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MorrellMan · February 28, 2004 1:58AM

I know I should just siddown and shuddup, but I thought I'd let y'all know I was listening in - these boards are fascinating; I think I have to check them every few minutes, I get this churned up feeling in my gut....

Thank you all for some incredible threads; I love cards and guitars, baseball and rock n roll, always have always will. I started collecting in 1958 when my big brother gave me a creased card of some guy named Koufax. I wasn't allowed to collect baseball (that's a long story) until 1960, so I bought 57, 58 & 59 football along with non-sports cards like Target Moon, Three Stooges & Zorro. In '60 I collected baseball and football and in '61 & '62, only baseball. I went on the road in 1976 with my wife and kid in an Alaskan King Camper - all I took with me were a couple of books, as much music as I could record on cassettes, and, of course, my precious baseball cards.

10 years later I started completing and upgrading my sets, adding new sets - I need a nice Clemente to finish 1955 and a nice Mantle to finish 1957, I'm 3/4s thru 1963 and 1966. Oh, I have my original '64 and '65 sets in beautiful shape; I was too old to play with them and too young to NOT buy them. I've also focused on food issues, rebuilding my Bell Brand sets and 59 Morrells. The one card I'm searching high and low for is a '59 Morrell Koufax in PSA 5 or better. As I mentioned in a different thread, I own every one I've ever seen, but they're dogs.

Nuff sed - glad to be here!

Mark

Stump · February 28, 2004 2:03AM

Welcome to the boards you sound like an all american. the only thing you lrft out was apple pie. Anyways welcome and enjoy.

Dave

murcerfan · February 28, 2004 2:04AM

Skycap · February 28, 2004 2:25AM

murcerfan,

Here in Boston I've never seen a Morrell card, graded or ungraded. Could you post a scan of both an SGC and GAI graded sample? (These came in hot dog packages in the West Coast, right?) Thanks,

Skycap

34GoudeyCollector · February 28, 2004 4:04AM

Here's a Morrell that closed out on EBay. Nice looking cards. How big is the 59 Set?

Morrell Link

Ken

Griffins · February 28, 2004 4:42AM

Mark-
Welcome to the boards. '59 Morrell's are really tough to come by- I've been looking for a decent set for years, and have only seen a few beat up examples.
Bell Brands (with the exception of '58's) seem a bit more prevalent. '58's might be a bit more available were it not for one guy hoarding them

All in all good choices-back when we had a real team here.

shouldabeena10 · February 28, 2004 5:32AM

Mark,

Welcome to the boards, sounds like you have a nice collection.

I too would be interested in trading minty 50's and 60's football doubles if you have a hankering too.

By the way that "churned up feeling in your gut" is caused by Murcerfan's old cheese icon. He had it on here way too long and it started to stink up the place. He's changed it now, so your gut should start feeling better soon.

Mike

CW · February 28, 2004 5:50AM

Welcome to the boards! I've always liked the color & clarity
on those Morrell cards -- the '60 Koufax is one of my favorites.
It's nice to see so many knowledgable, true collectors jumping
into these forums every day.

murcerfan · February 28, 2004 6:05AM

murcerfan · February 28, 2004 6:07AM

MorrellMan · February 28, 2004 8:34AM

Hey guys, thanks for the welcome - 34GoudeyCollector: the Morrell set is complete at 12 cards. MurcerFan: thnx for the posted pics and the offer - I gotta find a Koufax!!! Griffins: you are dead-on with the Bell Brands, the 58s are tough, as are the '59 Football. Just a guess here, but I think SoCal (the region where Bell Brands and Morrells were distributed) really became a sports town after the Dodgers took the Sox in the '59 series, which might explain why so many more 60s regionals survived compared to the 58s and 59s. There just wasn't the interest until the Dodgers were on top (actually, that's not so different from the way things are in LA today....) Stump & Shouldabeena10: thanks for the welcome and yeah, further down the line some football trades would be good! CW - you and ToppsGun (?) have the best icons on the planet.

