Blog Moved

I'm just going to use the Topps Archives blog for any further updates, etc. 

http://www.thetoppsarchives.com/

Update?

I may start revisions for the second edition soon, or soon-ish.  Any corrections and updates you all have are appreciated.

The Latest

Apologies-I have not been keeping up with this blog as I have been posting updates over at the Topps Archives blog instead. I plan to start putting more ancillary material such as photos not used in the book up here again eventually.

I'm also planning two more projects at the moment and will be putting updates and corrections to the first Modern Hobby Guide material in whichever one sees the light of day first. These will not be direct continuations of the post-1956 Topps story as I envision things now. One project will focus on the Insert, Test and Secondary baseball issues from 1948-80 and the other will focus on Non Sports cards from roughly the same period. These will follow the set descriptions and checklists used in the first Modern Hobby Guide for the most part. I'm leaning toward the same model as the first guide, free download along with a print on demand book but will wait and see how things are looking as each project progresses.

I may still continue the Topps story from 1957 onward at some point but there is so much research involved it won't be anytime soon.

The other major sports produced by Topps are not going to be covered by me I don't think, at least in long form.  Hockey is well served by Bobby Burrell's Vintage Hockey Collector Guide, now in its second edition (available here) and football is addressed in detail in a number of spots, especially the Football Card Gallery run by Mike Thomas, viewable here.  There is so little off the beaten path or to be said generally in Topps basketball I can't see how it would fill more than a pamphlet.

So more to come!

Sam Rosen

While it's not an earth-shattering correction, I would like to update a small bit of information related to Woody Gelman's Stepfather Sam Rosen. Mr. Rosen founded what became the Card Collectors' Company in 1951 and which was, as detailed in The Modern Hobby Guide, built upon the primordial secondary market foundation developed by Topps to sell off excess and dated inventory. Initially this inventory was sold via Topps' Trading Card Guild and fulfilled by Rosen.

The Trading Card Guild had a tertiary purpose: it was the branding used to retail both the expensive cello packs and 500 count vending boxes and also was a vehicle that allowed collectors to order cards they were missing from their sets.  The common element among these three methods of sale was the lack of gum or any other associated confectionery product.

In the book I stated that Mr. Rosen died in 1955.  In fact he passed away, suddenly, on December 31, 1958, a fact confirmed by the No. 10 Price List of The Card Collectors' Company, which is dated March 20, 1959:

Update 2

DOESKIN CHECKLIST

 

Marty Krim, one of metro Boston's finest Non Sports dealers, has passed along a checklist for the Doeskin cards that were issued in small tissue packages around 1955. As detailed in the Modern Hobby Guide, Doeskin drew from two Topps issues: 1952's Wings and 1955's Rails & Sails. As also detailed in the book, no checklists had been confirmed and the set count was indeterminate but thought to be 100 from each contributing Topps issue.

Marty has set the record straight now and determined there are 160 total Doeskin cards.  80 came from Wings and another 80 from Rails & Sails (40 trains and 40 ships).  The Wings subset runs from #1-80 and the Rails & Sails From #81-200 but 40 numbers are skipped in the latter.  While it seems cruel to skip number such an issue, I doubt anyone was ever able to complete a set of these in the 1950's.  I don't think there are that many sets around even today as these are seldom seen. The word from Mr. Krim is that it's hard to find cards even in EX, no surprise given the method of distribution.

Marty has a huge stock of the Doeskin cards (hence his wonderful checklist) and can be contacted at martykrim@gmail.com if anyone out there is interested in purchasing same.  Marty also has a huge selection of other Non Sports cards as well and is one of the good guys in the hobby so feel free to pepper him with orders!

This also means the Doeskin "side checklists" for Wings and Rails & Sails in the Modern Hobby Guide are incorrect as each has 20 too many possible cards shown. In addition, The ACC # for Doeskin Wings is F381 and for Doeskin Rails & Sails it's F378.  I treat them as a single issue below but that is not definite.

