Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog

A couple of weeks ago I bought this 8-card panel of 1966 Philadelphia football cards in an eBay auction. It provided another piece to the 1965-1967 Philadelphia virtual uncut sheets I have been working on. The project is a little (okay, a lot) geeky, but you can see my progress here.

As it says on my uncut sheet pages, I have concluded that card numbering scheme was the same on 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia sheets, so finding a piece of one helps with all three. (The 1964 Philadelphia sheet was numbered differently from the other three years, so I have to do that one independently.)

I have also mentioned before that there must be double prints in all four Phildelphia sets, because a full sheet held 264 cards, and there are only 198 cards in each set. That means 66 cards must have been printed twice on each sheet. I have not seen the double prints documented in any price guide, but I am reasonably sure that I know which 1965-1967 cards were double printed, so I have marked the them in the Gallery pages for those sets. Since the numbering scheme was the same on the 1965-1967 Philadelphia sheets, it follows that the same numbers were double prints in all three sets.

Yesterday, via an eBay purchase, I obtained another card that will help me figure out how 1962 Topps football cards were arranged on uncut sheets. The John Unitas card shown here has a sliver of Bill Forester’s card on the left. This bit of information let me add the Unitas to a piece of the uncut sheet I already had. To see where the new piece fit, scroll toward the bottom of the 1962 Topps virtual uncut sheet page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Another ten years, and I should have it finished!

For other virtual uncut sheets, some completed and some not, see a previous article, U is for Uncut Sheets.

Last week I invested $2 in a miscut Fran Rogel card I found on eBay. It provided another piece to the 1957 Topps virtual uncut sheet that I am slowly assembling. As you can see, you can’t tell from the front which card was under Rogel’s, but you can tell from the back that the card beneath is Royce Womble.

If you’re following along, you can see my progress on the sheet here.

This week I picked up two more miscut cards that will help me figure out how 1962 Topps football cards were arranged on the uncut sheets. The Boyd Dowler card shown here has a sliver of Roger LeClerc’s card on the right, and the Steve Myhra card has a bit of Joe Walton’s card on the right. Both of these clues let me add on to pieces of the puzzle I already had. You can see my progress on the 1962 Topps virtual uncut sheet page of the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Scroll toward the bottom to see where the new pieces fit.

Why are uncut sheets interesting? See a previous article, U is for Uncut Sheets.

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.”

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.

In last week’s “Interesting eBay Auctions” article, one of the auctions I featured was a group of sheet-cut and otherwise trimmed 1960s Baltimore Colts cards. Well, I ended up winning the auction myself. Really, for resale, you’re wondering? No, I wanted them because they might help me figure out what a first series 1961 Fleer uncut sheet looked like. I have seen pictures of second series 1961 Fleer sheets (see my 1961 Fleer virtual uncut sheet page), but I haven’t yet seen a first series sheet. I’m hoping that the edges of the hand-cut cards from the eBay lot will fit together such that I can deduce the numbering pattern of the first series sheet.

As a bonus, the lot includes a 1961 Topps Raymond Berry card that is showing part of the card next to it. That should provide another piece to the first series 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet that I am assembling. Stay tuned; I’ll post what I learn here.

As always, if you encounter uncut panels or miscut cards that you think could help me piece together an old sheet, please send me an email. See the bottom of a previous blog article, “U is for Uncut Sheets,” for a full list of the sheets I have worked on, both complete and incomplete.

I have seen one half of a sheet of 1962 Topps football cards, but not the second half. By looking at badly miscut cards, however, I have been able to start piecing the second half-sheet together. You can tell from this Bill George card, for instance, that Dave Baker’s card was next to it on the uncut sheet. Neither of the cards appear on the one half-sheet I have seen, so they must have been on the second half-sheet.

To see the layout of the first half-sheet and my progress on the second half-sheet, see my 1962 Topps virtual uncut sheet page. For a full list of the virtual uncut sheets I have assembled, see a previous blog article, U is for Uncut Sheets.

Yesterday I found two more clues as to how uncut sheets of 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia football cards were configured. From looking at miscut cards, I have determined that uncut sheets from those three sets all had the same numbering scheme, so finding a piece of one helps me with all three. See the last section of my sheets in progress page for details.

