Card of the Day: Graeme Bond 1980 Scanlens Rugby League Football #13

Product Highlight: 1963 Scanlens VFL

Have you ever heard of Scanlens?  No.  Then you haven’t been keeping up with your Victorian Football League (VFL) vintage card knowledge.  Scanlens was an Australian company that began to insert trading cards within their candy and chewing gum packs in the 1930s.  They produced their first VFL set in 1963.  This set consists of only (18) cards, and is the Holy Grail to VFL collectors.  Several other manufacturers of VFL cards popped up, but Scanlens vintage cards are by far the most popular.

The 1963 Scanlens VFL set contains the following players:

• Ted Whitten #1
• Ron Evans #2
• Allen Aylett #3
• Ken Fraser #4
• Bob Skilton #5
• John Schultz #6
• Haydn Bunton #7
• Brendan Edwards #8
• Verdon Howell #9
• Neil Roberts #10
• Alex Epis #11
• Graham (Polly) Farmer #12
• Graham Arthur #13
• Len Fitzgerald #14
• Bill and Matt Goggin #15
• Ron Barassi #16
• Murray Weiderman #17
• Bob Johnston #18

The hardest card to find from this particular set is Graham (Polly) Farmer #12.  For some reason it just doesn’t surface that often.  Many collectors believe they were heavily damaged during the printing process, and got thrown out.  Another rumor suggests that a Scanlens employee stole stacks of Graham (Polly) Farmer cards, and stored them in a drawer at a railway station.

You can’t help but notice how the design looks very similar to 1959 Topps Football.

In 1963 Scanlens issued three sets – VFL, NRL, and a soccer set.  Each set contains (18) cards.