A little help from Bell Brand/Morrell collectors?

MorrellMan

I am building a '62 Bell Brand set on the registry. My '60 and '61 sets are complete and raw. Has anybody had any experience with Bell Brand cards sticking to the plastic when mounted in 9 pocket sheets?

rjd

Haven't had the problem with Bells, HUGE problem with Morrells (I have 9 early 1960's with glossy completey stuck to plastic, bought on a whim on ebay a while ago). Bob

MorrellMan

rjd - are the Morrell's that stuck the '60 or the '61? The gloss process in '60 was different than '59 or '61.

Either way, I keep all my raw Morrells in archival mylar sleeves that I got from Bill Goodwin about 20 years ago. I'm told the material is similar to the mylar inserts that PSA uses.

rjd

all 9 are from 1960, very stuck to 9 card sheet (pacific trading cards Inc). Beauties, except for the small problem. Thanks, Bob

rjd

Are the Morrell surfaces as sensitive as the Bells? If you look funny at the Bell Brands, they scratch, get dinged, etc. PSA is quite strict on the surfaces, I have had meany beauties dinged because of the surface, most people don't adequately describe them. I hope the Morrells are more forgiving. Bob

rjd

PS: I have had some dialog recently about Bell Brand Lakers!! I have never seen, heard of them (exc. one comment on the Bell set board w ahile ago), etc., and I was a huge fan in LA at the time. I think it's BS, as do other registry members. I have asked for a scan of one, but I'm not holding my breath. Any thoughts?? Bob

Stone193

Hi Mark
Most people, I have read, that have condition sensitive surface cards are putting them in penny sleeves before putting them in the pockets. Other than that, probably the next safest would be to have them holdered.
Suggestion, Roop seems to have done a lot of work in archival safe products - why not give them a call?
Plus, a binder with the name of the product on it would look really cool.

your friend
Mike

MorrellMan

Bob,

I loved Bells when they came out; my first batch were '59 Bell Brand Rams. I didn't much care for the yellow bordered '60 Rams, but that didn't matter because the Dodger cards came out that year too. No, I've never heard of Bell Brand Lakers, never saw one either.

I suspected your damaged Morrells were '60s. Here's a scan of the 3 years of Morrells:

1959 - Note that the Mirro-Krome process is copyrighted by H.S. Crocker in Los Angeles and carries the union bug in the lower right corner:


1960 - Look to the lower right corner again, and you'll see "JAPAN":


1961 - Although the Mirro-Krome copyright isn't shown, the union bug is back in the lower right corner:


I think the assumption is that Morrell contracted the finishing process to Japan for 1960, wasn't happy with the results and contracted the finish locally again for 1961. I guess it's possible that during those 2 years, H.S. Crocker lost its copyrights to the finish process and that's why the copyrighted name Mirro-Krome doesn't appear.

In any event, the crummier finish appears to be the 1960s and that seems to be the issue that is most prone to "migration" to the plastic sheets.

In terms of your other question, the "pitting" of Bell Brands doesn't seem to be an issue with Morrells, but the finish is very easily scratched or smudged.

Mike - thanks for the tip - Bell Brands and, for that matter, Morrells have a particular finish that I think is a wee bit different from anything else that's out there, and certainly much different from the glossy finishes of today. I'm just very schiz-y about putting that surface up against anything for a long period of time.

NickM

I second rjd's problem. My '60 Morrell Koufax is the same way.

Nick