Here are the new clues: a Saints team card with a sliver of Sonny Jurgensen’s card showing on the left, and a Bears insignia card with a sliver of a St. Louis Cardinals insignia card showing on the left.

Today I added a few more pieces to my partially completed virtual uncut sheet of 1957 Topps football cards. Below are two miscut cards that provided clues: a Dick Bielski card with a bit of Elroy Hirsch showing on the left side, and the back of a Paul Hornung card that shows a sliver of Sid Youngelman’s card along the bottom. You can click on either card to see how the sheet is progressing.

For a full list of the virtual uncut sheets I have assembled, see my article U is for Uncut Sheets. As always, if you happen to have pictures of full sheets, partial sheets, or miscut cards that would help the effort, please send me an email.

When I wrote yesterday’s “Interesting eBay Auctions” article, I missed an interesting auction: a nine-card salesman’s sample of 1957 Topps football cards. I presume that the configuration of this panel matched a section of the original uncut sheet, so I added the panel to my 1957 Topps virtual uncut sheet page.

By the way, in case you haven’t seen the advertising, eBay is offering free listings for sports cards and memorabilia from August 19 until December 31. Click here for details. List something interesting!

Yesterday I showed you some miscut 1967 Topps cards that I picked up at the National; today I have a handful of 1961 Topps cards. I hope to collect enough of these to determine what uncut sheets of 1961 Topps cards looked like. I have not seen an uncut sheet, partial sheet, panel, or strip of 1961 Topps cards, so I am starting from scratch with this set. To see what I have so far, check out my 1961 Topps virtual uncut sheet page. As always, if you have miscut cards that would help the project, I would love to see them.

Last year, after looking at a number of badly miscut cards, I concluded that uncut sheets of 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia football cards all had the same numbering scheme. So, from a picture of a half-sheet of 1966 Philadelphia cards, I was able to construct virtual half-sheets of 1965 and 1967 Philadelphia cards, as well. Unfortunately, I have not seen an example of the other half-sheet from any of the three sets, but I have been slowly piecing one together by looking at more miscut cards. Last weekend I added a few more pieces, and the second half-sheet took more shape. One of the new pieces is shown here: it’s a miscut 1966 Atlanta Falcons card that has a tiny piece of a Don Perkins card in the lower left corner.

To see my progress on the second half-sheet, go to the Uncut Sheets in Progress page and scroll down to the bottom. For a full list of my virtual uncut sheets, see a previous blog article, U is for Uncut Sheets.

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

• If I were the seller of this “Set of 6 football cards from 1948“, I’d have mentioned in the title that there’s a Sammy Baugh rookie card in the mix.
• Here’s another one flying below the radar: a 1962 Post Cereal Football Uncut Panel that includes a Bob Lilly pre-rookie card.
• Johnny Unitas fans might miss this one because his name is misspelled: a nice uncut strip of 1974 Topps cards, with Unitas in the middle.
• Here are some 1960 Fleer proof cards with funky overprints: one lot features a Paul Lowe rookie card, and the second lot includes two cards that each show bits of three players.
• Uncut sheet of the week: a full sheet of 1970 Topps Supers.
• Check out the angles on this diamond-cut 1971 Topps Terry Bradshaw rookie card!
• Wow, here’s a nice complete set of 1961 Golden Tulip Chargers cards. I think it’s only the second full set I’ve seen.
• Here’s a sharp card from another rare regional set: a 1961 7-Eleven Texans Mel Branch card. Dig the typewritten back!
• The theme of the week appears to be uncut. Here’s a big partial uncut sheet of 1976 Town Talk cards, and here’s a smaller one. (In case you don’t know about Town Talk cards, you can read about them in W is for Wonder Bread, an old blog article about food issues.)

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1962 Fleer football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. By studying miscut cards from the set, my friend Paul puzzled out the numbering pattern of the cards on the sheet. Most of the cards that are scarce in high grades are grouped together on the sheet, and I added a diagram to show that.

The Gallery now includes virtual uncut sheets for 27 football card sets. For the full list, see one of my previous blog articles, U is for Uncut Sheets.

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