Undocumented Error Card: 1961 Nu-Card Mel Melin

January 18th, 2014  |  Published in error cards, Where They Are Now

1961 Nu-Card Mel Melin football cardError card collectors, here is another error card that is not marked in the price guides: on Mel Melin’s 1961 Nu-Card card, his last name is misspelled “Mellin.” Thanks to Philip, a visitor to my web sites, for pointing that out.

After starring at Washington State, Melin went on to play four seasons for the CFL‘s BC Lions. He appeared on at least one football card with BC, a 1963 Post Cereal CFL card. I don’t yet have the 1963 Post CFL set in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, but you can probably see the Melin card on eBay.

For more on Mr. Melin, check out “Where Are They Now: Mel Melin” on the Washington State University web site. To see more errors on old football cards, see the error card search page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

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How Did I Miss This Error Card?

October 19th, 2013  |  Published in error cards

Last night, while talking on the phone, I was looking at a 1960 Topps Forrest Gregg football card that happened to be on my desk. Hmm, I thought, I don’t think I ever noticed that “Forrest” is missing an “r” on this card. So I checked my Gallery to see if I had previously marked it as an error. Nope. Then I checked my Beckett catalog to see if it was marked in there. Nope again. Then I checked a few more online checklists that I know of. Nope, nope, nope. Surely someone has noticed the error before–it’s a rookie card of a Hall of Famer, after all–but for some reason it hasn’t made it into the hobby publications.

So, at long last, I documented the error in my Gallery. Below are some pictures; you can see the misspelling once on the front and three times on the back.

To see all of the error cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, click here. For my previous blog articles about error cards–including others that don’t appear in the publications–click here.
1960 Topps Forrest Gregg rookie football cardBack of 1960 Topps Forrest Gregg rookie card

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Another Mistaken Identity: Fred Brown’s 1969 Glendale Stamp

May 5th, 2013  |  Published in error cards, New in the Gallery

Back of Fred Brown 1969 Glendale StampTimmy Brown on Fred Brown's 1969 Glendale football stampYesterday I noticed that the player pictured on Fred Brown’s 1969 Glendale Stamp is actually Timmy Brown. Timmy Brown played for the Eagles until 1967, then played one season for the Baltimore Colts, then went on to a long acting career. Unfortunately, this is the only Fred Brown card or stamp I know of, so I don’t think his picture ever made it onto a card.

For many other cards and stamps that picture the wrong player, see the Mistaken Identities page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

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Another Unlisted Error: 1961 Nu-Card Dave Hoppmann

December 24th, 2012  |  Published in error cards

1961 Nu-Card Dave Hoppmann error football cardError 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.

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More Unlisted Errors: 1948 and 1949 Leaf Bob Hendren

September 13th, 2012  |  Published in error cards

Error card collectors, here are two more error cards that are not marked in my Beckett catalog: Bob Hendren’s 1948 and 1949 Leaf cards have his name spelled “Hendreen.” Hendren’s name is also misspelled on the back of his 1948 card, but Leaf corrected the spelling on the back in 1949.

Tip of the day: when you search eBay for a card with a misspelled name, search for both the correct and incorrect spellings. Some sellers use the correct spelling of the player’s name, and some use the name on the card.

For more information on the 1948 and 1949 Leaf sets, see L is for Leaf. To see all of the error cards in a certain set, use the Advanced Search page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.
1948 Leaf Bob Hendren football card1949 Leaf Bob Hendren football card

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An Unlisted Error: 1958 Topps Carl Brettschneider

September 10th, 2012  |  Published in error cards

1958 Topps Carl Brettscheider rookie football cardError card collectors, here’s one you might have missed: I noticed last week that Carl Brettschneiders’ last name is misspelled on his 1958 Topps rookie card. The error is not identified in my Beckett catalog. Topps got it right on Brettschneider’s later cards.

I have added the Brettschneider to the long list of error cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. If you know of others I haven’t marked, send me an email.

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Reversed Images on 1961 Fleer Wallet Pictures

March 2nd, 2012  |  Published in error cards

I discovered two more reversed images today, these on the 1961 Fleer Wallet Pictures of Dan McGrew and Chris Burford. It is easy to see the errors when you put the pictures alongside the players’ regular issue 1961 Fleer football cards. Fleer used the same images for all of the players who appear in both the Wallet Pictures set and the regular Fleer set, but they happened to get these two backward. They made lots more errors on the Wallet Photos, too, mostly misspelling the players’ names on the backs.

These are the ten and eleventh reversed images I have identified in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. All of them are pictured on the Gallery’s Reversed Images page.
Dan McGrew 1961 Fleer football cardDan McGrew 1961 Fleer Wallet Picture
Chris Burford 1961 Fleer football cardChris Burford 1961 Fleer Wallet Picture

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Just Another Error Card

February 29th, 2012  |  Published in error cards, Football Card Trivia

As I have had time, I have been adding trivia for cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery. As I wrote in a previous article, PSA’s set registry allows collectors to add comments for cards that they register, and I like the information that some collectors have entered. I decided to try my hand at it, and it’s been fun: I’ve found lots of interesting tidbits about the cards and players. For examples, see my page of Doak Walker cards. Did you know that Walker was married to an Olympic skier?

Bob Nowaskey 1950 Bowman football cardAnyway, yesterday I was searching for trivia for 1950 Bowman football cards, and I got to card number 3, Bob Nowasky. Oddly, my search for “Bob Nowasky” turned up football cards, but nothing else. Knowing that cards sometimes have the players’ names misspelled, I tried “Nowaski” instead. Nothing–or at least nothing related to football. Then I tried “Nowaskey,” and bingo, I got lots of hits. So I had my trivia: Nowaskey’s 1950 Bowman card is an error card; it has his name misspelled. I am probably not the first person to notice–I’ll bet Nowaskey’s mom did!–but I haven’t seen the error documented anywhere else.

Pictured here is the front of the card, which shows Nowaskey in Baltimore Colts green. (Green, you ask? That’s another story.) His name is misspelled on the back.

Like knowing about errors like this? Well, in case you weren’t aware, you can search the Vintage Football Card Gallery for all of the error cards, or you can combine that search with others, say to find all of the error cards in the 1960 Topps set. Just go to the Advanced Search page and search away.

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Errors on Bo McMillin Football Cards

November 4th, 2011  |  Published in error cards, Sites I Like

Bo McMillin 1955 Topps All-American rookie football cardWhile doing some web searches the other day, I ran across a long page of photos of Bo McMillin. McMillin was an All-American quarterback at Centre College in 1919 and 1921, and he played a few games in the NFL with the Milwaukee Badgers and Cleveland Indians. After his playing days, he had a long coaching career, including four seasons as an NFL head coach. There is a short biography of McMillin on the Centre College web site.

Bo McMillin 1926 Spalding Champions football cardReading the commentary in the long page of photos, I learned that McMillin’s name is misspelled on both his 1955 Topps All-American card and his 1926 Spalding Champions card. It is spelled correctly in my Beckett price guides, but the cards are not noted as errors, so the errors were news to me. I also learned from the photo page that the image on McMillin’s 1926 Spalding card is not McMillin, but another player. If you put the card next to one of his other photos, it is clear that the Spalding card pictures someone else. Does anyone recognize the impostor?

Having learned about the mistakes, I fixed the spelling of McMillin’s name on my two web sites, noted the errors on his individual cards, and added his 1926 Spalding card to my page of football cards that picture the wrong player. Whew!

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