Fun distraction Politicards

First produced in 1971 for the Upcoming 1972 Election year. This card 54 playing card deck was made by a card publishing company known only as "Politicards" (on the side of the box). Each card including the two jokers has a cartoon caricature of a political personality from that period of time. Plus a few from a few years before. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time this was done specifically for an election year. It seems to have been done every four years since. 

In 1972 my family had a deck of these cards that we played with and like all the other decks of cards we had eventually the cards got lost in our basement. I seem to recall a few years later seeing some similar cards with Jimmy Carter so I'm fairly sure the tradition has been kept up every four years using the current political figures of the time. It is a fun way to see who was in on the political scene in America at the time the cards were produced.

The first deck made in '71 had a simple design for the card backs. A gray background with the four card suits in a red, white and blue stars and stripes flag design. The box was simply a plain box with an outer sleeve that slides open to get access to the cards. The front of the box shows Richard "Tricky Dickey" Nixon as the King of Spades, the back of the box is the design for the back of the cards.

1972 Politicards box back (open)

Richard Nixon is the King of Spades

Eventually I will scan the individual cards and show them, but for now all I have scanned are the boxes from each of the years I have. 1972, 1996 (Red and Blue versions), 2000 Red Deck, 2004 Blue Deck, 2008 Red and Blue Decks. These cards show up on Ebay from time to time. Most of them are fairly reasonable price-wise. I've only seen one of the decks with Jimmy Carter from 1980? once and it was too expensive to even consider trying to get. In the meantime I'm going to try to fill in the gaps I need, even getting the red or blue versions I still need.

1996 Blue Deck Box Front and Back (open)

1996 Red Deck Box Front and Back (sealed)

 

2000 Red Deck Box Front and Back (open)

2004 Blue Deck Box Front and Back (open)

 2008 Blue Deck Box Front and Back (Sealed)

 2008 Red Deck Box Front and Back (Open)

1974 Fleer NFL Hall Of Fame

1974 Fleer Hall of Fame 

"The Immortal Roll" cards

 

In 1974 Fleer produced a Hall of Fame "The Immortal Roll" set of 50 NFL cards similar to the Baseball "Pioneers of Baseball" 28 card set. These cards were packaged I think 4 to a pack with a team logo sticker or cloth sticker. This set and the baseball one were my first "retro" cards of hard to find old-timers or Hall of Famers from any sport. At the time I was not really into reprints, still not, or retro cards, but these sets just reached out to me. I've liked them ever since. This set was so successful that in 1975 Fleer produced an 84 card set that is very similar and sometimes gets confused with this one. The main difference is the '75 set has brown borders instead of the white, and they are numbered. This '74 set is not numbered and often any numbers assigned are from their alphabetical ordered position. I think for the '75 set they just used the same photos, which adds to the confusion. The backs have a drawing of the Hall of Fame building in Canton, OH an a descriptive paragraph of the player featured.

 

Legendary Redskin Quarterback "Slingin' Sammy Baugh

No NFL Hall of Fame set could be complete without Legend Jim Thorpe

 Some Classic players from one of my fave teams The Los Angeles Rams

 I really dig the old leather helmets and the early metal ones.

 Check out the poses. 3 Point stand w/out helmet?

 Don't forget the "tough guy" and the "pretty boy". (OK I got a little carried away there.)

 

I only have the 17 different cards featured in this post a few of them I have duplicates. I plan on getting the rest of this set and the 1975 set.

Topps 2010 Million Card Giveaway Code Cards

I guess I'll use this as my check list for my "Million Card Giveaway Code Cards". For those who have bought any 2010 Topps Baseball products they will have noticed that randomly inserted into the packs are these special Code cards. You visit Topps Million Card Giveaway website, enter your special code from the back of the card. You have to type it in exactly, once I typed in an "S" instead of the "$" sign and I got an error telling me either I had typed an invalid code or the code had already been used. So I guess there is no random entering of codes to see if they work. Each card on the front has a picture of a vintage player's card and on the back is the special code you use to "unlock" your giveaway card. After the codes are entered in I suppose most people will toss the cards, sell or give them away. Personally I am collecting them as a nice oddball subset. The backs of the cards are numbered with "TMC" 1 through 10. So here is what they look like.

TMC - 1
1952 Roy Campanella
Don't have yet.

TMC - 2
1978 Gary Carter
Dont' have yet.

TMC - 3
1963 Bob Gibson
Don't have yet.

TMC - 4
2001 Ichiro
Don't have yet.

TMC - 5
1969 Mickey Mantle
Don't have yet.

TMC - 6
1957 Mickey Mantle
TMC - 7
1963 Roger Maris

TMC - 8
1974 Thurman Munson

Back of TMC - 8
(code blurred on purpose)

TMC - 9
1985 Mike Schmidt

TMC - 10
1970 Carl Yastrzemski

UPDATE: It is now fall (October almost November). I haven't gotten my cards because I don't have a credit card. I tried sending a message via the website, but it never goes through I always get an error while trying to send message asking about other forms of payments. This really sucks if I can't get the cards that I have unlocked because I don't have a valid credit card to pay for the frickin' postage.

