The sports cards you need to make your life complete!

[Balticfox]

So which sports cards do you need to make your life complete? Now here I don’t want remarks about chancing upon a super valuable T206 Honus Wagner card in a garage sale which you’d then quickly flip for the money. I’m talking about the sports cards that top your personal Want List. In other words the sports cards for which you’d most like to provide a forever home in your collection.

Here are mine in chronological order (and of course none of the cards I’ve pictured are my own):

1954 Blue Ribbon Jackie Parker

A classic tall-boy card set with Jackie Parker who was already a legend by the time I started first grade in 1958.

1954 Blue Ribbon Sam Etcheverry

A great pose and another name spoken with reverence in the schoolyard in 1958-59. I have a majority of the cards in this fabled set including the other big stars such as Jack Jacobs, Bud Grant, Gerry James, John Bright, Bernie Faloney and Eagle Keys.

1958 Topps Roger Maris

Not just his rookie card but with the Cleveland Indians! I covet his 1959 card where he’s with the Kansas City Athletics almost as much since I really like both the 1958 and 1959 Topps Baseball cards and I like Maris’ pose on each of these cards.

1958-59 Topps Bobby Hull

This set is probably my favourite hockey card set of them all due to the classic design plus the fact that it was my introduction to sports cards. The Bobby Hull is not only his rookie card but is also the last card in the set which has made it even more difficult to find in grade. I bought a VG- one back in 1980 in an antique junk shop but traded it off about 25 years ago because it wasn’t up to my quality standards when it came to condition. I’m looking for one now that’s sharp and white but that’s way off center to keep the price down to semi-reasonable levels.

1959 Topps Ernie Banks

A favourite player in a really nice pose from perhaps my favourite Topps Baseball card set.

1960 Topps Bob Clemente

Another one of my favourite players from a favourite set.

1960 Topps Wrapper

Perhaps the best looking Topps Baseball wrapper of them all!

1961-62 York Tim Horton

The only card I still need to complete this legendary food set.

1962 Canadian Post Cereal Baseball Panel with Willie Mays

I ate box after box of Sugar Crisp back in 1962 to get these panels. I currently have three other such panels in my collection. I had this panel up until eighteen months ago but traded it off to another Post collector for a Sugar Crisp panel featuring Ernie Banks that was in better condition plus a wad of cash. As a result the Willie Mays panel now tops my Want List.

1963 Topps Willie McCovey

Another favourite player from a favourite set.

1963 CFL Gerry Patrick (Bilingual)

I bought Humpty Dumpty and Krun-Chee Potato Chips to get these coins as a kid. I traded off the bilingual back variant of the Gerry Patrick coin just over a year ago to a fellow collector who needed just this one coin to complete his set. Because of that it now tops my Want List.

1963 CFL Len Vella (English)

Once again I traded off my Len Vella coin earlier this year to another collector who needed just this one coin to complete his set. I’m working on separate English only and bilingual sets.

1964-65 Topps Pit Martin

The #1 card in this tough set. I had one that was marginally miscut top-to-bottom for a time but I traded it off in the expectation that I’d soon find a better one. Well that “soon” proved to be a much too optimistic expectation.

1964-65 Topps 2nd Series Checklist

I’m big on checklists and this one’s a short print!

Plus any of the 1957-58 to 1962-63 plus 1964-65 Topps Hockey wrappers! Here’s a 1959-60 one tracked down by Bobby Burrell:

[Jon]

@Balticfox

…ad one that was marginally miscut top-to-bottom for a time but I traded it off in the expectation that I’d soon find a better one. Well that “soon” proved to be a much too optimistic expectation.1964-65 Topps 2nd Series ChecklistI’m big on checklists and this one’s a short print!Plus any of the 1957-58 to 1962-63 plus 1964-65 Topps Hockey wrappers! Here’s a 1959-60 one tracked down by Bobby Burrell:

There is already an active thread on sports cards that you actually started. We don’t need two. Perhaps you intend to abandon the previous thread that was started in 2018. If so I will close it and if not I will combine this one into that thread. Let me know.

