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60's Topps FB - the really tough ones

The recent post by John Basilone on the 65's and the Charley Smith card, I thought were wonderful. Very insightful info and tips on the set. It set me to thinking about FB from that time. I have collected enough of it to know that there are some painful cards there as well. Same company, same equipment, it would make sense. So, I did a pop report study of regualr issue 60's Topps FB in PSA 8 or better.
I know that some of these do not have the submission volume of BB and that is part of the issue with the low pop but not necessarily all the story. Low submission cards could also mean that the cards are so o/c or m/c that they may just not be worth submitting. Time will tell.
I was amazed to find that as of 12/29/03 pop report there are still a handful of pop ZERO cards. I have listed the total submissions for the card () as a reference. The pop zeroes are:
1968 #140 Jerry Smith (1), 1968 #176 Don Trull (2), 1968 #27 Carroll Dale (4), 1964 #147 Bob Mischak (4), 1963 #122 Ed Brown (4), 1965 Dick Westmoreland (7), 1963 #61 Bill Wade (9), 1965 #45 Odell Barry (11), and the grand champion.................. 1966 #132 Checklist (28).
Observations on these are that the 1964 set has many cards that are very undersubmitted with many at four or less total submissions. Most of the 68 set has a reasonable number of submissions except for the three pop zeroes and two pop ones (#135 Tucker Fredrickson 1 of 4 and #210 Maxie Baughan 1 of 2). Pop twos are quite common place in the 60's and I quite listing them after awhile. The 1960, 61 and 69 have all cards at pop three or higher.
There are also a total of 21 cards that are currently pop one in PSA 8 or better. Ten of these are from 1964 and seem to be due to a very low submission rate (five or less). Two mentioned earlier were from 1968. The 1962 set has only one card of pop one which is #131 Preston Carpenter (and only two pop twos which are Joe Perry (12) and #112 Jim Patton (11)). 1963 has #132 Tom Bettis (5), #168 Claude Crabb (7), #23 Bob Gain (10), and #145 49'ers team (12). The 1967 set has two #131 Speedy Duncan (4) and #85 Norm Evans(7). The 1966 set has only one pop one which is #131 Ernie Wright (9).
The remaining eight are all tall boys with a reasonable number of submissions. They are # Ron Burton (11), #25 Al Bemiller (11), #132 Dalva Allen (11), #6 Jim Colclough (12), #83 Jim Norton (12), #64 Jerry Sturm (14), #2 Houston Antwine (15), #3 Niclk Bouniconti (24).
Clearly, buying these cards pre-slabbed is quite a challenge in many cases and makes these sets very trying on the nerves. One other interesting note is that the numbers 131 and 132 show up on the list several times. I do not know if these sheets were laid out numerically the same from year to year but I will put some effort into finding out. If you are looking through 60's FB commons, you may want to keep these in mind and if your waiting to buy these on eBay, get a beer ....... it may be a while.
Fuzz
Wanted: Bell Brands FB and BB, Chiefs regionals especially those ugly milk cards, Coke caps, Topps and Fleer inserts and test issues from the 60's. 1981 FB Rack pack w/ Jan Stenerud on top.

Comments

  • TipemTipem Posts: 881




    Fuzz,


    Good Post!!

    I was the reason the John created that post and it is great to see you follow up with another in the nature of the last.There is a wealth of collective information among the collectors of this board and I hope others are willing to share what they have learned over the years about their area of interest. I think that the sharing of this information might inspire others to pursue sets that they might have only wondered about. I am certainly learning quite a bit about many sets.Can you give some thoughts about pricing(% of SMR that major star cards and commons will and/or have been going for).

    Thanks,
    Vic
    Please be kind to me. Even though I'm now a former postal employee, I'm still capable of snapping at any time.
  • FUZZ great post as always you hit the nail on the head with the 68,s I have sorted though more then my share working on my 68 set. most cards in my set came from personal grades and i can say i have only seen a couple Jerry Smith cards centered good enough for a eight of course rest of card was not to up to par.I have a 9oc in my set great corners 7 on centering.Ive busted a good amount of wax and the oc cards are 9 to 1.Now as for the 66 checklist #132 forget it talk about centering issues this card is the king but if anyone can uncover 1 im sure it will be you Dave. Thats why we all fear the FUZZ!!!!!. my new years goal this year is to join the ranks of the fuzzman ,maybe i can call myself the FUZZSKINS image happy new years everyone!!!!!
  • MantlefanMantlefan Posts: 1,079 ✭✭
    Nice post Fuzz. When I first started collecting 1960 Topps FB and 1964 Philly FB, there were quite a few cards with zero or one PSA 8 example. As I and my fellow collectors [Stonegate, Davallilo etc] began submitting raw cards to complete our sets, those numbers went up. In fact, the only PSA 10 Topps FB card [Bob Gain] came from a wax pack that Stonegate opened!

    image
    Frank

    Always looking for 1957 Topps BB in PSA 9!
  • wolfbearwolfbear Posts: 2,759 ✭✭✭

    Fuzz - great post.
    Of course, Philadelphia Gum and Fleer are nearly as important as Topps for 1960's football,
    and the PSA populations of high grade cards for those sets is also quite low.

