, and players from the other AAFC teams were distributed among the NFL teams in a “dispersal draft.” The Steelers chose Tinsley in the first round, but he opted to play in Canada instead. (See Tinsley’s CFL Hall of Fame page for a brief summary of his career.)

Tinsley also appeared on a number of CFL cards. I don’t have them in the Gallery yet, but you can find most of them on eBay.

A few other members of the CFL Hall of Fame appeared on NFL football cards, as well. You can search for cards of CFL Hall of Famers in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

It seems natural to put pictures of football players on playing cards, and I am surprised that not more teams have done it. Playing cards aren’t much different from trading cards, and there are close to 54 players on an NFL or college team. Throw in the coaches, cheerleaders, and mascot, and you can easily top off a deck.

A few colleges in the 1970s distributed playing cards of their football teams; I am guessing that one company printed them for most of the schools. You can see the decks I have so far on the Playing Cards page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Each time I added a set, I wrote a blog article about it. Here are the links to the articles:

• 1972 Auburn Tigers
• 1973 Nebraska Cornhuskers
• 1974 Colorado Buffaloes
• 1974 Nebraska Cornhuskers
• 1974 West Virginia Mountaineers

There are several other 1970s college decks out there, and I hope to find them and add them to the Gallery. If you know where I can find any of them, please let me know. These are the decks I know of:

• 1972 Alabama
• 1973 Alabama
• 1973 Auburn
• 1973 Florida

In addition to the 1970s college cards, I know of two other decks of pre-1980 playing cards that picture football players. The first is 1963 Stancraft playing cards, which were issued in conjunction with the opening of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Gallery’s 1963 Stancraft playing cards page includes more details about the set. The second is a deck produced by the Littlefuse fuse company; it contains pictures of famous linebackers–and fuses! You can read about the Littlefuse Linebacker playing cards in a previous blog article.

• Previous: P is for Philadelphia
• Next: Q is for Quarterbacks
• All of the ABCs

Sam DeLuca, an offensive lineman from 1960 to 1966 for the Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and New York Jets, passed away on September 13. NYDailyNews.com has a report. DeLuca also spent two seasons, 1957 and 1958, with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts. After his playing career, DeLuca was a radio broadcaster for New York Jets games; you can see his profile at musicradio77.com.

The card pictured here is DeLuca’s first AFL card, a 1960 Fleer. The image shows DeLuca in his University of South Carolina uniform; there is a similar image on the USC Athletic Hall of Fame web site. DeLuca also appeared on a 1959 Topps CFL card (though he did not play that year) and on several cards while in the AFL.

You can see all of DeLuca’s AFL football cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I don’t yet have CFL cards in the Gallery, but there are usually copies of his 1959 Topps CFL card on eBay.

It’s Tuesday! Here are this week’s interesting eBay auctions:

• Here’s a near-set of 1961 Nu-Card pennant inserts. This is an odd, tough set: though there are only 80 football cards in the 1961 Nu-Card set (see them here), there are at least 315 different pennant inserts, and there was only one insert in each pack of cards.
• Looking to start a CFL football card set–or just want to see what they look like? Seller capsports2000 has 1958 Topps, 1959 Topps, and 1962 Topps CFL starter sets up for auction.
• Seller newenglandsportscards has a bunch of 1971 Kellogg’s cards, still in the wrappers.
• You don’t see many examples of this variation: a 1948 Leaf Bobby Layne “red pants” rookie card. PSA has graded just 17 of them, compared to 119 of the “yellow pants” version.
• Here’s a nice set of 1955 49ers team issue photos. I sell a lot of photos like these to players’ friends and family members, since some of the players never appeared on cards.
• Running out of cards to collect? Then how about milk caps? Here are 1963 Jones Dairy milk caps of Buffalo Bills Ken Rice, Ray Abruzzese, and Stew Barber. (It’s fun to browse non-football milk caps, too.)
• Funny Ring sold separately!

Happy Tuesday! Here are this week’s interesting eBay auctions for vintage football cards and related collectibles:

• Here’s a nice example of a John Lujack 1948 Topps Magic Photo. There are a total of 252 photos in this mishmash of a set. In addition to thirteen “All American Football” and five “Football Thrills” photos, there are photos of other athletes, wild west figures, famous landmarks, movie stars, inventors, explorers, aviators, and dogs. You can see a full checklist on the eBay site.
• This is the first time I’ve seen a full set in this form: a complete set of 1960 Fleer football cards, all in 11-card strips.
• How to deal with those pesky dinged corners? Cut them off! These “customized” 1951 Bowman cards look kind of cool, actually. They remind me of 1954 Quaker Sports Oddities cards.
• Anyone else think it’s utterly ridiculous for this 1957 Topps Lynn Chandnois card to be graded poor?
• You don’t see these too often: a near (or possibly full) set of BVG-graded 1960 7-Eleven Dallas Texans cards. The backs look like they were printed with a typewriter!
• Seller cavaliercards has a nice group of PSA-graded 1926 Shotwell Red Grange cards for sale. There are twenty-four cards in the Shotwell set; you can see examples of the rest on SGC’s web site.
• This 1967 Topps Joe Namath card actually came in a 1969 Milton Bradley Win-A-Card game. You can tell because there is a brown sliver of a 1968 Topps baseball card at the top. For a description of the game, see one of my previous blog articles.
• All I know about the cards is what it says in the auction description, but here is a 1977 set commemorating the 1925 Pottsville Maroons. (I had to look up Pottsville; it is in Pennsylvania.) There is an official Pottsville Maroons web site; it includes an account of how the team beat the Chicago Cardinals for the 1925 NFL Championship, but it was taken away because of a scheduling violation.

I was scanning 1976 Topps football cards for the Gallery yesterday, and I came across this Dan Ryczek rookie card. What do you suppose he’s looking at? The scoreboard? The Blue Angels? A Ray Guy punt? Ryczek was a center, so I wondered if Topps mistakenly turned the image 90 degrees. But no, the players behind him are right side up. It’s just a bad photo, not the first one Topps put on a card.

1976 was Tampa Bay’s first season in the NFL, and Ryczek’s card got me looking at the rest of the 1976 Topps Buccaneers cards. I noticed a few interesting things:

• Eight of the ten Buccaneer player cards are rookie cards, though all of the players had been with other teams in years prior. The players all appear in their old teams’ jerseys, so I presume Topps had the photos on file.
• Four players–Ira Gordon, Harold Hart, Durwood Keeton, and Larry Ely–never played in a regular season game for Tampa Bay. John Ward played in just four games before going to the Bears. (See the career stats for Gordon, Hart, Keeton, Ely, and Ward at pro-football-reference.com.)
• The back of the Buccaneers team checklist has a list of the players they chose in the expansion draft, a nice feature.

For an entertaining read, check out the Wikipedia article on the 1976 Buccaneers–especially coach John McKay’s quotes.