[Balticfox]

@Jon

There is already an active thread on sports cards that you actually started. We don’t need two. Perhaps you intend to abandon the previous thread that was started in 2018. If so I will close it and if not I will combine this one into that thread. Let me know.

No! There’s no problem.

The other thread was on CFL cards and it’s been very active over the years.

This one is on general sports cards of any kind but specifically on those you want the most. And I posted each thread in the appropriate forum.

[Jon]

@Balticfox

…No! There’s no problem.The other thread was on CFL cards and it’s been very active over the years.This one is on general sports cards of any kind but specifically on those you want the most. And I posted each thread in the appropriate forums.

Ok then. If you think the two are different enough I won’t do anything.

[Lyle_B_Style]

@Jon

Ok then. If you think the two are different enough I won’t do anything.

Don’t do anything. CFL cards and sports cards in general are two vastly different categories.
We’re here because of the CFL - but obviously most of us are massive sports fans - although I’ve moved slightly away from current hockey, basketaball, baseball and more to specialty sports like Curling, Golf, Soccer, Tennis & Movies.

[IllinoisGuy]

I know someone who owns a legendary Billy Ripken “f—k face” card.

[Balticfox]

It was back in 1979 that I set out to re-acquire the treasures of my formative years. I was aware of only two comic shops in Toronto that carried cards in 1979-81. One was Comics Unlimited on Keewatin Avenue just east of Yonge Street at which I purchased my first Non-Sport sets - Funny Valentines and Funny Valentines A:

The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Drag Nationals and Official Drag Champs quickly followed. The other store with cards was Queen’s Comics & Collectibles on Queen Street just east of Woodbine Avenue. Cards were also available at Dreamland Comics in Hamilton on James Street North. When I saw NM sets of the 1959, 1960, 1963 and 1964 Topps CFL cards one day in 1981 I couldn’t reach for my wallet quickly enough! I later learned that there was also a stamp/coin shop in Hamilton just north of Dreamland that dealt in cards so perhaps there might have been a couple of other such shops in Toronto of which I wasn’t aware.

Dedicated card shows didn’t make an appearance in Toronto (and perhaps anywhere in Canada) until about 1986 and they were then really low budget affairs held in less than first class halls/meeting rooms. I also remember being actually excited to learn that another (my second) card show was going to take place in far away Niagara Falls in 1987(?). Shortly thereafter newspapers and other media sources started running stories about the prices fetched by the T206 Honus Wagner and 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards and card collecting absolutely exploded in popularity with the general public.

Here’s a picture of legendary Canadian card collector Angelo Savelli of Hamilton set up at a Scarborough (eastern Toronto) card show circa 1986:

I might have missed that particular show because I was out of town. I’d made Angie’s acquaintance at an earlier show though and had followed that up by visiting him at his home in Hamilton where I bought a set of the first series of the 1969 Topps Football cards from him. (This was back when I thought I could have every card Topps had ever issued!) I then visited his “King of Cards” store on Barton Street on a semi regular basis in the 1990’s. His store was actually on the way (maybe a two mile walk) to Ivor Wynn Stadium from the GO train stop in the magnificent old Hamilton Harbour CN station. After any Hamilton Tiger-Cats game I could walk briskly to the old Greyhound station on Cannon Street and catch the last Lakeshore GO bus which would let me off after 45 minutes or so right in front of my house in SW Mississauga.

On one of my visits to Angie’s store, I learned that he was keeping his T206 Honus Wagner card in his safety deposit box at the bank. When I asked whether he ever thought of selling it since he couldn’t exactly derive any delight from owning it when it was locked away at the bank, he replied “Every day, Fox, every day.” Within six months to a year, he had done exactly that with a sale of all his Sports cards but Hockey and CFL to a big California dealer.