    Having spent years scouring eBay for certain cards,
    plus card shows, including two full days at this past National,
    I've come to the conclusion that some of these cards simply do not exist in PSA 8 type condition.

    That, or the nice ones are being held by people that have no interest in having them graded OR selling them. image

    Pix of 'My Kids'

    "How about a little fire Scarecrow ?"
  • DavalilloDavalillo Posts: 1,846 ✭✭
    Fuzz,

    Time will tell. My own opinion is that submissions will increase significantly and so will pops in 8 across the board.

    I recently submitted most cards from 63 Topps, 64 Topps, 66 Topps and 67 Topps from what I considered to be nrmt-mt ingraded sets. Will be interesting to see where these come out.

    Jim
  • theBobstheBobs Posts: 1,136 ✭✭
    Dav --

    I'd love to see those invoices if you wouldn't mind sharing...

    Where have you gone Dave Vargha
    CU turns its lonely eyes to you
    What's the you say, Mrs Robinson
    Vargha bucks have left and gone away?

    hey hey hey
    hey hey hey
  • DavalilloDavalillo Posts: 1,846 ✭✭
    TheBobs,

    Of course. I just submitted 1000 cards of which exactly 500 were vintage football. Just remind me in late January if you would.

    Jim
  • I think that Jim and Frank make excellent points. If one is patient enough, the cards that you are looking for will appear. I think that there is a lot of late ‘60’s football cards out there. I know that Larry Fritsch still has a lot of vending from ‘68 up. While I realize that these cards are subject to production flaws, I would imagine that some of these tough cards will be found in high grade.

    Jim, I sent you an email a few days ago. Was wondering if you received it. Please let me know.

    Matt
  • Jim i to would love to see what you get on the 66 topps football i think i can say that fuzz,stonegate and myself have acounted for the lyons share of 66,s graded. The last couple cards in that set are murder.The 132 checklist as fuzz pointed out is as tough as any 60,s card ive seen. And i think all three of the above names would agree that we thought our overall grades would be higher 66,s are very tough the woodgrains and tv format are just as hard as the 62 black borders.So please keep us football junkies posted.
  • DavalilloDavalillo Posts: 1,846 ✭✭
    Skinsfan,

    I looked at them quickly and maybe I will be unpleasantly surprised but the 66s and 67s I submitted I thought looked spectacular across the board. Will be glad to let you know but please remind me in late January.



    Ironranger,

    Just returned fromm vaca but I gave quick scan of e-mails and do not believe I saw it.

    Jim
  • Jim, I just received your email and sent a reply. For some reason, my email messages are not getting to you. Anyway, we have a deal, please send me an email letting me know where to send payment.

    I apologize for the off-topic post...
  • Thanks for the kind words guys.
    Jim,
    I am sure that you are right in that all these pops will go way up over time. But the idea of the post is the relative populations and whether they will stay the same. I think it has been well established that not all commons are created equal. This was a rough first pass at what might be "more equal" than others. Glad to have you join us on FB. I found in my own stuff that 66's were regularly 1 to 2 grades less than what I thought and the 67's were about right. Maybe you will have better results.
    Art,
    I have two very nicely centered #132's already so I know they exist. One is a 6 for corners and one is a 6mk. Pretty nice. I thought the one could 8 on a good day and the one tiny mark on the back is very small.
    Frank,
    Stonegate sent a few "fresh cards" my way over the last several years as well. It seems that currently "up" is not to high on the pops. Certainly they will go higher but I think a key will be knowing which cards are going to stay lower in pop. There seems to be a reason for these cards to be low pop but I think more work has to be put into it to better assess the ultimate outcome. Thanks for the photo.
    Vic,
    Thanks for the inspiration. Most of the stars from these years can often be had 20% to 50% below SMR with patience depending on the star. The pops for most stars are much higher than the current demand warrants. High pop commons are often minimum bid and can be up to 70% below SMR depending on the sellers risk of a low starting bid. 20% below is usually adequate. On the higher pop stuff ---- Good God. 100's of percent SMR is not uncommon for the 1/1 PSA 9's or the low pop 8's. There are still many more people shopping for those than there are cards available at this point. They will certainly come down but probably not anytime soon.
    Fuzz
    PS. Wolfbear -- I get the hint. I will try to sit down in the next few days and take a look at the Philly and the Fleer. SOme of those have been driving me nuts too.
    Wanted: Bell Brands FB and BB, Chiefs regionals especially those ugly milk cards, Coke caps, Topps and Fleer inserts and test issues from the 60's. 1981 FB Rack pack w/ Jan Stenerud on top.
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