Flashback Product of the Week: 1955 Rawlings Musial

Rawlings is not the first company that comes to mind when you think of a card manufacturer.  With their headquarters located in St. Louis, it makes perfect sense that they would team-up with one of the best Cardinals players in history, Stan Musial.  This small, six-card set, was released in 1955 and actually made up the side panels of the box that contained a Rawlings glove.  In order to get the cards, you had no other option but to cut them out.  This is why most of the cards you’ll find aren’t in the best condition.  A lot of them look as if they’ve been to hell and back.  Depending on the condition, single cards go sell well into the hundreds if you find a good example.

When it comes to a product like this, trimming will always be a factor.  Collectors had to get these out themselves.  There was no way around it, not unless they kept the box intact.  Trying to figure out whether one of these cards was trimmed recently or fifty years ago is almost impossible.

Flashback Product of the Week: 1954-55 Baltimore Bullets Gunther Beer Basketball

Here is a nice little vintage set you don’t hear a lot about.  The Gunther Brewing Company released this 11-card basketball set based on the Balitmore Bullets during the 1954-55 season.  These cards are slightly larger than your standard sports card of today.  These measure 2 5/8″ x 3 5/8″.  Its very common to find them autographed.  I guess the parents would buy the beer and then give the cards to the kids to get signed.  This isn’t the first time Gunther Beer sponsored a card set.  They issued a set back in 1947 based on the Senators.

The Bullets are a defunct basketball team that was based out of Baltimore, MD.  They were around from 1944-1954.  The Bullets are the only defunct NBA team to have won a championship.

Condition is everything when it comes to these cards.

Card of the Day: “Corky” Valentine 1955 Topps #44

Card of the Day: 1955 Topps Rails & Sails Wedge Snow Plow #31

Flashback Product of the Week: 1955 Topps Rails & Sails

Trains, boats, and trading cards.  It doesn’t get much more American than that.  The artists at Topps really outdid themselves when it came time to create 1955 Rails & Sails.  This 200-card set covers all types of trains and boats.  The artwork is spectacular and extremely detailed.  The first 130 cards are of trains and the remaining 70 are of boats.  Just like the fronts, the backs are very well done and informative.

1955 Brooklyn Dodgers Card Subset to be Released on 55th Anniversary of Brooklyn’s only World Series Championship!

Artist Monty Sheldon has been creating Sheldon’s Sketch Card Champions during the past two years, and in addition to the 2010 regular set, he will be releasing a sub set that will acknowledge the 55^th anniversary of the World Series Championship achieved by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955.

Sheldon’s sketch cards are made available weekly through E-bay auctions, and starting with card no. 106 and continuing through card no. 112 he will be auctioning off a 55^th anniversary set of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, who won their only World Series Championship in an exciting 7-game series versus their World Series nemesis, the New York Yankees.

Sheldon will be providing a sketch card that will correspond with each game played of the 1955 World Series.  Included in the set will be Dodger team members  that played a pivotal role in each of the games and each card will be signed and finished 55 years to the exact day that World Series game was played, making this a true 55th anniversary set.

Included below is a player checklist and the auction end date for each card.  The scheduled eBay 7-day auctions will all take place at (10:55 PM eastern, 7:55 PM pacific) and you can find Sheldon’s auctions by clicking here.

• Tuesday, SEPT 28 (game 1) – Jackie Robinson & Carl Furillo (card #106) – auction ends 10/5
• Wednesday, SEPT 29 (game 2) – Pee Wee Reese (card #107) – auction ends 10/6
• Thursday, SEPT 30 (game 3) – Roy Campanella (card #108) – auction ends 10/7
• Friday, OCT 1 (game 4) – Clem Labine (card #109) – auction ends 10/8
• Saturday, OCT 2 (game 5) – Duke Snider (card #110) – auction ends 10/9
• Sunday, OCT 3 (game 6) – Jim Gilliam (card #111) – auction ends 10/10
• Monday, OCT 4 (game 7) – Gil Hodges, Sandy Amoros, Johnny Podres (card #112) – auction ends 10/11

I always like to showoff the Harry Kalas sketch card Monty made for me.  You won’t find anything else like it.

Card of the Day: Elston Howard 1955 Bowman #68

Card of the Day: Amos Alonzo Stagg 1955 Topps All-American #38

I just learned that Stagg was the coach at Susquehanna University from 1947-1952.  That school is right around the corner from me.

Card of the Day: “Doc” Blanchard 1955 Topps All-American #59

Card of the Day: Don Hutson 1955 Topps All-American #97