Friday, January 31, 2020

COTW: 1961 Topps Moe Thacker

1961 Topps Moe Thacker
Let The Sunshine, Let The Sunshine in...
Don't let The Sun go down on me.

This month's quick and dirty Card of The Whenever is a card I have had for a long time and an upgrade that I have also had for sometime just not as long. I don't remember when or where I got the first poor one, nor am I even sure of where I got the upgrade. Probably from Sportlots maybe from Ebay. I forget and obviously also forget for how much.

Anyway my original one  which the more I think about it I might have gotten from a repack box of some kind or not. So the card in question 1961 Topps Baseball 12 Moe Thacker Chicago Cubs:


No the colors from my scanner were not off and no your monitor colors are not off. This card is extremely sun faded on the front. There is the slightest bit of red in the Cubs "C" on the cap and where his name should be there is the very slightest indication that some printing was once there. So the fading rules out it being an ink test variant. There is also a roundish shaped bump or crease at the top as if a quarter might have spent some time putting pressure on the card. Hmm that reminds me of the gumball/card vending machine(s) they used to have many years ago at my LCS (House of Cards). They used to put common vintage cards in those machines and that is where I would often get some of my first late 1950s and early 1960s vintage cards. For a quarter (I think they also had a 50 cent machine) you would get a gumball and a card. Usually they were vintage baseball cards, but I think on occasion the cards in the machine were also non-sport cards or football. But I digress, majorly.

Here is the back of the sun faded copy of this card: Yes it is off centered/miscut toward the top edge.


I forget how long I had the faded copy before I got around to getting the upgrade:

and its back:

Finally a side by side image of the fronts just for the fun of it.


I probably should have reversed them putting the faded copy on the left and the replacement upgrade on the right. Oh well guess I was speed photo editing again.

3 comments:

  1. what a difference! Those 61s haunt me forever. I had 3/4s towards a set with Mantle but sold it back in 2000/01. Somewhere in there. They were in great condition. No creasing. A few soft corners here and there. What a dummy I was. I went 11 years without collecting, thought I was done...and here I am.

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  2. Wow, that's some card! And what I wouldn't give to have seen those vending machines, especially if they were spitting out vintage non-sports.

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  3. A. I've been wanting one of those card vending machines ever since I returned to the hobby.
    B. It's crazy how much the sun can affect the colors on vintage cards. You can hardly see Moe's name... and the green has turned to blue.

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