Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

I put this 1961 Lake to Lake Packers Ray Nitschke card up for auction on eBay last night. The good news is that it’s a popular Packer, a pre-rookie card of a Hall of Famer, and a short print in a tough set. The bad news is that it’s severely trimmed and slightly warped. At least someone will have a placeholder until a nicer one comes up. I started the auction for a penny. We’ll see where it goes.

In my estimation, the short prints in the Lake to Lake set are ten times harder to find than the normal prints. You can see which are which on my Gallery page for the set. Bart Starr is another of the short prints in the set. There’s a Starr card with a staple hole in it on eBay now, too.

Also check out my interesting auction articles from past weeks.

Yesterday I added 1959 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. As you can see, they look very much like 1959 Topps NFL cards. Fans of the American Football League will find a number of familiar players in the set. Two of them are pictured here: Ernie Warlick, who played from 1962 to 1965 for the Buffalo Bills, and Sam DeLuca, who played from 1960 to 1966 for the Chargers and Jets. I identified several others in the set description.

Last week, in the process of adding 1960 Topps CFL football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery, I discovered that Bob Simpson, one of the players in the set, had played on Canada’s Olympic basketball team in 1952. Simpson went on to play thirteen seasons for the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders, and he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1975. He is pictured here on his 1960 Topps CFL card, shooting a layup.

After my discovery, I added Simpson to my page of Olympic athletes who appeared on vintage football cards. In case you haven’t seen it, take a look. Check out my other “fun pages,” too!

You might recall that a couple of weeks ago I bought a lot of crudely hand-cut Baltimore Colts cards on eBay. Included in the lot was the 1961 Topps Raymond Berry card pictured below. The card to the left of the hacked-up Berry card appears to be Frank Ryan, so I was able to add a piece to my slowly growing 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet. You can see my progress here.

For a full list of the virtual uncut sheets I have worked on, see the bottom of one of my previous blog articles, “U is for Uncut Sheets.”

This week I added 1960 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. One of them, Tom “Corky” Tharp, is pictured here. Tharp, who skipped to the AFL’s New York Titans in 1960, also appeared on a 1960 Fleer AFL card. He is the only player I can think of who appeared on cards for two different leagues in the same season. (Thanks to Pastor Scott for that bit of trivia.)

This is the fourth CFL set I have added to the gallery in the past month. You can see the other CFL sets, recent and not, on my Canadian football card page.

Angelo Coia, a receiver from 1960 to 1966 for the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Falcons, passed away on January 2. Coia was a member of the Bears team that won the NFL Championship in 1963. He also was a member of the first Falcons team, in 1966. According to Coia’s obituary at philly.com, he and Herb Adderley were teammates on the football and track teams at Northeast High School in Philadelphia. He played college football at The Citadel and USC.

Coia is pictured here on his rookie card, a 1962 Topps. He also appeared on a 1962 Post Cereal card and a 1965 Philadelphia football card.

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

• The number three and number seven 1959 Topps PSA registry sets are both for sale. So far the number three set is cheaper.
• Uncut sheet lovers, here are three uncut six-card panels of third series 1972 Topps cards.
• Have you ever seen a card farther out of register than this 1948 Leaf Bob Mann card?
• Nice! Here’s a complete 1955 Topps All-American set, all graded PSA 8.
• Without looking at the bottom, how many players can you identify on this 1962 Falstaff beer Detroit Lions team picture?
• A cool item for a Browns fan: a 1954 postcard of George Ratterman.
• Did you know that Bronko Nagurski Jr., son of the Hall of Famer, played for the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats from 1959 to 1967? Here he is on a PSA 8 1961 Topps CFL card.
• Here are some of the scarcer variations in the 1948 Leaf set, all PSA 4, and all starting at $9.99: Pete Pihos with blue jersey numbers, Bill Fischer with white between his knees, and Kenny Washington with his name in white.
• It has already ended, but since it’s rare, I thought I’d point out this 1953 University of Oregon Jack Patera card. Patera played for the Colts, Cardinals, and Cowboys, and he was the first head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
• And finally, our abused card of the week: a 1948 Bowman Frank Seno. Now that’s ugly!

Like my interesting eBay auction articles? See the articles from past weeks.

Larry Bowie, a guard for the Minnesota Vikings from 1962 to 1968, passed away on December 31. His obituary appeared in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune. Bowie played college football at Purdue.

Bowie appeared on two regular issue football cards, the 1964 Philadelphia and 1969 Topps cards pictured here. He also appeared on a 1969 Topps mini-card.

Happy New Year, everyone! So, what are your hobby goals and resolutions for 2013?

My main goal for the year is to dedicate more time to my Vintage Football Card Gallery. I enjoy selling cards, of course, but I enjoy working on the gallery more, so naturally that’s where I would like to spend my time. In 2013 I plan to add more obscure sets, add more trivia about the cards and players, and create more special pages like my vintage football card wrappers page and Heisman Trophy candidates page.

