Frankly Friday: 1970 Mini Posters

1970 Wall Decorations

During the 1960s and 1970s Topps seemed to love oddball inserts much like they love to overdo today. One of those inserts for 1970 was a 24 set of "mini" posters that measure 8-11/16" x 9-5/8" and were inserted in the regular wax packs. Since they are just thin newsprint thickness paper and folded to fit the packs they tend to tear at the folds. So far I am fortunate in the two I have with little or no rips, my standard two Washington Franks, Howard and Robinson which are featured in this post. Mr. Robinson of course represents the Orioles. It seems the only other Senators past, present or future in this 24 "poster" set were Denny McLain (Tigers), and Don Mincher (Pilots).

I seem to recall as a kid my brother had a copy of the Frank Howard poster pinned to the bedroom wall of our childhood home. At the time we were sharing the bedroom that I would eventually be the sole occupant of when my brother decided to move to the basement . I have no idea where that copy of the poster went. Anyway here are images of the posters for the two Flagship Franks of this post series.

1970 Topps Baseball Mini Pin-Up Poster Insert

22 Frank Howard Senators

(Front and back)

1970 Topps Baseball Mini Pin-Up Poster Insert

12 Frank Robinson Orioles

(Front and Back)

These mini posters are just a  fraction too large for my scanner to capture the complete width of them. This image of the Frank Robinson poster I moved over slightly so that the copyright line can be seen on the right side, the Frank Howard poster has that info under the "card" number on the lower left side.

Washington Franks mentioned this post:

Frank Howard

Frank Robinson

Other SeNators mentioned in this post:
Denny McLain
Don Mincher

Frankly Friday: Playing Around In 1968

TOPPS PLAYING AROUND IN 1968

In 1968 Topps included as an insert a 33 card set of mini-sized cards with rounded corners that resemble standard playing cards more than baseball trading cards. These game cards had a standard back that is reminiscent of the 1951 Topps Red Backs and Blue Backs :

1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert Back of Card

The fronts had a headshot image of an All-Star or big named current player with a facsimile signature and a play result such as "Home Run" "Pop Out" on the top and bottom. The bottom play result was upside down so you could read the card from either orientation. Also on the bottom is the card number that says "No. X in a series of 33". The cards were included in the regular 1968 Topps Baseball cards issue and apparently were also available as a full set (If purchased through Topps I guess). 

Not sure if they ever had some sort of rules card or guide book to tell kids how to play the dang game. Place shuffled deck of cards face down and draw top card follow play instructions. I guess you would draw cards until you got 3 outs then the next player would draw cards. After going through the deck reshuffle and play again? In 1971 Topps came up with a Football game that was similar that was played in conjunction with some mini posters that had a football gridiron field on the back with rules. On my regular card blog CaptKirk42s Trading Cards Blog I have mentioned both and have a want list for each. For the baseball game I only need 10 more cards. I have duplicates of some of the cards from both sets.

Anyway Both Frank Howard and Frank Robinson were included in the set.

 1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 21 Frank Howard Senators

1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 7 Frank Robinson Orioles

Senators mentioned in this post:

Frank Howard

Frank Robinson

Frankly Friday: Double Deckled

For this episode we will study two very similar cards I got from a dealer on Ebay on a fairly recent Frank Howard buying binge. I paid a bit more for one over the other partly because the seller thought it was some kind of proof or error card, but it was actually a typical case of Topps vs. O Pee Chee. Lets go back to 1969 the summer of love... of baseball cards.