Here is the Doeskin checklist:

NO. SUBSET SUBJECT DESCRIPTION 1 WINGS T-33 U.S. AIR FORCE JET TRAINER 2 WINGS MIG-15 RUSSIAN JET FIGHTER 3 WINGS XC-120 PACK PLANE U.S. AIR FORCE TRANSPORT 4 WINGS LINCOLN BRITISH BOMBER 5 WINGS F-51 MUSTANG U.S. AIR FORCE FIGHTER 6 WINGS AT-7 NAVIGATOR U.S. AIR FORCE LIGHT TRANSPORT 7 WINGS PBY CATALINA U.S. NAVY PATROL BOMBER 8 WINGS B-26 INVADER U.S. AIR FORCE LIGHT BOMBER 9 WINGS XF-91 U.S. AIR FORCE JET FIGHTER 10 WINGS F7U CUTLASS U.S. NAVY JET FIGHTER 11 WINGS VAMPIRE BRITISH JET FIGHTER 12 WINGS B-57 CANBERRA BRITISH JET BOMBER 13 WINGS SUNDERLAND BRITISH PATROL FLYING BOAT 14 WINGS PB4Y-2 PRIVATEER U.S. NAVY PATROL BOMBER 15 WINGS T-28 U.S. AIR FORCE ADVANCED TRAINER 16 WINGS WYVERNE MK. 2 BRITISH TURBO-PROP FIGHTER 17 WINGS BALLIOL T. MK. 2 BRITISH ADVANCED TRAINER 18 WINGS F-47 THUNDERBOLT U.S. AIR FORCE FIGHTER 19 WINGS HUP-1 U.S. NAVY HELICOPTER 20 WINGS HERMES BRITISH CIVIL TRANSPORT 21 WINGS L-17 NAVION U.S. AIR FORCE LIAISON CIVIL PRIVATE PLANE 22 WINGS F3D SKYKNIGHT U.S. NAVY JET ALL WEATHER FIGHTER 23 WINGS AM MAULER U.S. NAVY ATTACK PLANE 24 WINGS B-36 U.S. AIR FORCE STRATEGIC BOMBER 25 WINGS F8F BEARCAT U.S. NAVY FIGHTER 26 WINGS F-80 SHOOTING STAR U.S. AIR FORCE FIGHTER-BOMBER 27 WINGS SEA ATTACKER BRITISH NAVY JET FIGHTER 28 WINGS F6F HELLCAT U.S. NAVY FIGHTER 29 WINGS P2V NEPTUNE U.S. NAVY PATROL BOMBER 30 WINGS AVRO JETLINER CANADIAN CIVIL JET TRANSPORT 31 WINGS C-121 CONSTELLATION U.S. AIR FORCE TRANSPORT 32 WINGS C-74 GLOBEMASTER 1 U.S. AIR FORCE STRATEGIC TRANPSORT 33 WINGS F-84F U.S. AIR FORCE JET FIGHTER-BOMBER 34 WINGS F4U CORSAIR U.S. NAVY AND MARINE CORPS FIGHTER 35 WINGS FIREFLY BRITISH NAVY FIGHTER 36 WINGS C-125 RAIDER U.S. AIR FORCE ASSAULT TRANSPORT 37 WINGS C-46 COMMANDO U.S. NAVY -R5C 38 WINGS PE-2 RUSSIAN ATTACK BOMBER 39 WINGS AF GUARDIAN U.S. NAVY ATTACK PLANE 40 WINGS C-82 PACKET U.S. AIR FORCE TRANSPORT 41 WINGS R60 CONSTITUTION U.S. NAVY STRATEGIC TRANSPORT 42 WINGS IL-12 RUSSIAN TRANSPORT 43 WINGS HASTINGS BRITISH MILITARY TRANSPORT 44 WINGS AJ SAVAGE U.S. NAVY COMPOSITE POWERED ATTACK BOMBER 45 WINGS F-82 TWIN-MUSTANG U.S. AIR FORCE FIGHTER 46 WINGS XF4D SKYRAY U.S. NAVY JET FIGHTER 47 WINGS T-6 TEXAN U.S. AIR FORCE TRAINER 48 WINGS C-123 AVITRUK U.S. AIR FORCE TRANSPORT 49 WINGS JRM MARS U.S. NAVY TRANSPORT 50 WINGS METEOR BRITISH JET FIGHTER 51 WINGS B-29 SUPERFORTRESS U.S. AIR FORCE STRATEGIC BOMBER 52 WINGS IL-10 RUSSIAN ASSAULT BOMBER 53 WINGS B-45 TORNADO U.S. NAVY AIR