A Couple Odds & Ends

I suppose you can consider this a leftover post since for some reason i have a couple odd-ball items sitting on my desk.  One is a baseball item and the other is apparently a basketball item.  Let's start there.

In the same box as the Look N' See cards, I came across this small, tissue-like wrapper that almost got chucked into the garbage pile.  Garbage pile, you ask?  Box after box after box of these cards seem to have various pieces of flotsam and jetsam.  For those not familiar with either the maritime jargon (or the metal band for that matter), flotsam and jetsam is simply a term I am using to refer to all the little pieces of junk that have broken away from larger items, like plastic from rigid top loaders, or price tags that have fallen off, wrappers sans cards, or dust bunnies (lots of dust bunnies).  At first glance, I figured this was just the wrapper from something.

 

At second glance, I almost thought it was a condom.  Almost.  That was until I picked it up and realized it was not from this world, I mean country.  Whatever this was, it was from Vitoria, Spain, I think.  To the cloud...I mean Wiki...

"Naipes Heraclio Fournier S.A. is a playing card manufacturer that was founded in 1868 and is based in Vitoria, Spain. Though it has been owned by The United States Playing Card Company since 1986, not only does it continue to maintain separate manufacturing operations, but it also manufactures certain USPC products sold by its parent company in the States (i.e., Congress bridge playing cards).

It was founded by Heraclio Fournier in 1868. He died in 1916. His grandson Félix Alfaro Fournier took on the administration of the company and started a card collection. In 1970 he acquired the card collection from Thomas De la Rue. His collections formed the Fournier Museum of Playing Cards, now property of the Province Government of Alava."

Alright then.  So this must be from some kind of set they produced in the 80s that featured NBA players, since that is what is printed on the wrapper.  See there, "Gran promocion <<NBA>>.  Upon further review, it would appear that this is from 1988 and is from the Fournier NBA Estrellas set which featured a companion set of stickers.  Since this is 23 years old, the glue has kind of worn off the sides so the contents are accessible.  If you couldn't see through the initial scan image, here is what was inside.

Now I see the irony in thinking it was a condom wrapper.

The next strange item that fell from a box of randomness comes in the form of a baseball card.  Of course, this wouldn't be any normal card.  What fun would that be?  Instead, it's a card of none other than Charlie Hustle himself, Pete Rose.  The card looks like it may have been printed sometime in the 1980s, but by whom is a mystery.  There is no company logo on the front.  There is no date either.  The design doesn't give it away like many of the 1980s card sets.  The only identifying marks are in the caption at the bottom.

"Pete Rose breaks Ty Cobb's All Time Base Hit record!"  Pretty unassuming since I'm sure there were hundreds of other items produced when this feat occurred.  So let's go to the back.  There has to be something there.


Blank.  Blank?  Blank!  Ok.  This has got to be cut from something.  Like a box bottom.  Or a cereal box.  Or a package of some sort.  I don't know but I will get to the bottom of this one.  So far, I have come up with nothing.  If anyone out there knows what this is or where it came from, please share.

Look N' See what I found

I haven't posted any finds on here in a while because I really haven't found anything out of the ordinary.  Not that this site is soley dedicated to the strange and unusual but most of the major card brands through the years have been seen time and time again.

The other day I grabbed a box to thumb through while watching something stupid on TV.  I found a small snap-tite jewel case that had some odd sized cards rattling around in them.  Just from the looks of the sides, since they were sandwiched between some 1984 Topps Baseball and some 1987 Topps Football, they looked old.  Only one way to find out...

As in most of what I have been finding that "looks" old, these have seen better days.  There are predominant creases, mis-cuts, off centering issues and of course the corners are rounded and worn.  But none of that changes the fact that until now, I had never seen these before.  So off to the interwebs for some information.

First things first...some observations.  My first thought was that these were obviously from a set that features predominant figures in US History and possibly World History.  Since there was no date stamp, I surmised that they were probably from the early 60's or possibly the 50s.  The fact that it said T.C.G. on the bottom was a tip off that they were made by Topps.  Other than that I had no clue.  In case you didn't already know, and it's hard to believe after what I found out that anyone other than me doesn't, here is what we found out. 

Look 'n See was in fact produced by Topps in 1952.  Apparently, these were pretty popular and have become one of the biggest 1950's non-sport sets traded today.  If you check Ebay, you will find quite a few listings.  In fact, when you search for 1952 Look N' See, I came up with 789 individual auctions.  What does that basically mean to me?  It means that these were probably produced in a much more significant volume than any of the other 1950's non-sport sets.  Also, unlike other trading card sets, these were available to purchase for a continued amount of time through the early 50s.  Some older collector's remember these being available as late as 1954.

The most sought after card is the Babe Ruth.  Despite the scarcity of some of the other cards, the Ruth still garners three figures in most cases even in less than Excellent condition.  Although not impossible to find, the scarcest card, as reported by many dealer's and collector's, is the Rembrandt.  

