Card of the Day: Elmer Vasko 1991-92 Ultimate Original Six #64

Six Hobby Haunting Graves

Looking for a good scare?  Or perhaps just some good old fashion cardboard history?  Then you’ve come to the right place.

This hobby has a long history.  It wouldn’t be around today if it weren’t for certain individuals.  The idea of pack-inserted cards had to come from somewhere.

Here are my top six hobby haunting grave sites.  I wonder if their tombs hold some undiscovered cardboard treasures?  Que evil laugh!

Jefferson Burdick – Hillside Memorial Cemetery and Park, Central Square, Oswego County, New York. – Created the American Card Catalog.  Assigned letters and numbers to the different card styles and became the default method for organizing pre-1951 sets.  His collection of over 306,000 cards is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

John Allen – Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia. – The first half of the Allen & Ginter name brand.  Allen & Ginter was a tobacco manufacturer and created some of the first tobacco cards designed to be collected.  Very colorful and eye appealing.  Subjects include sports figures, inventors, entertainers, and animals.

Lewis Ginter – Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia. – You can’t have John Allen without Lewis Ginter.  He is the second half of the Allen & Ginter brand.  Eventually Allen & Ginter would merge with four other tobacco manufacturers and be called the American Tobacco Company.

Sy Berger – Beth Moses Cemetery, West Babylon, Suffolk County, New York. – Longtime Topps employee for over 50 years.  Co-designer of the 1952 Topps Baseball set.  Father of the modern baseball card.

The Dukes – Duke University Chapel, Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. – Washington, James, and Benjamin Duke were tobacco titans atop the American Tobacco Company.  They are credited with the idea of inserting cardboard advertisements into product packaging featuring entertainers, politicians, and sports figures.

John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll – Kilmun Parish Church and Cemetery,
Kilmun, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. – In 1879 this man became the first individual to be featured on a pack-inserted tobacco card.  Only four copies of this card are known to exist.  The brand of tobacco it came in was called Marquis of Lorne named after a title he held.  Unfortunately the brand did not sell well.

(6) 2018 Baseball Treasure Coins Pack Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for six (6) sealed packs of 2018 Baseball Treasure Coins.  Inside each pack there is one (1) officially licensed MLB player coin.  Base set coins are made of .999 fine copper.  1:432 packs have a silver coin.  1:21,600 packs have a gold coin.  Thanks to Baseball Treasure for offering up these packs in celebration of Sports Card Info’s 11th anniversary.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, January 4, 2019 @ 8:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• U.S. residents only.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so Baseball Treasure can ship these packs for FREE!!!

My Top 6 New Year’s Themed Cards

Whenever a holiday rolls around, I like to see if there are any cards floating around The Hobby which contain the theme of that specific day.  I thought I might have a difficult time with New Year’s, but it wasn’t that hard.  Christmas by far is the holiday that has the most trading cards.  After digging around, I was able to come up with my Top 6 New Year’s Themed Cards.

#1 – 1941 War Gum #24: Gum, Inc created a ton of cards between 1938 and 1941 that dealt with WWII.  This one depicts the Luzon Repels New Year’s Push.

#2 – 1999 Upper Deck Encore 2K Countdown: These were randomly inserted into packs of ’99 UD Encore Baseball.  They fall 1:11 packs.  The word “countdown” has been used a lot with cards.

#3 – 1995 Skybox Impact Countdown: This is a 10-card set that features all horizontal cards.  They fall 1:30 packs.

#4 – 2002 Atomic Countdown to Stardom: The Atomic brand is no longer around, but Pacific did create some great looking inserts.  These fall about 1:11 packs.

#5 – 1997 Pacific Fireworks Die Cuts: What would New Year’s be without fireworks?  These condition sensitive die cuts look cool and fall 1:73 packs.

#6 – Dick Clark 1993 American Bandstand: It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without America’s oldest teenager.  This card comes from an American Bandstand set.

As you can see, there are a bunch of cards that you could say have a New Year’s theme.  I’m sure there are a ton more, especially from products such as “Turn Back the Clock”.  I could see Upper Deck including a piece of the ball that drops in New York City into their Piece of History product next year 🙂