Have I turned into a sports card collector? No. However, I believe my experience with old football cards is eerily similar to what I see routinely with coin collections. Of course, the value of the card in this article is generally far above the value of individual coins in collections that I appraise, but the point remains the same. Take a look at the images if you are still willing to read-on.
15 October 2019
15 October 2019
A Joe Namath Rookie Card from a Non-Card Person
Did the Topps photographer attend Denver Broncos bowling night when he snapped this image of Mickey Slaughter?
Years ago I had the typical collection of baseball cards that were obtained from buying the packs directly from a general store, opening up the cards, shuffling through them to memorize all the stats and anecdotes and then filing them carefully away in myriad shoe boxes with 3" x 5" stationary cards placed between teams. I did this for years and had many boxes. Similar to many other folks, I then left the field and eventually sold off all my cards. They didn't bring much and I expect that I left money on the table, but I turned the sales money into the re-birth of my coin collection and here I am years later a full-time coin dealer.
One thing I didn't sell, however, was my very small group of football cards. At one point in time I traded a pile of generic and then rather recent vintage baseball cards for a slightly smaller sized pile of appreciably older football cards. I wanted the football cards primarily because I was attracted to the group of extra tall cards with vivid backgrounds. You would all know better than me that these would be the 1965 Topps Football series, which I believe many folks refer to as "Tall Boys". It is likely I didn't sell the football cards with the baseball cards because they were in a different box and I forgot all about them. That would be lucky for me.
I recently went through these cards and thought I would share a brief synopsis of what I found. This might be viewed as a found lot, essentially, of cards that were not preferentially saved or pulled from larger collections or the bourse, but rather would simply be a small time capsule of what was actually out there "back in the day". From time-to-time in the coin world there will be an old jar, purse or bag full of coins that comes up where there was no special motivation for saving the coins and they simply fell through the cracks until many years later. It is always cool, as a collector and dealer, to see what these small hoards have to tell us. More commonly, I am requested to appraise collections that folks inherit and, in my experience, there is typically one coin that is worth more than the rest of the collection combined. I imagine that collecting cards might not be so different from collecting coins and, as such, perhaps folks will relate to, or will find this information useful, as well.
One thing I didn't sell, however, was my very small group of football cards. At one point in time I traded a pile of generic and then rather recent vintage baseball cards for a slightly smaller sized pile of appreciably older football cards. I wanted the football cards primarily because I was attracted to the group of extra tall cards with vivid backgrounds. You would all know better than me that these would be the 1965 Topps Football series, which I believe many folks refer to as "Tall Boys". It is likely I didn't sell the football cards with the baseball cards because they were in a different box and I forgot all about them. That would be lucky for me.
I recently went through these cards and thought I would share a brief synopsis of what I found. This might be viewed as a found lot, essentially, of cards that were not preferentially saved or pulled from larger collections or the bourse, but rather would simply be a small time capsule of what was actually out there "back in the day". From time-to-time in the coin world there will be an old jar, purse or bag full of coins that comes up where there was no special motivation for saving the coins and they simply fell through the cracks until many years later. It is always cool, as a collector and dealer, to see what these small hoards have to tell us. More commonly, I am requested to appraise collections that folks inherit and, in my experience, there is typically one coin that is worth more than the rest of the collection combined. I imagine that collecting cards might not be so different from collecting coins and, as such, perhaps folks will relate to, or will find this information useful, as well.
Dick Westmoreland certainly was a popular card in my 1968 Topps group. Perhaps we were the founders of the Dick Westmoreland fan club?
Therefore, here are the details of my little, random hoard-
There are 45 cards from the 1964 Topps set and this includes six duplicates and one triplicate. The centering is rather poor on these cards. Also, as an aside, what is Mickey Slaughter doing (Denver Broncos QB, card 61) on the card? Is he bowling? In 1965 there are the Topps Tall Boys as well as the Philadelphia Gum Company series cards. There are 19 PCGC cards without any duplicates while there are 33 Tall Boys cards with one duplicate. Similarly, in 1966 there are both Topps cards and PCGC cards. The PCGC set has 49 pieces with three duplicates and one triplicate while the Topps series has 28 cards and a whopping 11 duplicates! I would be mighty annoyed if I were a little boy who purchased two or three packs and received such a large overlap of players. Of course, had they been all superstars I might be happy, but....
Oddly, there are no 1967 cards and I assume a 1967 series was produced. The 1968 Topps series has 103 cards total and they stop at card 130 save for the checklist at card 219. This seems strange at first blush, but if these yearly card issues were rolled out in sequential series then if one were to buy packs of cards over only a short period of time (and not the entire season) then you were likely to get duplicates and could never finish the set. I guess marketing was always around and strong. There are ten sets of duplicates, 11 sets of triplicates and one quadruplicate card. Card 118, Dick Westmorland, DB, Miami Dolphins, please come to the front, your quadruplicates are waiting for you!
I don't know what the 300 or so football cards are worth, but they aren't super high grade gem examples and I'd imagine the entire pile is worth less than the single 1965 Topps Tall Boy Joe Namath that was hiding in the group. Of course, I do know a little about certification so I sent the card into PSA where it came back as VG+ 3.5, which I guess is similar to the + grades given by NGC. I hope this was interesting and of some value. Below please find images of the Namath card. The coloring is actually quite uniform, but I don't often shoot images of cards so it is not lit that well. Also, the stray black lines that appear in the yellow of the field aren't actually on the card, they belong to my black cat and the plastic holder for the card appears to have quite a bit of static electricity attraction for my cat's fur!
There are 45 cards from the 1964 Topps set and this includes six duplicates and one triplicate. The centering is rather poor on these cards. Also, as an aside, what is Mickey Slaughter doing (Denver Broncos QB, card 61) on the card? Is he bowling? In 1965 there are the Topps Tall Boys as well as the Philadelphia Gum Company series cards. There are 19 PCGC cards without any duplicates while there are 33 Tall Boys cards with one duplicate. Similarly, in 1966 there are both Topps cards and PCGC cards. The PCGC set has 49 pieces with three duplicates and one triplicate while the Topps series has 28 cards and a whopping 11 duplicates! I would be mighty annoyed if I were a little boy who purchased two or three packs and received such a large overlap of players. Of course, had they been all superstars I might be happy, but....
Oddly, there are no 1967 cards and I assume a 1967 series was produced. The 1968 Topps series has 103 cards total and they stop at card 130 save for the checklist at card 219. This seems strange at first blush, but if these yearly card issues were rolled out in sequential series then if one were to buy packs of cards over only a short period of time (and not the entire season) then you were likely to get duplicates and could never finish the set. I guess marketing was always around and strong. There are ten sets of duplicates, 11 sets of triplicates and one quadruplicate card. Card 118, Dick Westmorland, DB, Miami Dolphins, please come to the front, your quadruplicates are waiting for you!
I don't know what the 300 or so football cards are worth, but they aren't super high grade gem examples and I'd imagine the entire pile is worth less than the single 1965 Topps Tall Boy Joe Namath that was hiding in the group. Of course, I do know a little about certification so I sent the card into PSA where it came back as VG+ 3.5, which I guess is similar to the + grades given by NGC. I hope this was interesting and of some value. Below please find images of the Namath card. The coloring is actually quite uniform, but I don't often shoot images of cards so it is not lit that well. Also, the stray black lines that appear in the yellow of the field aren't actually on the card, they belong to my black cat and the plastic holder for the card appears to have quite a bit of static electricity attraction for my cat's fur!