Those days were certainly different, albeit not necessarily better. The internet has certainly done wonders to put collectibles and collectors together.

[Balticfox]

@Balticfox

So which sports cards do you need to make your life complete?

Here are mine in chronological order:

1964-65 Topps Pit Martin

The #1 card in this tough set. I had one that was marginally miscut top-to-bottom for a time but I traded it off in the expectation that I’d soon find a better one. Well that “soon” proved to be a much too optimistic expectation.

So I just scored a NM/MT Pit Martin card from Len Pottie of Platinum Promotions at the Toronto Sport Card Expo earlier today! Here’s a scan:

I rejected a 1960 Topps Roberto Clemente card though because the price was way too high relative to another offering I’ve seen.

Did anyone else go to the show today or is planning to attend on Sunday?

Tomorrow(Saturday) is of course reserved for following the Grey Cup semis!

[Balticfox]

The St. Lawrence Starch Company of Port Credit, Ontario was the company that issued the fabulous Bee Hive Hockey pictures during its now legendary promotion which lasted from 1934 to 1967:

All an enterprising young fellow had to do to score one of the pictures was mail in proof of purchase collars or labels:

From Bee Hive Corn Syrup, St. Lawrence Corn Oil or the company’s various starches:

The above is the back cover of one of the Bee Hive Scribblers in my collection.

Sadly the Bee Hive Hockey pictures promotion flew under my radar as a kid despite the fact that my mother would occasionally buy St. Lawrence Corn Oil (if it was at a good price that week of course). We never bought Bee Hive Corn Syrup though because my father’s considered opinion was “There’s honey!” Moreover by 1961 or so when I turned nine the Bee Hive Hockey pictures promotion had waned considerably in popularity due to the widespread appeal of instantly available Topps and Parkhurst Hockey cards, Shirriff Hockey coins, York Peanut Butter Hockey cards and other promotions featuring coloured pictures of hockey players. None of the kids in my circle of acquaintances collected the Bee Hives.

In 1979 however I moved to Clarkson, Ontario just a scant four miles west along Lakeshore Road of the historic St. Lawrence Starch Company’s plant in Port Credit. Here’s a picture of the plant circa 1950:

Here are pictures decades apart of a couple of transport trucks sporting St. Lawrence livery:

St. Lawrence also maintained a fleet of at least eight Bee Hive tanker cars delivering corn syrup to customers throughout eastern Canada as far away as Ganong Brothers in New Brunswick. Other customers included the huge McCormick’s Biscuits plant on Dundas Street in my hometown of London as well as O-Pee-Chee just over two kilometres further west down Dundas Street.

So fabled are these Bee Hive Corn Syrup tank cars that MTH Electric Trains has produced them in O-scale:

By the 1980’s I had an adult’s full appreciation of living only a long walk from the site of a legendary Canadian enterprise and I became a loyal Bee Hive Corn Syrup customer which I’ve remained to this very day. But production at the plant sadly ceased in March 1990 and the erection of condominiums at the site commenced in the late 1990’s. Now I regret not buying more St. Lawrence Corn Oil and Bee Hive Corn Syrup when I could and collecting the Hockey pictures as a kid.

You never know what you’ve got till it’s gone, and sadly the St. Lawrence Starch, McCormick’s Biscuits and O-Pee-Chee companies are all gone. Only the memories and name brands still remain.

This is the essential book for serious Bee Hive Hockey card collectors:

Sadly though it’s out of print although a second edition may be in the works.

I set out to collect the woodgrain Bee Hives just less than two years ago and quickly accumulated about 68 out of the 215 or so issued . But!!! My collection then stalled out when I couldn’t find the right sheets in which to store them.