Skycap · February 28, 2004 9:34AM

murcerfan,

Thanks for the scans.... and yes, a beer would be nice. Gotta Samuel Adams?

murcerfan · February 28, 2004 9:36AM

MorrellMan · February 28, 2004 10:40AM

that's interesting - when I first connected with the vast network of card collectors in 1984; one of the first things I was told was that the "mirro-chrome" finish of the Morrells was migratory; Bill Goodwin sold me some clear thin mylar sleeves that I've used exclusively for Morrells. Are you saying that all Morrells do not have the same migratory finish?

murcerfan · February 28, 2004 12:03PM

[

MorrellMan · February 28, 2004 12:34PM

LOL! But seriously, you described the deal in your earlier post - the "mirro-chrome" finish attaches (or migrates) to the PVC sleeves. I always called it migrating because, frankly, I don't get out much.

murcerfan · February 28, 2004 12:39PM

Skycap · February 28, 2004 1:23PM

murcerfan,

You said you "have the 60 and 61 sets complete and in SGC holders, well 4 star cards are in GAI 7 holders and they won't cross over to SGC nor PSA."

It seems you might have a good shot of having the best 1960 and 1961 Morrell Meats sets in the PSA Registry if you crossed everything over to PSA, even if some dropped a grade. The No. 1 guy in Morrell Meats in the PSA Registry has a grade of only 6.52 for 1960 and 6.33 for 1961.

Skycap

Griffins · February 28, 2004 1:59PM

<<Didn't Morrell out-source the printing to Japan or Taiwain one year and the gloss surfacer was sub-standard and broke down and adhered to pvc alblum pages? was that the '61's?... Anthony ?>>

Dave-
Seem to remember hearing something like that. There is a set of postcards (printed in Japan) that are the exact same shots as the Morrell's I believe, so it's probably those years.
BTW, Morrell Meats is the same company as Red Heart Dogfood. Doesn't instill a lot of consumer confidence, glad Farmer John was at Dodger Stadium by the time I was old enough to know what I was eating. Not that you should be thinking about the contents when you're eating any hot dog.
I've seen lots of 60's, less '61's, but only a handful of '59's. I think the photography is the best on the '60's.
On the Bell Brands the '60's are pretty muddy- the sky looks grey, and we all know its only blue skies here all the time. The '61's and '62's have much better color. '58's are just plain fugly.
Did Bell Brand make football cards the same years as baseball? Do the '58's look the same?

Edited to say-
Just looked at the registry and there is now a listing for '59 Dodger postcards, that share the same checklist as the '59 Morrells.

marty · February 28, 2004 2:14PM

The 1959 Bell Brand Rams look quite a bit like the 60's Dodgers. The 1960 Bell Brand Rams have yellow borders. These are the only two years.

Basilone · February 28, 2004 2:29PM

Welcome to the boards! Thanks for sharing your interests...I just learned a bit about a set just from this thread.

Hope to hear more.

John Basilone

NickM · February 29, 2004 2:38AM

'60 Morrell Meats finish will stick to album pages. I have a Koufax where it did just that.

Around the L.A. area, you will sometimes find dealers or show dealers with a Bell Brand or Morrell Meats card in their inventory that they picked up somewhere along the line while having no idea about the set. I've gotten lucky that way twice - once with a '61 Gilliam and once with a '59 Jon Arnett.

I agree that '58 Bell Brands are far tougher than the later years, but I also notice that '60 are significantly tougher than '61 or '62.

Nick

rickster · February 29, 2004 5:47AM

Every ’59 Morrell I have seen has been in pretty rough shape. Given the prior posts expressing several Board members’ interest, if a high quality Koufax ever shows up it should get a lot of attention.

For some reason, I have also had difficulty with '61 Morrells. While they can look nice from 6" away, they often have a rough, textured surface, resulting in a "5'" at best. Not sure what causes this. Maybe people forgot to remove them from the package before they cooked the hot dogs. (Yeah, I know, I know, these cards actually came in the luncheon meat packages).

And I totally disagree on negative comments directed at the '60 Bell Brand Dodgers. I think they have a classic look, similar to a '50's card. And my defending them has nothing to do with my registry position on them.

MorrellMan · February 29, 2004 7:09AM

great stuff - can anybody help me load some pics of '59 Morrells? My PC is running Windows XP, I've published the scans to the web (yahoo briefcase) and there they are. How do I get 'em up here?

murcerfan · February 29, 2004 7:45AM

MorrellMan · February 29, 2004 8:48AM

murcerfan, thnx for the help - I started a new thread with the pics

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