The backs of the cards feature hidden answers to trivia questions that are printed on the cards.  After a brief biography of the subject, the question is printed in a box such as the one above, "What famouse general did Gen. Ridgway replace in Korea?"  There was a small piece of red cellophane included in each pack that kids could place over the back to reveal the answer.  Not only would the answer appear, but the orange backs would disappear as well as the biography. 

Apparently, these were produced in in two series.  Card numbers 1 through 75 were followed by numbers 76 through 135.  Topps split the first 75 cards into subsets with seven titles.  Card numbers 1 through 9 depicted Presidents; numbers 10 through 31 featured Famous Americans; numbers 32 through 42 were of Military Leaders; and cards 43 through 46 pictured Famous Women.  Other headings included Explorers (6 cards), Men of the West (11), World Figures (5) and Inventors (7).  

The backs list a secondary numbering system for each subset.  For example, the George S. Patton card is denoted as "No. 3 of 11 Military Leaders." The cards in series 1 are all grouped together.  However, series 2 is all over the board.  Collector's speculate that since series 1 flew off the shelves, they rushed series 2 before planning the configuration (go figure even in the 1950s Topps had quality control problems.) 

Overall, though, I think the best part about these is the caricature artwork on the front.  A very nice set if you can find it in good condition.  I found a full set sell on Ebay for around $800 and you can get most individual cards fairly cheap with the exception of the more scarce figures.  So far these are the only three that I have found but like most interesting things, I have a feeling there may be more out there in the garage.

Quick self promotion - Basketball items ending tonight!! Kobe, Jordan, REFRACTORS, Shaq, Rookies, Inserts, etc.

There are still a bunch more basketball cards from the Garage up on the Bay.  If you are interested, the link is over on the right side toward the top.  Almost all the auctions start at $.99. 

------------------Check Out The Auctions-----------------------

Hobie Is A Pepper Pot

Another day, another box of baseball cards to look through.  Look at me.  I've been going through these things for a couple months now and I am starting to get bored.  I think most of this is due to the fact that I keep finding more and more monotony of 1990s junk.  Don't get me wrong, it's still fun to look through the boxes.  I have just hit a rut.  I've tried mixing it up but my plan of looking through each and every box is becoming daunting.  I have started to take a few days off here and there and with the holiday coming up, I will probably take some extended time off from searching.  Maybe it's that I am still not viewing these as mine but rather someone's collection that I am holding for them.  I don't know.

Well that was until tonight when I found something that set me off.  I found these...

 

I'm going to guess that at this point you know where I am going with this.  Here we have four cards that upon first glance, look to be from the 1950s considering the photos, uniforms, and black & white style.  I have never seen cards from this time that looked like these so I assumed they were some limited food printed set or something of that nature.

Well, they aren't.  In fact, they aren't even cards.  Actually that is not entirely true.  They were cards at one time.  That is, until someone with a need to change the images on their cards got a hold of some newspaper clippings or magazine photos, some Elmer's glue and a pair of scissors.  I can't imagine why someone that wasn't the creator would keep these as they are abominations at worst and novelty "Frankencards" at best.

So what were these at one time?  Here's a hint...

Yes, my friends.  Those were perfectly good 1954 Bowman cards.  1954 Bowman cards that at some point in their 56 year existence, fell into the hands of someone with more interest in arts & crafts rather than collecting.  Even if they were less than enthused with the player selection here, why choose to mutilate these cards?  Why not find other pieces of cardboard to paste your favorite player photos to?  Why not just put the pictures up in your bedroom, or on your Trapper Keeper?  Why not just put the cards in your bike spokes like the rest of the idiot kids in the 1950s and 1960s that didn't realize the gold they had at the time but now force their kids and grand kids to listen to stories about how they had Mantle, Mays, Williams, Maris, and Clemente and sentenced them all to death by bike tire friction?  Whoa...calm down.

As you can see by two of the four former cards, someone had tried to "rescue" them by peeling off the stuck on pictures.  It wasn't me, I swear.  You can also see that attempt didn't work out too well.  Rather than center the photos on the card, you can see that they took the liberty of adjusting the margins a bit...by cutting the edges off to match the clippings!

So I guess to sum up, I found a 1954 Bowman Hobie Landrith #220, a 1954 Bowman Frank Baumholtz #221, a 1954 Bowman Bill Bruton #224, and a 1954 Bowman Pete Catiglione #174 (Version B)...all with the fronts doctored, with news clippings pasted to them, chopped up and trimmed down to fit some sort of sick fantasy.  Or, maybe this was the first Custom Card creator.

Nonsport Hologram-y-ness

So as a change of pace, I thought I would show two random cards I found in a box of otherwise bland, boring 90s baseball.

First, is this...