Both Topps and OPC in 1969 had an odd ball insert. It might be called many things but officially they are called "Deckle Edge" cards. The Topps version is closer to the standard 2.5" x 3.5" card size than the OPC both cards are smaller than standard size. Looking at them side by side at first glance they appear to be the same. Both are black and white photos with facsimile autographs and a crazy wavy edge style. The deckle edge is an old style that is used for stationary paper and was a common style for photographs back in the early 20th century for photo albums. Anyway the larger Topps card has a light blue facsimile autograph to simulate a ball point pen signature where the OPC card has a bold black facsimile autograph to simulate a felt-tipped magic marker now "sharpie" style pen. The backs are also different. The Topps card at the bottom has the player's name in bold blue print and is numbered of  "33 photos" the number of cards in the sub-set in a rectangular lined box with the typical bare minimum Topps late sixties copyright identification info. The 24 card OPC set has completely blank backs and are not officially numbered. Common numbering for the OPC cards is standard alphabetical by player name. This explains whey the seller thought it was a promo 'proof' or a misprint. That coupled with the different colored facsimile autograph on the front makes the uninformed think its something really special and rare. Before I had done a tiny bit of online research I wasn't sure what to think of it. Another slight difference is the style of the deckle edge the Topps is more rounded and regular almost smooth edge where the OPC is mostly straight and sharp. The picture is also cropped differently on the OPC card with the facsimile autograph higher on the numbers, but approximately in the same area and orientation on the card (and closer to/on the right edge of the photo).

Purchase details: Since the two cards were purchased from the same seller they were "combined" shipping of $5.90 (I seem to recall I had asked the seller for an adjusted invoice since they said they "combined" shipping, but I guess to them that means little to no discounting, like Ebay itself.)
The cost of the 1969 O-Pee-Chee Deckle Edge blank back ("#12") Frank Howard Senators - $9.99
The cost of the 1969 Topps Baseball Deckle Edge #16 Frank Howard Senators - $2.99

My OPC card is aged a bit more than my Topps. Don't know if this is due to the differences in the card stock or just in the differences in how they were stored/exposed over the years.

 1969 Topps Baseball Deck Edge Insert 16 Frank Howard Senators

(Front and Back)

1969 O Pee Chee Baseball Deckle Edge NNO (12) Frank Howard Senators

(Front and Back)

When I was a kid I had some of these deckle edge cards I'm not sure how many or who but over time they  all disappeared, or were destroyed by my careless younger self. I think I might have even tossed some way or cut them up even more. I recall in the basement of the house I grew up in we had an old singer sewing machine built into a sewing stand. In one of the drawers my mom kept a pair of sewing shears (scissors) that had a wavy ruffled edge that to my child mind made perforation edges, which I used to mispronounce and misspell as something like "perferation". I'm sure many of these cards and maybe a few others I trimmed a bit with those scissors to make the perforation more uniform.

1970 Senators Headshot Portraits

On Thursday 27 December 2012 I got some vintage stuff (and some of it looks it) from Ebay for $7.99 + $4.15 shipping. I bid on the lot mostly for the Senators pictures (4.25x7) that look like they came from a magazine? yearbook maybe? Very yellowed and all have pushpin or staple holes. they are from 1970 (since there is Aurelio Rodriguez and it looks like he was only a Senator in 1970).

I don't know much about them other than what I have said they are on the standard wood pulp paper that was used for newspapers and some magazines back in the day. Their edges are a clean straight cut so I don't think they were cut out by hand.

Their blank backs suggest either they were in some sort of album together or were team issued as promotional portrait photos. From the marks/stains on the Aurelio Rodriguez and Dick Bosman backs (shown respectively) it appears that these things had either been stored for a long time in a stack of various papers and cardboard, or on a bulletin board, or in a scrapbook maybe?

Back of Aurelio Rodriguez photo

Back of Dick Bosman Photo

 

Dick Bosman RHP #27

Ed Brinkman Shortstop #11

Paul Casanova Catcher #8

Joe Coleman RHP #20

Mike Epstein Firstbase #6

Frank Howard Outfield/Firstbase #33

(main reason I picked up this lot)

Aurelio Rodriguez Thirdbase #2

Ed Stroud Outfield #36

The wavy lines on the photos is not the photos themselves it was my scanner on an off day.

The lot also included some Non-Senators cards/memorabilia four 1970 Topps Scratch Offs inserts, three of which were unscratched one had one box scratched off. None of them have the scorecard on the back marked up. There were also Two (well 1.5 really) 1970 Topps Story Booklets Inserts one of them only has the cover page sheet (front and back covers inside and out) it is missing the inside page which is pages 3-6.

Senators Mentioned in this post:
Dick Bosman
Ed Brinkman
Paul Casanova
Joe Coleman
Mike Epstein
Frank Howard
Aurelio Rodriguez
Ed Stroud