Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
  eNews Issue #97 (May 2012)         www.oldcardboard.com


Please Note: If images are not loading in this email, click here.

Welcome to Old Cardboard, the most complete reference resource for information about collecting vintage baseball cards and related memorabilia.  More information about this eNewsletter and its companion website and magazine are found at the bottom of this page.

Contents:
1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar
2. Featured Vintage Set: 1948 F273-19 Kellogg's PEP Celebrities
3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website
4. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings)


1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar

The following is a summary of vintage card events coming up in the next 30-45 days. For the most current listings on additional vintage card shows and auctions, see the Key Events Calendar on the Old Cardboard website.


OC eNewsletter Sponsor

May 2012

24Phone/Internet Mile High Auction (see website for details).
24Phone/Internet Sterling Sports Auctions (see website for details).
30Phone/Internet Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
30-31Phone/Internet Legendary Auctions (see website for details).
31Phone/Internet Schulte Auctions (see website for details).
31Internet Sirius Sportscards (see website for details).

June 2012

7Phone/Internet Huggins & Scott Auctions (see website for details).
8Phone/Internet PWCC (see website for details).
8-10King of Prussia, PA Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show (see website for details).
15Phone/Internet Leland's Catalog Auction (see website for details).
16San Leandro, CA San Francisco Bay Area Show (see web page for details)
28Phone/Internet Sterling Sports Auctions (see website for details).


2. Featured Vintage Set: 1948 Kellogg's PEP Celebrities

With only five baseball players represented, the 1948 Kellogg's PEP Celebrities set has flown largely "under the radar" for many vintage baseball card collectors. The cards are listed as set F273-19 in the American Card Catalog.

Cavarretta

Grove

Tresh

Trout

Wakefield
In addition to the five baseball players, the set contains a dozen athletes from other sports. The balance of the 42-card set is focused on movie and radio stars of the period. Examples of both a non-baseball subject (George McAfee; football) and a non-sports subject (actor Humphrey Bogart) are also shown.


George McAfee

Humphrey Bogart
Kellogg's distributed the cards (one in each box of cereal) to help stimulate sales of its PEP-brand. Each card measures nominally 1-3/8 by 1-5/8 inchs and is produced on glossy photographic stock with a white border. The five baseball player poses are mostly "head shots" taken in uniform. There is no labeling on the card fronts and the set is unnumbered.

Printed on the back of each card is the first and last name of the subject at the top followed by a brief career bio. Across the bottom is a two-line ad reading "Get Complete Series with Kellogg's PEP."

The cards are not of high value, with the baseball players typically selling in the $20 range in "average" condition. They are difficult to find in high grade due to often poor centering and the crease-prone photographic stock used in their production. Key to the set is the card of basketball Hall of Famer George Mikan, which along with 1948 cards from other sets, are considered Mikan's rookie cards.


Kellogg's PEP Celebrities Promotional Poster

As part of its promotion, Kellogg's also supplied grocers with poster (or countertop) displays, as shown in the example at right, as well as a premium album. Although scarce, both can sometimes be found at auctions (the display poster shown is now available in the Legendary auction ending later this month). The display poster measures 16 by 20 inches and features a sampling of card images from the set.

The album was offered as a premium with instructions for ordering it on the PEP cereal boxes. The album measures 5 by 7-1/2 inches. Curiously, it contains slots for storing up to 66 cards. An image of the album front cover is also featured in lower right corner of the poster.

On the back cover of the album, Kellogg's refers to the set as the "First Series" and lists only 24 of the 42 subjects in the set. Because of this and slight differences in the design of the card backs, it is evident that the 42-card set was produced in two stages. While very subtle, these design differences are most apparent in the Kellogg's ad at the bottom of the card backs. Of the baseball players, it appears that Oral Grove and Mike Tresh were included in the "first series" and that Trout, Cavaretta and Wakefield were produced later.

A Player Checklist and Card Gallery of the five baseball players in the Kelloggs PEP Cereal set have been added to the Old Cardboard website. The gallery includes images of each of the card backs.



OC eNewsletter Sponsor

3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website

We are continually expanding the Old Cardboard website with more set profiles, checklists and card galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include:

Set Checklists have been added for:
1938   R326   Goudey Big League Baseball Movies
1948   F273-19   Kelloggs PEP Celebrities

Set Galleries have been added for:
1938   R326   Goudey Big League Baseball Movies
1948   F273-19   Kelloggs PEP Celebrities

Updating the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage sets is an ongoing project, so check back often to check out the latest additions. There are now many thousands of card images on the website and the list continues to grow. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, card images, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all input to editor@oldcardboard.com.

In addition to these additions to the Old Cardboard website, we continue to expand and refine our eBay Custom Search Links to make finding vintage baseball cards on eBay easier than ever. The results of these searches are continuously changing, so check back often to find the most recent listings.


4. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings)

Goudey Big League Movies Wrapper Identified. While the existance of the wrapper for Goudey's 1938 R326 "Big League Baseball Movies" has been known for some time, it was only recently linked directly to the 1938 R326 Goudey Big League Baseball Movies series. According to Dan McKee, who recently discovered the wrapper with two 1938 flip movies still inside, "Some collectors thought it contained the Knot Hole Gang generic cards that look like inserts. I always thought the wrapper was used with the original 1st run of the 1938 Goudey 'Heads Up' cards since the wrapper was similar in design with the 1938 Goudey 'Heads Up' wrapper with the figures surrounding it."   "Well, I was close," McKee now admits, but his new discovery clearly links the wrapper to the 1938 Big League Baseball Movies series. The Wrappers Gallery on the Old Cardboard website has been updated to properly identify the wrapper as used in the R326 Big League Movie set. We have also recently added a Checklist and Gallery for the R236 flip movie set.


Lyman and Brett Hardeman
Old Cardboard, LLC.

Old Cardboard, LLC. was established in December 2003, to help bring information on vintage baseball card collecting to the hobbyist.  Produced by collectors for collectors, this comprehensive resource consists of three components: (1) Old Cardboard Magazine, (2) a companion website at www.oldcardboard.com and (3) this eNewsletter. The Old Cardboard website contains more than 500 pages of descriptive reference information for baseball card sets produced fifty years ago or longer.  Each of these set summaries has a direct set-specific link to auctions and a similar link to 's powerful search engine for further research.  The website also includes a Show and Auction Calendar, an eBay Top 50 Vintage Sellers List, and much more.  As a result, the Old Cardboard website makes a great "Alt-tab" companion for vintage card shoppers and researchers.  Old Cardboard eNews provides current hobby news, upcoming shows and auctions, and updates to the website and the magazine.  It is published around the middle of each month.  For a FREE subscription to the eNewsletter, or for subscription information on Old Cardboard Magazine, please visit the website at www.oldcardboard.com.  If you find this information resource helpful, please tell your friends.  We need your support and your feedback. Thank you.