This one is a little hard to see but is spectacular in person.  For those that can't make it out, it's a hologram (hololithogram to be exact) of Spiderman putting a boot to the solar plexis of Venom.  The image looks awesome in the right light.  If you hold it just right, it seems like Venom's shoulder and Spidey's head are coming out of the card.  Really, freakin' cool.

The back is completely black so all the information has to be obtained from the front.  This is from the 1993 Marvel set produced by Skybox.  It says Marvel Universe Series IV under the picture.  It is numbered H-IV.  I found four different "versions" of this card on the Bay.  There seems to be a Red, Orange (Gold), Green, and Blue version, with the Blue commanding a premium $120-130 asking price and the Red at about $100.  The others seem to be consistent at around $25-35.  Seems like a ton for this card but again, it's pretty freakin' good looking.

I found a completed auction for all 4 for $220.  Amazing!  I can't tell which one I have.  In certain light it looks Gold, in another Green, and if I turn it just the right way, it looks Red.  Who knows.

The second card...

This one you can see a little better.  It is a 1991 Impel 25th Anniversary Star Trek Hologram numbered H1.  The card is pretty self explanatory, featuring the Starship Enterprise flying over a planet (presumably Earth) and the logo on the bottom right.  On the back, it says "The Birth Of A Legend" and goes on to describe a brief history of the series, including the fact that it was the first program to show a Russian and American working together, the first interracial kiss, and helped in naming the first space shuttle.

This one was all over the board.  You can find this one from $1 up to $15 with no auctions that I could find with closing bids.  Even still, it is a pretty cool looking card...although not as good as the Spidey Holo.

Just for Kicks

Long before the 2010 World Cup took the collecting world by storm...Long before the most popular game in the world hooked many a blogger and regular old collector on World Cup Stickers and Soccer cards...Long before there were MLS teams and $250 Million contracts for players...there was Kyle Rote Jr's Superstar Soccer.

In case you were wondering, Kyle Rote Jr. is a former soccer player for the United States National team as well as the North American Soccer League.  He is in the Soccer Hall of Fame and apparently was pretty good.  I'm not writing a book report so if you want to find out more about him, Google it (I always wanted to say that).

At any rate, in 1976 a company called Bel-Art Adv., Inc. and their brand name Rainbo (Colonial), produced a 50-card set of soccer cards featuring the great Kyle Rote Jr.  The set, known as the Superstar Soccer set, was sponsored by the NASL.  Or at least mine were.  Apparently there are some other variations of this set that have different branding but are all essentially the same photos on the front and wording on the back.

The cards feature a yellow border around the cards and have the heading on the top that says "Kyle Rote, Jr. Says...'Try This'" or "Watch For".  They feature a sketch drawing featuring some soccer skill, move, or play and have a picture of Kyle floating on the top in a star.  On the bottom, there is a description describing what is going on in the picture.  The backs (which I have no scan) feature a write up about the play or trick that is being taught as well as a descriptive drawing panel showing the steps involved in the play.  They are definitely something different.

I don't really have much more to say about them other than I have never seen them before.  I am by no means an expert on cards outside the realm of the big 4 sports but I can't recall coming across these before.  I found cards going for a buck or two each and complete sets being offered from anywhere between $5 to $20...so I'm guessing a 10 spot would be the roundabout price on a set of 50.  Not bad for a set over 30 years old...if you like soccer.

And Now For Something Completely Different...The Queen's Envelopes

As I was thumbing through another box of random misses, and the occasional hit, I came across some envelopes that were laying flat underneath the stacks of cards.  Since they were upside down, I had no idea what was inside.  As I removed the random piles of 1980's era Philadelphia Eagles cards, I picked one up to notice this on the other side...

 

I don't fancy myself as a philat...philatal...ph...stamp collector.  I had a relative back when I was 10-11 years old that decided that I liked stamps and got me a bunch of proof books from the post office to start my collection.  I'll admit, I went with it for a while and bought a few of those "bag-o-stamps" that HobbyTown used to sell back in the day.  I probably had a few thousand stamps from all over the world when suddenly, the idea of putting all of them into binders and sleeves with the aid of tweezers and little green pieces of tissue paper with glue on them just didn't keep me interested.  I can't figure out why.  Don't ask me where there are now though because I haven't the foggiest.  That interest was replaced by cardboard.

At any rate, there were a few of these envelopes in this box.  Including the one above, and this one that is a little dog-earred...

 

This one... 

And this one...

I have tried to find information about these but I really can't find anything specific.  I do know that Artcraft Engravings was a company that produced various First Day Issues of stamps for a variety of occasions.  Knowing that, I suppose these were made to commemorate some kind of trip that the H.M. Queen Elizabeth II was taking, or had taken.  One of them is stamped Royal Visit, which I suppose means the Queen must have paid a visit to Bermuda.

If anyone else is more high falootin than I, and would like to elaborate on the origin and species of these items, feel free to comment.  But for now, the "Queens Envelopes", as I will call them, are taking their place in the Garage.