I need two pocket sheets so I can store four in each sheet back-to-back like so:

Should be simple since the woodgrain Bee Hive’s are 8" tall and 5 3/8" wide and a standard piece of office paper is 8 1/2" x 11". Now Ultra Pro makes 8 1/2" x 11" one pocket sheets into which standard size pieces of office paper fit. Therefore Ultra Pro’s two pocket sheets should do the job, right? Wrong. For some infernal reason Ultra Pro reduced the width of its two pocket sheets to 7"! (And yes, I have pointed out both the error of their ways and their character deficiency to the company.) The best I’ve found so far is another brand of two pocket sheets intended for paper currency that are exactly 8" wide and therefore don’t quite work.

What kind of sheets do you other fellows use for your Bee Hives? Has anyone found any plastic sheets of ideal size?

[Balticfox]

Here’s a shot of all the Sports card related items I picked up at the Toronto Sports Card Expo on Friday:

[Balticfox]

Card collecting and bubble gum have to me always been closely intertwined. And while I was a regular buyer of both Bazooka and Dubble Bubble penny briquettes as a kid, gumball vending machines also drew my pennies. The 1958 CFL wrapper actually had a side ad for Bozo gumballs:

I’ve now had this Bozo machine in my collection for nearly twenty years:

I added this new old stock variant of the Bozo machine to my collection early in 2023:

It can be seen from this sticker on the bottom that O-Pee-Chee lent these Bozo machines free of charge to retailers so long as they were refilled with none other than Bozo gumballs:

Ken’s Variety on Wharncliffe Road near Elmwood Avenue in London had a Bozo machine on the counter for many years throughout at least the 1960’s. Ken’s was a treasure trove of kids’ stuff including cards, comics, model kits, Pez dispensers, bobble-head dolls of CFL players, Silverwood’s ice cream cones (two scoops for a dime!), Krun-Chee Potato Chips (a less common brand than Hostess or Shirriff in London at the time), Black Cat Bubble Gum and of course the obligatory Beaver gumball vending machines. I have two of the Beaver machines in my present day collection which I fill with the requisite gold and silver charms as well as gumballs:

It was Beaver that dominated the gumball machine market in Canada just as Acorn dominated the one in the States.

I remember that the lucky recipient of a special silver ball from the Beaver machine outside Ken’s Variety won a pair of wild cool Skeleton Hands like these:

Sadly I never succeeded in scoring the Skeleton Hands. There’s been a void in my life ever since.

And I still dream of adding a classic card vending machine to my collection some day:

Collecting to me is all about the memories and keeping those memories alive. I cherish the memories as a part of my very being which is why I don’t want to let them go.

[Grover]

[Balticfox]

Is that Garney Henley card one you have or one you need to make your life complete?

[Grover]

@Balticfox

Is that Garney Henley card one you have or one you need to make your life complete?

My Idol, growing up
He lived a couple streets over from me when I was very young
Knocked on his door and got his autograph and talked to him
Mrs Garney asked me in
I’ll never forget

[Balticfox]

@Grover

My Idol, growing up
He lived a couple streets over from me when I was very young
Knocked on his door and got his autograph and talked to him
Mrs Garney asked me in
I’ll never forget

So do you have his card(s)?

[Grover]

@Balticfox

So do you have his card(s)?

no…

[Balticfox]

The 1962 Canadian Post Cereal Baseball cards are among my very favourite card sets of all time. Here’s a copy of the ad that was included in the comic sections of Saturday newspapers in the spring of 1962 to advertise these cards which I’ve framed and hung on the wall of my collectibles den:

A large part of the reason why I like this set so much is because of the memories I have of eating box after box of Sugar Crisp as a kid in 1962 trying to complete a set of these Post Baseball cards. For whatever reason Canadian Sugar Crisp boxes (unlike the boxes of other Post cereals) had a cellophane covering in 1962. Here is a picture of part of the cellophane that was wrapped around Canadian Sugar Crisp boxes later in 1962 advertising the CFL cards included:

(Not mine.)

