Here are a few oddball items I like to collect that i think have a lot of upside...
olb31
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1) 1987 Topps UK Football - what's really unique is this is the last walter payton card and it's different from the regular 1987 topps card. most are the same. They are mini's. Obviously much harder to obtain and get 10's on.
2) 1987 Classic travel (Green) Backs - 50,000 were printed and most are very off-centered. Larkin, Bo, Bonds rookies along with a lot of star cards (mattingly, rose, mcgwire, canseco, schmidt and more). psa 10's bo has 14, mcgwire 30, jose 17, bonds 36. Real tough.
3) 1984 Topps NFL Stars - came only in rack packs. Marino, Dickerson, Taylor are the main three. Dickerson has 9 psa 10's and marino has 3. Only 31 psa 9's for marino. Prolly a lot better to have this one than the regular topps one.
Let me know some of the oddballs you think are good investments/collectible.
Comments
You are a great forum member, with some great content , but I think you have become to wrapped up in pop counts the least 3 or 4 years. At some point regardless of the reasons cards are who they are and no pop count will change that. The Topps Mantle Rookie will always dominate the Bowman, etc.
There are rare outliers like the Star Basketball cards but that shift started to happen when PSA decided to start grading them again.
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Well if the Bonds 1987 green back has a pop of 10,000 psa 10's, I wouldn't have mentioned it. It would be worthless. At 36, it's one of the hardest to find bonds psa 10'd in existence, same with the Bo card. Last bonds sold for $1,100. Much more than a topps, Fleer, Fleer glossy, DOnruss, etc.
There may be some people that are interested in the post and maybe there are none, who knows. Just sharing. Not everyone keeps up with as much stuff as someone else, but may find it interesting.
And the Marino as a 10 might be pretty darn expensive.
Well, oddball’s are pretty much where I live so I would say ‘earliest career item’ has become a bit of developing market that you can go also backwards with - and there are numerous items and examples of you do some research - and that you can have a lot of fun collecting.
For the current stars, some have a team issued card, a local advertising card or a Panini card that predates their Topps or Bowman. And that’s not exactly a new thing, either. Whether it’s the 1934 and 1935 ZeeNut’s of Joe DiMaggio, the Tip Top Berra rookie, the 1947 Bond Bread issues of Jackie Robinson, the Spic and Span Hank Aaron’s or the innumerable rookie picture/photo packs found in the 1950-60-70’s there’s an world of items that coincide with the arrival of a young star and often become more interesting as prices of other material soars (and maybe falls and rises a few more time while you own it but still often settles higher over time).
Case in point, I picked this up earlier this month - a classic oddball sticker - in part, at least, due to it being a ‘rookie’ and ‘earliest item’ of one of my favorite athletes of all time.
1979 7Up Sticker - Larry Bird
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest
Sweet. Huge Celtic fan and Bird and Hondo are my favorite players of all-time. Very sweet sticker. Can you tell us more about it?
My comment was just an observation, not meant as a slight, I am sorry that it offended you.
It was based off many of your posts about pop counts in other threads that didn't include the oddballs.
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I have always loved the 1987 Classic game and the travel editions. Loved them since 1987. I will say, that if I was going to collect a PSA graded set, this would be one of my top candidates.
I will have to say though that it's difficult to look at these based on PSA submission numbers only. If they were more valuable already, then there would be a lot more graded.
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Cakes - not offended, just pointing out my reasoning for the post. I understand that people collect/invest for varying reasons -- a lot of people may not agree with me, that's fine.
The green ones, for some reason, are off-centered badly.
Oh good. I totally get, and usually we agree but when it comes to Dave Roberts you are insane!
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
Not necessarily an investment but I like things like arcade games.
and vending machines.
PEP cereal Babe Ruth rings.
1934 Quaker Ruth premiums....
Tobacco store product adds....
1968 Baseball Marbles
So, the 7Up SuperStars Ad Campaign ran from 1979 into the early 1980’s (it’s hard to say when the last commercial/print ad ran in public). The roster of 7Up SuperStars, for the first three years at least, changes somewhat but the original lineup featured nine athletes from various walks of sport including baseball, basketball, football, hockey and tennis. For each athlete there is an individual poster you can find (pretty easily) and they appeared in the various ads (sometimes all together, sometimes solo, sometimes a pair) as they extolled the virtues of the refreshing un-cola and told the impressionable viewers at home that ”America’s Turning 7Up!”. Now, here’s the relevant bit for the sticker set: for whatever reason, the sales team at 7Up only made stickers out of six of the nine athletes from the campaign so there’s no Tony Dorsey, Dave Kingman or John McEnroe stickers and therefore the checklist is complete at six (6) total athletes. Lastly, as it relates to their manner of release, these stickers were included as a part of a sales kit issued exclusively to retailers and only in 1979 for the initial campaign and therefore are often pretty difficult to find.
