Bazooka cut outs from the 60's

akuracy503

I am fascinated by these things.

How rare? I can't really tell from the pop reports but they seem pretty darn scarce compared to the regular Topps issues from the same year.

Can anyone elaborate on the history, rarity or uniqueness of these bazooka cut outs and panels?

Are they so difficult that the interest/demand is just not there?

Smuggo

I have collected the singles for years. With the exception of the '59 SPs they are not horribly hard to find. I think their size, blank backs and small player selection make them pretty much a niche collectible. Very popular with player collectors (Mantle, Clemente, etc.). I prefer to buy the singles and most of your larger auctions usually have sets/panels for sale. Be wary of 1963 singles on ebay and almost anywhere else as there remains a large amount of fakes in the marketplace.

judgebuck

The 1959 Mantle is awesome; one of the best Mantles of all time. The 59s are larger than the other Bazookas. In fact, you will occasionally see a complete box. Someone on this board had a picture of the 59 Mantle still on the complete box.

MBMiller25

Big Fan of the bazooka cards. Unfortunately Stan Musial only has one bazooka card, a 63 Bazooka. I have actually found these relatively hard to find.

kingbeeswax

This link has pics of front and back of '59 Mantle box.. link for Mantle auction

smtjoy

Love the bazooka cards and Clemente has a bunch-

tyweb1

I have this Mantle


Santo 61

Santo 62

Santo Panel 62

Smuggo

Scott,
Nice cards! Left one out. And a Santo that someone wrote on.

judgebuck

All the Clementes are great. And, I consider the 1959 Mantle on the box on of the best Mantle collectibles of all. And, the 1969 Bazookas are very attractive.

Smuggo

Agreed, I have been building a '59 set for about 7 years, about 60% there. Don't want to buy one already done, rather break the rocks along the way. The '59 Bazooka Mantle is by far my favorite of the Mantle cards on the box or off. Thankfully it is also about the easiest '59 to find sans a few of the regular print commons. Imagine the price if it were a SP.

TheDudeAbides

The Clemente's and Santo's are awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Smuggo

<< <i>This link has pics of front and back of '59 Mantle box.. link for Mantle auction >>



Thanks for the link, what a beauty. Would bring multiples of that price now I believe.

akuracy503

Smuggo,

Quick question for you, the Clemente SGC you posted seems to have been cut beyond the perforation/dotted line.
PSA wont give a number grade for anything cut beyond the dotted line, they will just slab it "Authentic"

The big question.... will SGC grade it with a number? Thanks for sharing.

Smuggo

<< <i>Smuggo,

Quick question for you, the Clemente SGC you posted seems to have been cut beyond the perforation/dotted line.
PSA wont give a number grade for anything cut beyond the dotted line, they will just slab it "Authentic"

The big question.... will SGC grade it with a number? Thanks for sharing. >>



I wish I could answer that with any degree of certainty. I think that they are generally all over the board. In my experience if you have at least three sides you may be ok.

judgebuck

I agree that the 59 Bazooka Mantle on the box would bring much more thatn the $2,800 it brought then. Also, when I said that the 1969 Bazookas also looked great, I meant the 1968 Bazookas. The thin shape was radically different than anything Bazooka had done before.

Smuggo

<< <i>I agree that the 59 Bazooka Mantle on the box would bring much more thatn the $2,800 it brought then. Also, when I said that the 1969 Bazookas also looked great, I meant the 1968 Bazookas. The thin shape was radically different than anything Bazooka had done before. >>



I am with you there. The '59 and the '68 are my favorite two Bazooka sets. I do not agree with the assignng of numbers grades to the '68s that are cut all the way to the black line however.
Which of these cards should be gradeable?

judgebuck

Surely the Marichal received some grade.???

akuracy503

Some slick looking Bazooka cards here...

The thing about these damn cards is that you can't just go out and buy the ones you want!!! There just not available on the market!
If they do show up on the major auction houses they sell in lots of sets.

OAKESY25

the flood and marichal will both grade.. flood will grade higher then marichal... looks like some paper loss

Smuggo

Yeah they will both grade. Nevermind the paperloss, I guess the point I was trying to make is that I think that all of these '68s that are out there trimmed down to the black line should be getting an "A" at best bc the cards were made with a white border around them. I think they look awlful trimmed all the way to the black. They should look like this at a minimum to grade numerically IMO.

akuracy503

Oaksey...whats the lowest you're willing to take on that PSA 10 Koufax? I'm assuming that is you?

