1978-79 Royal Crown Cola Basketball Cards
Kid4hof03
Posts: 1,828 ✭✭✭✭✭
I've always loved the oddball, regional, tough to find issues, when it comes to basketball in the 70's there are not a lot of options, but this set is probably my favorite. They seem to be harder and harder to find, last year at the National there were only two dealers that had any at all.
The set was supposedly issued in the Southern New England area and intended to have one card placed in each 6 pack of soda. Personally, I'm not sure they were ever used that way simply because I've never found any that were damaged the way I would expect. What's interesting about the set is that there are two variations, using the same player photo and info but completely different size and function. The smaller version is 3x6 with an open tab at the top, presumably to go on the neck of a bottle. On the back is a place to send the card with $6.99 to RC and receive a basketball. The second variation is 2 1/4x 9 1/2. Same photo, but the back is blank and the basketball information is beneath the player photo. According to an old Beckett Annual the shorter version is more common but that has not been my experience at all. PSA has graded a grand total of 34 of these, 6 being of the longer version.
There are 41 cards in the checklist, many of which I've never seen and it is unknown if every player exists in both variations. I have a pretty decent collection of these but have no players in both variations yet. As is the case in almost every set from the 70's, Pete Maravich is the most expensive and sought after card in the set. Last interesting note is that the next year, 1979-80 RC did a set of cans using the same photos but much more player information. Both the cards and cans were MSA products.
Below are the pictures from all that I currently have, would love to hear from others if you have experience with the set or know anyone that does. And on the off chance that anyone has any that I am missing I'd be glad to take them off your hands!
Comments
Would love to have at least one, preferably a player I semi-collected, but have never seen them for sale at anything but premium prices. I too love oddball, but these are too steep for my taste. Good luck with it.
Pretty cool looking set. Love the regional sets that can be found. Thanks for posting.
I like the set.
Very cool looking set, I love the design, and you can't go wrong with rarity.
Thanks for posting. I recalled having 2 in an old box of memorabilia and found them. I picked them up years ago in the Midwest, but don't recall the specifics. Can you submit these as regular submissions to PSA?
Those are great! Thanks for sharing.
Wonder if they experimented with these cards/distribution right after using baseball player images on cans for the previous two years?
Love things like this; thanks for sharing.
IMF
Interested in selling the Dr. J?