FORCE JET BOMBER 54 WINGS LA-5 RUSSIAN FIGHTER 55 WINGS COMET BRITISH JET TRANSPORT 56 WINGS H-13D U.S.A.F. & ARMY HELICOPTER 57 WINGS PE-8 RUSSIAN HEAVY BOMBER 58 WINGS C-97 STRATOFREIGHTER U.S. AIR FORCE STRATEGIC TRANSPORT 59 WINGS H-21 U.S. AIR FORCE TRANSPORT HELICOPTER 60 WINGS FH-1 PHANTOM U.S. NAVY JET FIGHTER 61 WINGS B-47 STRATOJET U.S. AIR FORCE STRATEGIC JET BOMBER 62 WINGS L-20 BEAVER U.S. AIR FORCE UTILITY-LIAISON 63 WINGS FJ FURY U.S. NAVY JET FIGHTER 64 WINGS F-94 U.S. AIR FORCE JET INTERCEPTOR FIGHTER 65 WINGS SHACKLETON BRITISH PATROL BOMBER 66 WINGS S-51 HELICOPTER U.S. AIR FORCE 67 WINGS A-20 HAVOC U.S. AIR FORCE-LIGHT BOMBER 68 WINGS IL-2 STORMOVIK RUSSIAN ASSAULT BOMBER 69 WINGS C-119 PACKET U.S. AIR FORCE TRANSPORT 70 WINGS DC-4 SKYMASTER C-54-U.S. AIR FORCE TRANSPORT 71 WINGS F-86 SABER U.S. AIR FORCE JET FIGHTER 72 WINGS VENOM BRITISH JET FIGHTER 73 WINGS H-19 U.S. AIR FORCE HELICOPTER 74 WINGS TBM AVENGER U.S. NAVY TORPEDO BOMBER 75 WINGS CF-100 CANUCK CANADIAN JET INTERCEPTOR 76 WINGS F-84 THUNDERJET U.S. AIR FORCE FIGHTER-BOMBER 77 WINGS F-86D U.S. AIR FORCE JET INTERCEPTOR 78 WINGS SEA HAWK BRITISH NAVY JET FIGHTER 79 WINGS SA-16 ALBATROSS U.S. NAVY UTILITY AMPHIBIAN 80 WINGS 202 CIVIL AIRLINE TRANSPORT 81 R&S RAILS "SOUTH CAROLINA" DOUBLE-ENDER TYPE 82 R&S RAILS DIESEL LOCO EGYPTIAN STATE RYS. 83 R&S RAILS COMMODORE VANDERBILT N.Y.C. RR 84 R&S RAILS PULPWOOD CAR LOUISANA & ARK. RY. 85 R&S RAILS 1902 "20TH CENTURY" N.Y. CENTRAL 86 R&S RAILS ARTICULATED TYPE N. & W. RAILROAD 87 R&S RAILS EARLY SWITCHER 0-4-0 TYPE 90 R&S RAILS INCLINE MAUCH CHUNK 92 R&S RAILS DEMONSTRATION LOCO STEVENS DESIGN 93 R&S RAILS "JOHN BULL" CAMDEN & AMBOY RR 94 R&S RAILS EXPERIMENTAL LOCO FONTAINE DESIGN 95 R&S RAILS 0-6-0 SWITCHER MISSOURI PACIFIC RR 96 R&S RAILS DINING CAR PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD 97 R&S RAILS SUGAR CANE CAR PLANTATION USE 98 R&S RAILS ORE CAR GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY 99 R&S RAILS AUTOMOBILE BOX CAR N.Y. CENTRAL 100 R&S RAILS PRIVATE CAR DELAWARE & HUDSON RR 101 R&S RAILS "JOSHUA RHODES" FIRST PORTER LOCO 104 R&S RAILS THE "HIAWATHA" C.M. St. P. & P. RR 105 R&S RAILS NARROW GAUGE SANDY RIVER RR 107 R&S RAILS THE "PIONEER" FIRST CHICAGO LOCO 108 R&S RAILS SUBWAY TRAIN NEW YORK CITY 109 R&S RAILS ELECTRIC TYPE ITALIAN STATE RYS. 111 R&S RAILS STREAMLINED STEAM LOCO B&O RR 113 R&S RAILS CAMEL TYPE BALTIMORE & OHIO RR 114 R&S RAILS "OLD IRONSIDES" FIRST BALDWIN LOCO 115 R&S RAILS GRASSHOPPER TYPE B&O RR 116 R&S RAILS MULTIPLE UNIT TRAIN N.Y. CENTRAL 117 R&S RAILS OPEN END DAY COACH D.L. & W. RR 119 R&S RAILS HIGH PRESSURE LOCO D. & H. RR 120 R&S RAILS CAB FORWARD LOCO SOUTHERN PACIFIC RR 121 R&S RAILS ACF TALGO LIGHTWEIGHT STREAMLINER 122 R&S RAILS STEAM LOCOMOTIVE B.