Three major Topps rarities of the Postwar era were auctioned earlier this month by Heritage Auctions and I have to say, the results were a little lackluster overall. As previously documented here (and in any major price guide of the last forty-five years) the 1951 Topps Major League All Star subset of Baseball Candy contains three cards that were never released to the public: Hall-of-Famer Robin Roberts, 1950 NL MVP Jim Konstanty, and Eddie Stanky. Two Phillies and a Philly native, which may be why they got yanked, the City of Brotherly Love being home to Topps arch-rival Bowman.
These may be the sixth examples of each subject to emerge from the depths of the Topps files and Woody Gelman's massive ephemera collection but more research is needed on that front to confirm. No matter, they are truly rare and desirable. Which is why I am a little surprised at the prices each realized for two of them.
Let's begin with the Roberts card:
Like the other two offered, it's graded by PSA as Authentic-Altered. The alteration can be seen here:
The backs are important as it helps trace each example. Someone heavily taped the hinge and die cuts on this one as it had been used as intended. This intrigues me as it could indicate a kid got ahold of it originally.
Next up is The Brat, Eddie Stanky, a vastly underrated and somewhat unknown ballplayer these days but not by those that played against him or appreciate baseball history (he retired with a .410 lifetime OBP):
Same story here, it's popped and taped:
Finally, the Konstanty. I have to say, if you pointed this guy out in a police lineup and said he was a major league pitcher, I probably would have cracked up if I didn't know better:
As with the other two, a quite thorough tape job was performed:
Now for the prices, which include the buyer's premium:
Roberts: $66,000
Stanky: $43,200
Konstanty: $19,200
The Stanky ended about where I thought it might, perhaps under by about 10-15% but Roberts and Konstanty seem like they went pretty low. The fronts look quite presentable to me and the tape jobs probably didn't help but these cards emerge for public sale on average maybe once every eight or ten years. As a rough comparison, sloppily hand cut proofs of each, which were not die cut, sold in an REA auction in 2018 for:
Roberts: $132,000
Stanky: $45,000
Konstanty: $45,000
So the current result is a little lackluster it seems.
Each of the Heritage examples also have their own unique smudge on the front which means they can be matched against previous examples. The backs are unique as well but the main problem here is the lack of good, his-res scans of all known examples. Hopefully some images will surface and a comparison can be made. Meanwhile, congratulations to the winner(s) of these extremely difficult cards!
I regret I don't have any Christmas-themed objet's d' Topps to share this year but have no fear -a whole buncha of product updates from Friend o'the Archive Lonnie Cummins are here!
What's odd is that the lip-licking kid has been redrawn (a tip o'the Santa hat to Mark Newgarden for that observation). It's slight but the two images not the same. The fruits orbiting his head are new as well. I get the additions to his noggin's solar system but the changed main image is a little mystifying. Also of note, the gum count has doubled, to 160 pieces of "ballgum" as they say up North:
The back panel is fruity:
The U.S. box had a Bazooka ad but in in Canada a side panel recreated the image from the (U.S.) box top, with the sparkly gumballs in orbit.
Speaking of fruity gum, a Wild Cherry Flavor Mates wrapper also exists:
That makes five flavors now:
Banana
Fruit Punch
Grape
Orange
Wild Cherry
Interestingly the Banana and Fruit Punch flavors are clearly identified as having "Imitation Flavor" on the main "splash" of their wrappers and both of those carry a commodity code. The Orange and Wild Cherry flavors only note natural and artificial flavors in the ingredients indicia and carry no code, so I wonder if they predate their imitation brethren? The codes started sometime in 1966 and while there could have been tests of the product, or a tweaking of ingredients it may have just been a matter of timing on each wrapper's design and implementation.
I'm still looking for a good scan of the Grape wrapper and any other variants that might exist but this blurry image (also from Lonnie) is inconclusive as to what is written thereon, but don't believe I see a commodity code or any large "Imitation Flavor" wording, so it adheres to the present "no code/no imitation" protocol:
Lonnie also sent along a much more vivid partial box cover scan that makes me think our flavors have maxed out at five:
That's all four known individual fruit flavors indicated, with fruit punch implied, I guess! That's some enticing artwork but I don't think it helped sales much.
When Topps issued the 1967 Funny Travel Posters set, they were also wrangling with their first Wacky Packages issue. I've mostly stayed away from the Wacky's here as they are so well documented elsewhere but of the eighteen different mascots depicted on the Madison Avenue poster I've been dissecting here for the past two weeks, eight appear in the first run of Wacky Packages. Often referred to as die-cuts, the 1967 release is the ur-Wacky Packages set and it featured gummed-backs, meaning you had to moisten what was a die cut subject to get it to stick.
It's hard to believe now but it wasn't a massive success, although it did have at least three press runs including at least one into 1968, which also seem related to cease-and-desist letters. As would be the pattern, a number of subjects were withdrawn when these letters were received by Topps, so those stickers were pulled and replaced by another on the sheet. It would be the 1973 series of peelable stickers that truly kicked off Wacky-mania although it pretty much was created using the same Art Spiegelman roughs (his first major Topps assignment) and Norman Saunders finished artwork that kicked things off in 1967.
Here's what the original 1967 release looked like when presented to the youth of America, thanks to a killer image I found over at wackypacks.com:
Right away, you can see two of the brand mascots from the Funny Travel Posters set were used on the box. Let's start with the duck.