1971 Topps Inserts: Pin-Ups

1971 TOPPS Insert Game Mini Poster Pin-Ups

In 1971 Topps produced a Football Card Game similar to their Baseball Card Game from 1968. In addition to the cards (set of 52 cards) they produced a set of 32 Mini Poster Pin-Ups that had the game board on the back for the card game. The Pin-Ups were folded up in the packages with the cards, they are the size of 4 cards put together.

 

 A special "field Postion" marker card was an extra card for the set. Apparently you were supposed to cut it in half using one half to mark the ball on the field and the other half for the first down marker.

I'm pretty sure I had a few of the pinups back in the day, and a few of the cards, but I don't know where my original ones went. The ones I have now have come mostly from Ebay purchases, some of the cards have come from trades.

 Pin-UP # 1 Gene Washington - 49ers

#8 Roman Gabriel - Rams

#10 Bart Starr - Packers

 

 #17 Sonny Jurgensen - Redskins

 #32 Larry Brown - Redskins

Stancraft Playing Cards NFL Teams (Circa 1967)

  

One of my pet projects is to get the full set of these sweet 1960s/70s cards. At the time the NFL just had 16 teams. The AFL was a different entity so those teams are not part of this set.

 A little back history on them. In 1965 Photographer and Artist David Boss made a series of paintings that would become the first set of NFL team posters. These paintings were then put on the game programs the following season, and either then or in the next year (1967) put on playing cards.

The blog The Fleer Sticker Project has most if not all of the pictures of these paintings. He has a link to a Dallas Cowboys collector who pointed him out to these card decks. I've known about these decks since around the time they came out as my brother had (and probably still does have) a deck of the Washington Redskins. We played with that deck about as much as we did with all the other playing card decks we had in our house which meant we wore them out.

In recent years I have gotten the Los Angeles Rams deck. Still sealed but without a box. I am on the hunt for a deck with the box.

More recently I got the Green Bay Packers deck from Ebay complete with box.

 There are two types of Jokers that were produced. Now according to Mr. Cowboy they are different because one is the Poker Sized Version and the other Bridge sized He calls "Nu-Vue Style" (I think "Nu-Vue" actually referrers to the plastic coating or possibly the manufacturer). However his explanation doesn't quite work because His "Poker" style image clearly says "Bridge" on the Ace of Spades card he shows. The joker from that style is what my Rams deck is, I don't know about the Ace of Spades because my deck is sealed and only the Joker is showing in the back. My Packers deck which I got open with the box and both jokers has the style of Ace of Spade and Joker he calls "Nu-Vue Style". Now both of my decks are the same size card. The box for the Packers deck says "Bridge Size" on the bottom side. So both of my decks are Bridge sized. Until I get a Poker sized deck I won't be sure they had that size. If they do then my quest is doubled.

 I think it is more likely that this Joker:

Is the original version and decks that come in boxes should have that style joker and the similar Ace of Spades. The other Aces are regular styled playing cards.

While this Joker:

Is either a later version, or the version for decks sold just in the plastic shrink wrap. These decks would have been displayed in a special display box or bin about 50 or so decks in the display depending on the size of the display box.

It is interesting to note that for the box, at least in the case of my Packers Deck, the card design on the box is an actual card glued to the box (The 9 of Diamonds for my box). I'm trying to remember if my brother's deck was the same way. I think his had been bought with the box, and it might have been the same kind of deal (pardon the pun).

So I am on the hunt for the other 14 teams boxed (and a Rams deck in box). My requirements are they must be a full deck complete with both jokers and the box. I prefer the cool Joker version like I have with the Packers deck. I might consider some decks without a box (which will probably have the boring joker) but they must be complete and with both jokers. To fill in the gaps I might get some of those "single" cards that pop up every once in a while on Ebay just to have one of each kind of back. That will not complete the quest for 16 full decks though.

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Colts

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers (Box)
Los Angeles Rams (Sealed "loose" pack)

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

St. Louis Cardinals

Washington Redskins

Teams in RED I need. Have teams in BOLD w/Box or Sealed "loose" Pack.

Deck Collection 2/16 Complete.

1970 Topps Super Trio

It's been quite a while since I've added a post here, as a result I may have lost some followers. Not to worry those who are truly interested will follow and eventually find me I guess. Anyway back in January of this year (2010) I had gotten some cards from Ebay for nice prices. I don't recall exactly but I know they were no more than $10 a piece, I think they were $5 each give or take a few dollars. One of them I think was a few dollars more than the other two because of a second bidder, or higher starting price. To be specific I got Three Topps 1970 Super Football Cards:

06 Sonny Jurgensen Redskins
07 Deacon Jones Rams
16 Roy Jefferson Steelers

All three cards are in very nice shape. I recall back in the day I had the Jurgensen and maybe the Jones, but due to poor storage by a younger kid me they were in terrible shape. I don't recall what happened to them. I thought I had a few cards from this set still left, but didn't find them. Oh well.

The backs of these over sized cards are the same style as the regular issued cards. These cards are on a very sturdy cardboard stock so they are more than just regular "Tall Boys" which have been made in other years.

06 Sonny Jurgensen Redskins

07 Deacon Jones Rams

16 Roy Jefferson Steelers

  
There are 35 cards in this subset and I just have these three as of now. I would like to get the others, and as usual for a cheap price, free or by trade.