&.O. RAILROAD 123 R&S RAILS RED ARROW EXPRESS SWISS RAILWAYS 125 R&S RAILS STEAM STREAMLINER N. & W. RAILROAD 126 R&S RAILS STEAM LOCOMOTIVE UNION PACIFIC RR 127 R&S RAILS SINGLE WHEELER READING RAILROAD 128 R&S RAILS STEEL BOX CAR PRIVATE OWNER 129 R&S RAILS BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE 4-2-0 TYPE 130 R&S RAILS FIRST "ZEPHYR" BURLINGTON ROUTE 151 R&S SAILS FERRY BOAT DOUBLE ENDED NEW YORK HARBOR 152 R&S SAILS QUEEN ELIZABETH LUXURY LINER 153 R&S SAILS FISHING CRUISER PLEASURE POWER BOAT 154 R&S SAILS SUBMARINE U.S. NAVY 155 R&S SAILS OYSTER BOAT CHESAPEAKE BAY FISHING BOAT 156 R&S SAILS GREEK WAR SHIP ANCIENT FIGHTING GALLEY 157 R&S SAILS NET TENDER U.S. NAVY 158 R&S SAILS DUTCH BOTTER ZUIDERZEE SAILING CRAFT 159 R&S SAILS ORE CARRIER GREAT LAKES FREIGHTER 160 R&S SAILS TRAWLER BRITISH STEAM POWERED FISHERMAN 161 R&S SAILS FREIGHTER GENERAL CARGO CARRIER 162 R&S SAILS EGYPTIAN SHIP OARED MERCHANTMAN 163 R&S SAILS ENGLISH HOY 18TH CENTURY WORK BOAT 164 R&S SAILS CATAMARAN AMERICAN DESIGN 166 R&S SAILS SUB-CHASER U.S. NAVY 167 R&S SAILS LIGHT SHIP DANISH COAST GUARD 169 R&S SAILS OIL TANKER SEAGOING GAS STATION 170 R&S SAILS STEAM PACKET EARLY STEAMSHIP 172 R&S SAILS S.S. UNITED STATES PASSENGER LINER 173 R&S SAILS HAWAIIAN LINER LUXURY CRUISE SHIP 174 R&S SAILS TORPEDO BOAT U.S. NAVY PATROL SHIP 175 R&S SAILS MISS LIBERTY SIGHTSEEING BOAT 176 R&S SAILS GLOUCESTERMAN FISHING SCHOONER 177 R&S SAILS RACING BOAT "SLO-MO-SHON IV" 178 R&S SAILS CRUISER U.S. NAVY 179 R&S SAILS CRASH BOAT AIR FORCE RESCUE LAUNCH 180 R&S SAILS U.S.S. INDIANA U.S. NAVY 1894 181 R&S SAILS TUNA CLIPPER AMERICAN FISHING BOAT 182 R&S SAILS HARBOR DREDGE WORK BARGE 184 R&S SAILS CONSTITUTION REVOLUTIONARY WARSHIP 185 R&S SAILS WHALE SHIP FLOATING FACTORY 188 R&S SAILS S.S. CARONIA PASSENGER LINER 190 R&S SAILS U.S.S. MISSOURI U.S. NAVY 191 R&S SAILS HASTINGS LUGGER BRITISH FISHERMAN 192 R&S SAILS SHRIMP BOAT FISH TRAWLER 193 R&S SAILS MINESWEEPER U.S. NAVY 194 R&S SAILS COBLE ENGLISH OFFSHORE WORK BOAT 196 R&S SAILS ROMAN TRIREME WAR VESSEL 199 R&S SAILS HOSPITAL SHIP U.S. NAVY 200 R&S SAILS FLAT TOP U.S. NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIER