Vintage Basketball Cards June 2003 NEWS
TODAY'S NEWS IS ON THE MAIN PAGE
Sunday, June 29th
Apology
§ I seem to be having trouble reporting news lately. In order to keep you interested in this site, I am including a photograph of the reason why I've been out of commission this weekend. Basically, I've been introducing an old CMU friend that just moved to NYC to her new home. I thought that you guys would love this. Enjoy :-) I know that I have been.
Katie "I Love Mullen Like All Girls Do" Sullivan
Thursday, June 26th
Article
§ I started writing an article for one of the big sportscard sites and, as a result, I don't have any news. Here's the rough draft/outline of the article. It's most definitely going to be changed and updated and revised (if not rewritten) ... but it MAY make an interesting read. Oh yeah, by the way, I'm up to page 250 of the new Harry Potter book. Yeah, it sucks. Sofar its a real dissapointment.
The Hobby of Collecting Vintage Basketball Cards
People occasionally ask me why I collect vintage basketball cards … and
why I define vintage as pre-1970 basketball cards.
To answer the first, I collect vintage basketball cards because I think
that it is the most undervalued, undercollected
area in the sportscard hobby. Furthermore,
as you will see, history strengthens my assumption that extreme growth is
inevitable for vintage basketball collectors.
To answer the second, I define vintage basketball cards pre-1970 because
the 70’s was the first decade in which a company mass produced basketball
cards throughout the
I compare the pre-1970 basketball market to the Pre-WWI basketball card market and I say that we are at a time that would correlate to the 1980’s for baseball card collecting. Using my above definition, the 1950s was pretty much the start of the mass-production of cards in a majority of that decade’s years by a single company. 30 years later, in 1980, the modern baseball card market started to surge with demand … and eventually it crashed in the early 90’s. This marked the time when people in the baseball card hobby started looking to value … and they found value in the true rarities of baseball card collection … the pre-WWI cards. As a result, over the past 10 years, the value of pre-WWI cards has skyrocketed. The same thing has already happened with Football and has just started to begin with Hockey and pretty soon Basketball. However, the demand for modern basketball cards has surged beyond baseball, hockey, and football.
Moreover, vintage basketball cards are numerous in sets (there are over 75 pre-1970 issues), but some are the rarest cards in the entire sportscard hobby. I mean, there are tons of gold borders out there in Pre-WWI baseball … everyone focuses on condition. The rarest baseball card is not the Holy Grail that is Honus Wagner. No, there are more Honus Wagners in the world then 1950 Scott’s Potato Chip CARD. There are more than 80 Honus Wagners actually out in the world. I only truly know of 1 Scott’s set and a few handfuls of singles. More examples would include, 7-Up Capital cards (1 set and 4 singles known) that contains the professional card of George Mikan’s BROTHER, 1968 Topps Test cards (9 sets known), 1950 Bread for Health (only 2 sets known, a few hundred examples), 1952 Royal Desserts (about 5 sets known with about maybe a 100 singles out there), 1950 Bread for Energy (only about 8 of each card are out there), 1952 Bell Brand cards (5 sets probably out there), Gunther Beer (maybe 5-10 sets are known) and another like 20 issues in which less than 500 cards probably exist. Now, this stuff is just as rare as anything in the sportscard hobby …
Obviously baseball collectors will remain supreme, but what about in 20 years? What about when all those kids that collected basketball cards (which I think may have outsold baseball cards these past 5 years) become masters of the universe? I’ll tell you, some will come back to the hobby … and most of these will people will become advanced collectors that are looking for investments in addition to something personally enjoyable and rewarding. I may just be talking out of my .#$@, BUT the really rare basketball cards are on the surge. Take the 1950 Bread for Energy Mikan, you could have bought it in 1999 for $2,000 from maestros. The last one that sold went for $7,000. BMW sportscards has stated that these should be worth $25,000 a pop. Unfortunately, there are only 8. As a result, they will not skyrocket like the all-to-plentiful Wagner. The only problem with the vintage basketball card market is that the cards are too rare. Unlike any other vintage hobby in the sportscard market, a market cannot establish itself for basketball because the rare cards only come up for sale once every 5 years, I’d say about 5 Honus Wagners go on sale each year. As a result of the amount of transactions … the price usually can go up more (a lot of well if it sold for $70,000 last time, I don’t mind paying $75,000). You do that 5 times in a year and you go from $70k to $75k … However, if a Scott’s Mikan were going to go on sale today, someone would say … well … the last one went on sale went for $10k … so I’ll pay $12 at most … only a 20% gain in 5 years (where a Honus, using the historical price increase, would go up like 45% in that 5 year period). Anyway, enough of my bull#%#*), buy vintage basketball cards …. but only the ones I don’t have.
Wednesday, June 25th
Looking for a Card
§ If anyone has the Coach card for the 1954-1955 Bullet's Gunther Beer set, his grandson emailed me today looking for it so let me know. Its pretty cool because this is the second time a relative of a player has emailed me since I started this website in February.
Check out Ebay
§ There is a 1979 Uncut Topps Sheet on ebay. Pre-1980 Topps Sheets are great for display and you may be able to get this one really cheap (the current bid is like $20). I'm not going to be bidding on ebay items until after the National so you guys don't have to worry about me on ebay.
1952 Royal Desserts Basketball
§ I got my album today. Its funny, it seems like the entire card cannot fit into one of the album's sheets. I'll check this out. It could explain why a lot of the cards are cut so tight (even though they made up 90% of the back of a box).
1968 Topps Test Basketball
§ An interesting fact. There are only 6 Chamberlains graded by PSA. The "7th" was actually a broken PSA 80C that got regraded as a 7. PSA should have something where if you send them PSA labels that they will delete that card from their registry/database/pop.report. I think major collector's would send in labels in order to increase their card's values.
Basketball Movies
§ I just thought that I would introduce you guys to some of my favorite basketball movies of all time. If you know of a great basketball movie then let me know. My top two basketball films are definitely HOOSIERS and PISTOL PETE. If you have never seen either of these then go BUY them. Pistol Pete is out of print but you can get a copy on VHS from ebay for about $15. There are about 20 more, I'll try and make a list somewhere of my favorite books and movies.
New Additions
§ I put up a poor picture of the 1979 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet.
Tuesday, June 24th
Wowzers
§ So it looks like my plan worked. Changing to different servers definitely put me on the major search engines ... near the top to.
New WebsitesS
§ So I first have to apologize for the week of non-updates. The main reason for this was that I was feverishly working on two sites. The first site is where you should go right now and it just so happens to be Steve Taft's new website www.stevetaft.com This website is currently being populated so check back regularly.
§ The second website is for one of my little pet projects. It has nothing to do with Basketball Cards and right now lacks any type of functionality. BUT, it looks really cool. www.cellgrams.com
Big Sale
§ A 1968 Topps Test Basketball Wilt Chamberlain sold last week for $3,500 in PSA 7.
The National
§ The National is approaching quickly ... I'm still having the dinner ... Thursday night. I also know that PSA is having a lunch that Friday ... if you want more details, let me know and I'll send you the info on the PSA lunch.
Sunday, June 23rd
Literature
§ Everyone needs to go buy the following book. Thanks to Mike R. for pointing it out to me. I've only read the first few chapters because I'm currently reading the encyclopedia called "Harry Potter: Order of the Pheonix", but from what I've read ... this book rocks "Chocolate Thunder" by Charley Rosen and Darryl Dawkins.
News For
Saturday, June 13th
Message Boards
§ So lets start some discussions on the message boards!!! Get to it. Go ahead and post want/have lists too ... no big deal.
The National
§ I know of someone that wants to get rid of their table at the National. Its like $800 for the 4 days.
News For
Thursday, June 12th
New Additions
§ Back due to popular demand ... the message boards!!! I had taken this off the website after a month of not having anyone post to it. But now that I'm getting about 50 hits a day I thought ... hell ... why not. I hope that this page works, there may be some errors in my programming. If so, don't worry. It will be up again tomorrow. Message Boards.
§ I added the set list for the 1968 Carnation Milk cards as well as pictures to over half of the set. The best card is Goodrich and, if you can find him, you can probably get it for about $300.
§ I updated the about me page to reflect my personal website that hasn't been updated in like a year ... www.jeffreymullen.com
§ I redid the Other Section so that it looks a bit prettier and renamed it to "Memorabilia" ... I'll work on populating this page.
§ Complete Randomness: I just noticed that it only takes 4 seconds to load this page on a 56.6 without the above logo and ... 119 seconds to download with the logo. Obviously, I have to fix this.
§ I posted the entire set for 1968 Carnation Milk Promos.
§ CHECK OUT THE BEST OF THE BEST SECTION!!! MAJOR UPDATES!!!!
Great Items Still On Sale (By Me)
§ 1969-70 Topps -- Lot of 8 -- ALL PSA 8
§ 1957 Topps #31 Dave Piontek PSA8 PSA 8 NICE!
Wednesday, June 11th
New Additions
§ So I added a few new sales on the notable sales page.
§ I added a few more finds on the notable finds page.
§ I added a picture of the album for royal dessert cards on the 1952 Royal Dessert page.
Tuesday, June 10th
Great Items On Sale (By Me)
§ 1969-70 Topps -- Lot of 8 -- ALL PSA 8
Notable Sale
So my 1968 Topps Test King in PSA 7 went for $800 last night. Awesome. I am not one to sell cards, but I needed the money to help with 1) Summer Law School; and 2) 3 other Topps Test cards that I recently purchased. Now, in selling the Topps Test King for $800 we will see a few things. First, we will see if there are any "loose" cards out there because, if there are, these cards may surface since they are finally selling for a premium.
Notable Find
So I forgot to add the latest Topps Test find to my notable finds page. I'll work on this tomorrow. Why tomorrow? Because tomorrow I have a 3 hour law school class. :-)
Monday, June 9th
New Addition
I added the set list for B-33 Blankets as well as some pictures. 1910 B33s.
Sunday, June 8th
Great Items On Sale (By Me)
§ 1957 Topps #24 Bob Pettit PSA8 PSA 8 - NICE!
§ 1957 Topps #31 Dave Piontek PSA8 PSA 8 NICE!
§ 1968 Topps Test #14 Jim King PSA 7 Rare! 1of3
These are the first 1957 Topps PSA 8s that I have seen on ebay in the last 5 months. These are getting impossible to find.
UPDATE -- So, the minimum bids have been met for the two 1957s ... awesome.
UPDATE -- I posted a topps test. This should sell for the minimum, but we'll see.
Pack Ripping
I opened up another 1974 Pack. Check it out here 2A, 2B.
Thursday, June 5th
New Additions
I had law school last evening ... 4 hours of law scool. Thus, I did a major update to my site ... roughly a 4 hour update. :-)
§ I created a new section. A Notable Finds section. If you want to add something to this section, just let me know.
§ I removed the media section ... for now. hehehehe. I am actually thinking about creating the ultimate vintage basketball media website ... I just have to figure it all out ...
§ I updated the Notable Sales list and added some cards that recently sold. I also added a column noting what I think of the sale. I realized that most of the cards on the list are notable cards that were sold extremely high. I'm going to start noting the price of notable cards that were sold for a good price.
§ I added a movie of myself ripping open a 1972 harlem globetrotter pack awhile ago. Now that I have my new hosting service, I can post the movie of it on the web. Here it is. I know that the quality is poor, but it will be better when I rip open a 1961 fleer pack (hopefully). A few things to take from this movie.
1) Notice the bubble gum permanently stuck to the first card;
2) Notice the staining from the bubble gum on the back of the front card;
3) If you can, notice the staining on the first three cards caused by the gum (its hard to see from the movie). Thus, half the pack was basically destroyed because of the gum. If it was kept in a humid place for any decent amount of time then this could have caused it. Both packs that I have opened have been severely damaged (e.g., multiple cards) because of gum stains and gum stains soaking through multiple cards.
§ I always mix up the 1952 and 1951 wheaties. I may have mixed up the years, but I made a set page for the 1952 wheaties cards. I also included 4 pictures of different flattened boxes. This, in my mind, is a good post. Most people have never seen how they were distributed. They were distributed on wheaties boxes. 10 cards to a box. Wow.
§ I added a webpage exclusively for the 1948 Bowman Basketball cards.
§ Unfortunately, a lot of this stuff that I am posting is not as juicy as usual. That is because I am focusing on redesigning my site completely. After I put every set on its own webpage then I will focus on adding a ton of description to each page. The thing is though that I don't want to put to much (in terms of info or pictures) on the web because I want people to buy my guide. Oh well.
Wednesday, June 4th
Great Item For Sale
I know of some 1968 NBAP player cards for sale. They are in Fair/Ex condition and are selling for $50-$150 each. This set is pretty large and also pretty rare. I actually do not have an example of them. Rumor has it that most of the cards were included on converse shoe boxes. I have heard one dealer say that he has uncut boxes ... but he won't confirm with a picture (this is the dealer that is always telling me he has things that I've never heard of being out there). Let me know if you are interested in the card. I also still know of a 1950 Bread for Health Fulks priced at $1,000 (which is way to expensive for me).
New Additions
I completely redid the entire look of the 1930, 1940, 1950, and 1960 pages. This will allow for a "cleaner" webpage when I have finished changing around the architecture to support this change. Basically, I am going to have it so that every "listing" in the online guide is a webpage in and upon itself dedicated to that "listing". The best page to see what I'm trying to accomplish is the 1950 page. For the other pages, I have left my "descriptions" on the main decade page. If people are wondering how I have the time to do this then your answer lies in the fact that i have evening law school classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for 3.5 hours this summer. :-)
Great Trade, Buy, Find?
If you have a great buy, trade, or find ... why don't you shoot me an email about it and I'll post it on my site. If I get some good responses then I may even create a section directed towards this topic.
Tuesday June 3rd
Ridiculousness
This article will discuss the outrageous prices concerning the 1969 Topps cards. As you will know, the prices for the 1969 Topps cards have gone through the roof and are, in some cases, substantially higher than the SMR has them at. However, people will also notice that really recently, prices have started to decrease. I think that the prices will plummet over the course of the next year for these cards. Here is the deal. Right now you have about 10 people seriously collecting this issue. However, there are 2350 PSA 8s and 150 PSA 9s. The set, in my opinion, is collected because of the notion that the cards are rare in high grade. However, with only 99 cards in the set, we have roughly 25 sets that can be completed with the current level of cards in PSA 8 or higher. The "smallest" 8 is Luke Jackson and, for Luke, there are 10 8s and 3 9s. Other than the few cards that have less than 15 PSA 8s, you will see the majority of common PSA 8s selling in the $30 range.
Sunday June 1st and Monday June 2nd
Great Card for Sale
I completed a huge trade last night and received 4 Topps Test cards. Because I had to take the cards as a batch, I now have a duplicate Topps Test Jim King. The King is in PSA 7. Please email me if you are interested in making an offer or if you would like to trade for it. I've been on 16 hour work days at my firm so sorry that I can't update this site more. I completed my 1968 Carnation Milk promo set and I'll try and write an article about it tomorrow.
Additionally, I am drafting the ultimate vintage basketball card guide. This guide will contain full-color images of the front and back of every known pre-1970 basketball card. Additionally, the guide will contain detailed information for every card including its scarcity, estimated value, and other related information. A sample page can be viewed here SAMPLE PAGE.
© 2003
