Buying back a piece of my childhood memory! 1963 Stancraft NFL cards
jaderock
Posts: 185 ✭✭
Back in 1978 as a 10 year, I started my interest in sportcards. I saved up my allowance and bought mainly cello packs of Topps Football from 1978 to 1980. I found a 1963 Stancraft Dual Set of NFL Playing cards amongst the Naval books that my mother kept of my dad (who passed away in 1972) - the box surprizingly survived a 1973 house fire that made us homeless for a while. There were two decks - Red and Green - a total of 108 cards. [Here's what the set looks like Click Here! (Note: There are three pages, so take a look...many Hall of Famers!) This would be the only sports related item that was "passed on" to me from my dad.
Anyway, I treated all my cards the same way back then except for my favorite card, a 1978 Steve DeBerg RC, which was playing knock down with them at school. I was enjoyed the Stancraft cards as I would pit them against each other in "match ups"! At one point I had amassed a shoebox full of cards until an event happened in 1981 which ended my collecting for many years. What was that horrific event?!?
Well...I used to feed and play with alley cats back when I was a kid...One cat was so comfortable with us that I had him stay over one night. I had done it in the past and never had a problem, but this time, the cat had to do his business and went in my shoebox. Needless to say, nothing in the box survived and I gave up "collecting" until my freshman year in college.
I forgot about the playing cards for many years! In fact, I never knew what they were called until two year ago when I saw a photo of the set in the 22nd Beckett Football Annual Price Guide. I occasionally searched for them on ebay, but they were always sold as individual cards with the average common price being $5-7 plus $3 s/h. Darn it, the 2 sets would cost me over $1,000 if I had to piece it together and that was not even considering the stars nor the condition of the cards which are most often listed as EXMT!
Luckily for me, I found a Complete set with the cards still in it’s original wrapper and plastic box. The cards are “brand new” even though it’s 45 years old! Needless to say, I won’t be playing with these cards any time soon. It was a joy to pick up something that meant a lot to me in my childhood.
Here’s a scan of the two decks (individual scans of cards can be seen at the link provided above). Cards measure 2 ¼” x 3 ½”! Some of the stars in the set include Paul Hourning, Johnny Unitas, Mike Ditka and Jim Thorpe and George Halas.
Thanks for reading and keep on jadeROCKing! Anyone else with similar stories, please share…Thanks
Anyway, I treated all my cards the same way back then except for my favorite card, a 1978 Steve DeBerg RC, which was playing knock down with them at school. I was enjoyed the Stancraft cards as I would pit them against each other in "match ups"! At one point I had amassed a shoebox full of cards until an event happened in 1981 which ended my collecting for many years. What was that horrific event?!?
Well...I used to feed and play with alley cats back when I was a kid...One cat was so comfortable with us that I had him stay over one night. I had done it in the past and never had a problem, but this time, the cat had to do his business and went in my shoebox. Needless to say, nothing in the box survived and I gave up "collecting" until my freshman year in college.
I forgot about the playing cards for many years! In fact, I never knew what they were called until two year ago when I saw a photo of the set in the 22nd Beckett Football Annual Price Guide. I occasionally searched for them on ebay, but they were always sold as individual cards with the average common price being $5-7 plus $3 s/h. Darn it, the 2 sets would cost me over $1,000 if I had to piece it together and that was not even considering the stars nor the condition of the cards which are most often listed as EXMT!
Luckily for me, I found a Complete set with the cards still in it’s original wrapper and plastic box. The cards are “brand new” even though it’s 45 years old! Needless to say, I won’t be playing with these cards any time soon. It was a joy to pick up something that meant a lot to me in my childhood.
Here’s a scan of the two decks (individual scans of cards can be seen at the link provided above). Cards measure 2 ¼” x 3 ½”! Some of the stars in the set include Paul Hourning, Johnny Unitas, Mike Ditka and Jim Thorpe and George Halas.
Thanks for reading and keep on jadeROCKing! Anyone else with similar stories, please share…Thanks
0
Comments
Paul
hard to remember that when the furry guys are
whizzing on my cards.