Don’t ask me why Post treated Sugar Crisp differently in 1962, but six card panels were inserted between the foil bag containing the Sugar Crisp cereal and the inside of the box. But after four or five boxes I was perturbed to be getting doubles since only eight different panels could be had within Sugar Crisp. I did eventually realize that a set couldn’t be completed from Sugar Crisp alone.

I’ve been pecking away at the set since 1980 or so but it’s gone slowly since there are multiple short prints and I’m very picky when it comes to whiteness as well as cut. Here are scans of some from my collection:

The two biggest stars I’m still missing are Tommy Davis and Hoyt Wilhelm. Not surprising but they were only found on the backs of Grape Nuts which no self respecting kid wanted back in the day.

I also have three of the intact panels that were inserted inside the Sugar Crisp boxes:

The other five Canadian Sugar Crisp panels are high on my Baseball Want List with the one containing Willie Mays being my highest priority:

(No longer mine.)

That’s because I traded a Willie Mays panel off eighteen months ago to a Post collecting buddy in Pennsylvania who made me a very decent offer of the Ernie Banks panel, a couple of other shortprints and a small wad of cash for it.

I’ve also begun pecking away at the 1962 U.S. set which features the very same pictures of the players but has a completely different design:

I really like the Post Cereal cards because they take me back to the days when we kids collected just for the fun of it. There was no thought of “values”; just the sheer joy of getting something really cool such as pictures of baseball or football players “Free Inside!”

[Lyle_B_Style]

@Balticfox

…y won a pair of wild cool Skeleton Hands like these:Sadly I never succeeded in scoring the Skeleton Hands. There’s been a void in my life ever since.And I still dream of adding a classic card vending machine to my collection some day:Collecting to me is all about the memories and keeping those memories alive. I cherish the memories as a part of my very being which is why I don’t want to let them go.

You’re a cool collector my old friend and CFL antagonist. Some really cool stuff on display.

This winter I have to decide what to do with my Sports dinner program from 1970s that has the autographs of: Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford & Danny Gallivan within.

My dad went to the actual dinner. Most athletes aren’t very good speakers, the exceptions being - Jackie Parker, Dennis Hull, Billy Martin, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Bobby Jones, few more.
Parker was hilarious whenever he was contracted to speak.
Paul LaPolice started a public speaking career a few years ago - but had to work hard to tone down his monotone delivery, combined with a semi-automated speaking style. He’s much better now.
I’ve also heard the two worst speakers from the BOmber cluster are Wad “Wadzilla” Miller and Mike O’Shea. Drew Wolitarsky is one of the best.

[Balticfox]

@Lyle_B_Style

Most athletes aren’t very good speakers, the exceptions being - Jackie Parker, Dennis Hull, Billy Martin, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Bobby Jones, few more.
Parker was hilarious whenever he was contracted to speak.

Interesting! I’ve known about Dennis Hull being a good speaker for years but I didn’t know about Jackie Parker (whose name is still magical to me). Do you have any Jackie Parker speaking anecdotes you can share?

[Lyle_B_Style]

@Balticfox

…Interesting! I’ve known about Dennis Hull being a good speaker for years but I didn’t know about Jackie Parker (whose name is still magical to me). Do you have any Jackie Parker speaking anecdotes you can share?

I’m old enough to remember Jackie Parker playing (at the end of his storied career), then being a so-so GM and disinterested head coach. He was a player from the get-go - would have been an NFL all-star if he had chosen that route. Like Kenny Ploen, Jackie could play a variety of positions (offense & defense) plus he could kick FGs & conversions.

Old Spaghetti Legs was his unique nickname up north.

I recall my father attending a sports dinner where Parker was the headline speaker. My dad said he was funnier than hell, very personable after the dinner and schmoozed with the attendees to no end.
The most interesting point of all - my Dad said Jackie Parker looked like Danny Kaye.

So to this day, whenever I see a Danny Kaye film (they’re all great btw), I think of Parker scooping up fumbles or outrunning the fastest man on the other team, all while dancing like Danny Kaye and singing nonsense to the skies!