The Quaker Oats Quaker from the poster set was, like the other mascots depicted, done relatively straight:
Not so much with the Wacky stickers:
And there's no way that wasn't meant to look like Donald Duck! Plus, he appears to be a little stoned, which may be intentional given the involvement of Spiegelman.
Our other box inhabitant is a bit more stern and menacing:
Yikes! Well Mr. Clean does seem capable of taking care of himself I'd say. As seen below, he clearly worked out.
Alongside our earring-ed friend, we have two other mascots that made their was onto Wacky Packages. As mentioned above, Topps always included something of their own when poking fun at other products. As most of you probably know, they began this form of self protection with Gadzooka:
Meanwhile, in the land of hangovers:
Kinda funny how that actually has come to pass, right White Claw fans?
Cracker Jack got roughed up a bit. Compare this...
...to this:
Ouch!
You have to wonder what Li'l Green Sprout would have thought of his dad had he ever seen this:
Quite a change from our smiling friend here:
He's a thirsty one it seems, but the parody version sure looks like fun!
We conclude this silly series under a gray cloud:
Morton Salt actually used the "When it rains it pours" slogan to demonstrate that its salt would still flow in inclement weather. I'm assuming there was some kind of tackiness problem with all salts on rainy days before then but who knows? Well, it looks like Topps knew:
Other mascots from the Madison Avenue poster would appear in later releases of Wacky Packages, but these eight were the original imposters!
Picking up where I left off before Turkey Day weekend, this will continue my look at the Madison Avenue entry from 1967's Funny Travel Posters. First though, here's a look at the retail wrapper and box:
Pretty eye-catching but the box is even nicer, with excellent mini-poster reproductions from the set beckoning:
The set was remaindered by Topps, so it clearly wasn't a big seller. They sloughed it off as part of a promotion called Sale-A-Bration that packaged together several languishing sets that presumably had a nice discount when ordered as part of the deal. Based upon the commodity codes of other sets in the promotion, it looks to have been a 1968-69 endeavor.
You can't see it but the back panel of the box has a playful version of the the curved Topps logo, with some little kids playing about it:
Now, back to Madison Avenue....specifically the bottom row of the poster:
Let's start with the Morton Salt Girl and move left. She is still one of America's most identifiable brand mascots after a mere 110 years. Her look had evolved quite a bit since her 1914 debut and Topps looks like they used the 1956 version for the poster; it would be updated yet again a year later:
If you have a sweet tooth, or even if you don't but have had it foisted on you at a ballgame or kids party, you know that Cracker Jack has been filling dentist's coffers for over 125 years. The Sailor Boy logo is just as well-known as the Morton Salt Girl and, as it turns out, it originally depicted the founder's son and his dog Bingo, who both debuted in 1918. There is a Topps connection or two with the snack as they put out a two panel set commemorating the first 1982 Cracker Jack Old Timers Classic played in Washington DC that year:
About 200 Million boxes of Cracker Jack are sold every year and that sometimes seems like the number of uncut panels Topps printed up of the set back then as well! The game, which was a charity event, was well-advertised and televised nationally so Topps got a lot of publicity for what I believe was a handout at the game and also a premium offer. Luke Appling, 75 years young, took 61 year-old Warren Spahn deep in the bottom of the first, which was a pretty big story when it happened:
My favorite part of Cracker Jack is the elusive peanut, as it nicely rounds out a handful of this stuff, and I'll bet it's not a coincidence Mr. Peanut is sauntering by the Sailor on the poster. More iconic branding from 1918 here kids:
After a relatively stable ninety years or so, the monocled, walking legume with the elegant top hat has turned into a creepy, nightmarish looking thing-yikes!
Next up is Nipper, the longtime mascot for RCA Victor. Any number of mutts have been portrayed as the music loving canine over the years, so the one Topps used looks more approximate than specific. Heres' a more classic looking version:
Alka Seltzer is still with us, although you can just use baking soda dissolved in water to get the desired relief and save some dough. The brand mascot was known as Speedy, although he morphed from an earlier character called Sparky in 1951. Speedy was retired in 1964, although it was well-known enough to be featured by Topps and it eventually returned in the mid-70's and has been seen sporadically since. Here's a 1976 version in wonderful stop-motion animation that features a song some of you may have had burned into your brains if you are of a certain age:
Next up, using a method that was also used in Wacky Packages for '67 and forever after, we see Bazooka Joe. Topps would always include their mascot, or a brand of theirs, in the product parody sets. This would theoretically stave off lawsuits but it sure didn't stop the cease and desist letters! The post-Wesley Morse version of Joe was trending toward this look, as seen three years later on this 1970 Bazooka Bits pouch:
Mr. Clean here reminds me of the little sanitation worker who cleaned up after the Muses at the end of Peabody's Improbable History. He still looks pretty much the same today as he did when introduced in 1958, although he was an actual human being then:
Finally, we get to our last mascot, one from Pillsbury's Funny Face drink mix, which really completes a spiral of sorts! The drink mix powder competed with Kool-Aid but as I recall it, wasn't nearly as good and featured some nasty artificial sweetener. Funny Face had killer graphics and commercials though and their mascots, at least the non-racist ones, were rad. Here's one now:
I mentioned 1967 Wacky Packages earlier, didn't? Well eight of the mascots here were also parodied in the inaugural set of stickers and I'll take a look at those next time.