1979 7Up SuperStars Stickers
Checklist
1 - Larry Bird (Boston Celtics)
2 - Earl Campbell (Houston Oilers)
3 - Pat Haden (Los Angeles Rams)
4 - Hollywood Henderson (Dallas Cowboys)
5 - Magic Johnson (Los Angeles Lakers)
6 - Don Maloney (New York Rangers)
@JBrules has a gorgeous Magic…
(I hope you don’t mind me sharing the image in this thread, @JBrules but Bird and Magic are linked!
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest
1953 -- nice write up. i had no idea these existed. i will be on the look out. thanks.
On the 87 UK set, they’re all different than the US set, in the sense that all the UK have a team logo on front. But if you meant that some of the cards have different photos than US version and some don’t, you’re correct. Thanks for listing those, it’s a great set!!
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps
love the uk set. love football cards.
I was not aware of that Marino card, great card!
Not much on ebay right now, but that's certainly a card I would invest in.
Appreciate the post!
I used to collect the 1984 Topps Tiffany cards, but that ship has sailed as far as pricing is concerned. I also like the 1993 Topps Stadium club first day production, however, those are getting pricey now too.
I have always been a fan of these “oddball” RCs of these two all-time greats…
Hi Mike, Glad to see you posting still. I’m not actively collecting but pop in from time to time. Hope all is well. Joe
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
the mcdonalds rice is awesome!
Hiya Joe. Yes, all is well. Hope same for you buddy. BTW, still collecting artwork?
Yes. It’s a never ending journey.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Incredible and glad you're still collecting.
Take care - always good to see you buddy. 👍
As I mentioned earlier, oddball rookies go back a long way and sometimes they’re a little harder to find. This rookie of one of the most popular baseball players of all time is a pretty tough get. While he’d be the ace of the staff one day, in his first few seasons he had the ‘bonus baby’ problem whereby he had to be rostered on the Major League team but would probably have been better off honing his skills in the minors. In his first few seasons, the team had an established championship caliber staff so he was used sparingly, mostly out of the bullpen and wasn’t particularly effective in those early days and, as such, was not usually included in the 12 player picture packs of the era. However, given there was a bit more pomp and circumstance surrounding a World Series, the packs issued during the Fall Classic featured a full roster: inside these is where you can find an oddball rookie of the left hand of God.
1955-57 Brooklyn Dodgers Picture Pack - World Series Edition - Sandy Koufax
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest
I absolutely love this set and think that Rice 10 is a phenomenal card. For me, its one of the more underrated and unnoticed sets for so many reasons. For one, I remember them and at that point in time it was all about seeing if you could get free fries or some other prize. Meaning many scratched off, all mine were, so a Gem Mint unscratched that did not have ketchup BBQ sauce or Honey Mustard on it felt challenging. Not like you could slap them in a sleeve or toploader right after you received them, like some cards. Kind of not at all cause they were so large. Then the photos were outstanding action shots at a time when Topps had some real bland photos of the more popular players. I have the Rice but unfortunately only an 8. I grabbed the Dickerson 10 on the cheap many many years ago and wish I would have added a lot more while they were relatively inexpensive. Love the idea that Randall Cunningham has a RC in that set a year before his Topps RC.
Just picked up a really nice 1972 John Unitas PSA 9 from BBCEmporium last night off ebay for $360. The price just blows my mind that perhaps the best non-rookie card in the set (maybe namath is #1) goes for such a low price. Let's say Pete Rose would be a comparable type player to Unitas for Football. The last 1972 Rose psa 9 sold for $1,450. Mays about $1,300, Nolan Ryan $4,000.
Just Crazy.
You make interesting cases for items such as these. I agree that low pop stuff that flew under the radar for decades can have upside. Shining the spotlight on them can certainly bring attention to them that collectors might not have otherwise even known about them.
nice thread bump!! I have always enjoyed the odd ball stuff. I have settled on more "mainstream" oddballs that are really parallels like OPC and Tiffany.
they may not be as popular, but I have always liked the "exclusivity" of those type of cards. I LOVE the options of 75 baseball. regular (boring) topps, mini and OPC. Man, dont I wish there would have been a tiffany set back then...
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.