Smuggo

<< <i>Some slick looking Bazooka cards here...

The thing about these damn cards is that you can't just go out and buy the ones you want!!! There just not available on the market!
If they do show up on the major auction houses they sell in lots of sets. >>



Be patient, the panels and sets are slowing being sliced and diced for individual grading IMO.

hammered

Smuggo
Is that your Seaver 68?
If so, did it grade low due to the cut, ie lower left corner?
If so, perhaps crack it out and re-cut it closer, see if it gets a better grade?

FYI about three years ago I bought some '66 Bazooka panels (complete set) from PreWarCardcollector for around $1200, and took them to a lithograph company to have them professionally cut.
Got a 10 on the Mantle and 9s on most of the others. But the Rose was an 8 because I think they cut it funny and a little too wide on one side. So I cracked it and had them cut it closer. I sent it in again and it got a 9.

But the 68 Bazookas are my favorites. I like the design and real tough to find.

Smuggo

Yeah it's mine but I'm happy with it the way it is. Of course the way these are graded it has plenty of room for trimming doesn't it?

Smuggo

<< <i>Smuggo,

Quick question for you, the Clemente SGC you posted seems to have been cut beyond the perforation/dotted line.
PSA wont give a number grade for anything cut beyond the dotted line, they will just slab it "Authentic"

The big question.... will SGC grade it with a number? Thanks for sharing. >>



I checked some of my Bazookas to see if I could find a trend with SGC. If you take a look at these two, the one on the left has 2 sides showing the dotted lines and got an "A." The one on the right has 3 and got a numerical grade.

akuracy503

Smuggo, PM sent.

Good detective work, i'm trying to determine the same with PSA grading standards on these Bazookas.
So far i'm detecting that PSA does not allow any border trimmed beyond the line

Smuggo

<< <i>Smuggo, PM sent.

Good detective work, i'm trying to determine the same with PSA grading standards on these Bazookas.
So far i'm detecting that PSA does not allow any border trimmed beyond the line >>



Not sure about that, see PM.

heritage

Awesome guys, i just love the Bazooka cards!

heritage

Do we still have members collecting the bazooka cards or boxs?

judgebuck

I would still love to have the Mantle on the box. I know that it is terribly expensive. I'm sure no one here has one for sale. ???

Big80s

<< <i> Be wary of 1963 singles on ebay and almost anywhere else as there remains a large amount of fakes in the marketplace. >>



Can you elaborate on this? I just subbed two to PSA and had them rejected as counterfeit. How can you tell?

Thanks.

JustinsShoebox

I love sharing this card, it's one of my favorites and part of my Mathews Master set:



Edit: Would also like to add that I'm in the market for a high grade (8 or better) 1961 BAZOOKA PANEL HAND CUT DONOVAN/MATHEWS/LEMON if anyone has.

Justin

smtjoy

Thats a sweet 61 Bazooka Mathews, thats a tough year to find that nice!!! Congrats!

BGSXYMARK

Holy cow, great Bazooka panels and cards. This is my personal favorite. Mark

JustinsShoebox

Thanks Scott!

Cool Rose panel Mark!

Justin

JoeBanzai

I have been collecting Killebrew for 20 years now and have found these by far the toughest to find of the well known issues.

Here's my latest pick up.



The Bazookas are a real challenge!

Joe

judgebuck

1968 Bazooka Mantle in PSA 8 went off tonight for $1192. I was second bidder, and hated to lose it. Was the price low? According to VCP, the same card went for approx. $2200+ in 2007 or 2008. But, the economy is different now. What do you guys think of the $1192 sale price?

Smuggo

Here's another '59 Bazooka SP that I have picked up since this thread was started.
Not so nice but you gotta take the SPs where you can find them and hope to upgrade:

TonyC

<< <i>

<< <i> Be wary of 1963 singles on ebay and almost anywhere else as there remains a large amount of fakes in the marketplace. >>



Can you elaborate on this? I just subbed two to PSA and had them rejected as counterfeit. How can you tell?

Thanks. >>



This Net54 post explains

Basically, the easiest way to tell is that the 1963 fakes have the dashes at all four corners come to a perfect "L," where on the originals at most only two corners can come to an L.

Smuggo

Also some of the fake '63s have a grayish bakground as opposed to the more common brownish ones ones.
Some of the fakes also have a very glossy almost like photo finish feel to them and you can peel the top layer (photo) off of them.