You can help, and it’s absolutely free!

1. Tell your friends about the Gallery–not just your card collecting friends, but anyone who loves football. What football fan wouldn’t enjoy browsing through old cards of his or her favorite pro or college team?
2. If you’re a Facebook or Google+ user, be sure to “like” or “+1″ your favorite pages and blog articles. There are Facebook and Google+ buttons on the bottom of each page. (Idea: go back and do it right after you finish this article!)
3. If you have a web site or blog of your own, add links from your site to your favorite pages in the Gallery.
4. If you use an image or two from the Gallery on a message board, etc., please add a link back to the page where you found the image. (Please extend this courtesy to other publishers, as well. Give credit where it’s due, right?)
5. Last but not least, be sure to support the Gallery’s sponsors. I get a little ad revenue from the Gallery, and the better I do on ads, the more time I can spend working on the site.

From me, Happy Feller, and the football card All-Party Team, have a happy and safe New Year!

As I wrote last week, I recently won a group of crudely hand-cut 1961 Fleer Baltimore Colts cards on eBay. I thought that by piecing them together, I might be able to figure out the configuration of uncut sheets of first series 1961 Fleer cards. Well, I got the cards, and most of them indeed fit together. Though I haven’t quite figured out what a full sheet looked like, the cards gave me a pretty good clue. You can see the details toward the bottom of my 1961 Fleer virtual uncut sheet page.

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

• They’re kind of pricey, but here are some nice sets of 1960 Fleer AFL Team Logo stickers and 1960 Fleer College Pennant stickers. These were inserts in packs of 1960 Fleer football cards.
• The seller of this 1959 Topps John Unitas card must be in marketing: “Very worn and wrinkled (so much that it could be framed as a work of art…)”!
• The price seems right on this set of 1958 San Francisco 49ers team issue photos. The seller doesn’t list the players in the set, but you can see them in my gallery.
• The price on these seems right, too, since they’re pretty neatly cut: the twelve football cards in the set of 1952 Wheaties cards.
• Now I’ve seen everything: someone is selling just the plastic bag from a 1964 Philadelphia rack pack!
• Anyone collect cards with printing problems? Here’s a group of 1957 Topps cards that are way out of register.
• I don’t know much about this 1971 CFL stamp album (with stamps), but I enjoyed scrolling through the pages. The album has a lot of stamps for each team, so it’s certain that some of the players never appeared on cards.
• You have to be a serious Cowboys fan to like these 1968 Tasco Prints. I don’t think the caricatures even resemble the players–do you?
• Finally, they’re not cards, but I think they’re attractive: 1970s NFL Egana Metal Medallions of the 49ers, Chiefs, and Bills.

Like my interesting eBay auction articles? See the articles from past weeks.

Chuck Cherundolo, who played center from 1937 to 1948 for the Cleveland Rams, Philadelphia Eagles, and Pittsburgh Steelers, passed away on December 22. Cherundolo was a Pro Bowler for the Steelers in 1941 and 1942. After retiring, Cherundolo coached for 22 years in the NFL, according to the Scranton Times Tribune. At 96, he had been the fourth oldest living pro football player, behind Clarence “Ace” Parker, Johnny Kovatch, and Bill Glassford. (See oldestlivingprofootball.com for a list of the oldest 500 living pro football players.)

Cherundolo appeared on one football card, the 1948 Bowman card pictured here. Cherundolo’s last season, 1948, happened to be the first year since 1935 that a major card company issued football cards. Leaf also released a set of football cards in 1948.

Yesterday I finished adding 1961 Topps CFL cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Two of them are pictured here: Jim G. Taylor, whose picture Topps had mistakenly on Jim C. Taylor’s 1959 Topps and 1960 Topps cards; and Cookie Gilchrist, who later starred for the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, and Miami Dolphins. Gilchrist is one of several players in the 1961 Topps CFL set who went on to play in the AFL or NFL.

You can see all of the CFL sets I have so far on my page of Canadian football cards.

Augustus Holly and Gordon Jolley just about span the range of years represented in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Next year I hope to add cards into the early 80s–but then maybe it will no longer be just a vintage gallery?

Whatever you celebrate this time of year, I hope it’s been happy for you. Thank you for your business, for visiting my gallery, and for reading my silly blog. Throughout the year, and especially on holidays, I try to remember how fortunate I am to be able to spend money on bits of cardboard. I hope you do, too. Stay in touch in 2013!

Error card collectors, here’s another error that isn’t marked in any of my price guides: Dave Hoppmann’s last name is missing an “n” on his 1961 Nu-Card card. I noticed the misspelling last week, when adding Hoppmann’s 1964 Topps CFL card to the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

For more undocumented error cards, see my previous articles on the subject. You can also search the Gallery for all of the error cards I know about. If you know of others, drop me a line.