365 DAYS OF RED SOX DAY 41 - KENNER SLU 1988-2001 VARIOUS YEARS

[oiccup41]

I don't recall where I saw the Pee Wee version for the first time, but I instantly needed to have the Garvey card. It may have been in one of those early mail order catalogs I used to get a hold of from time to time (Renata Galasso, TCMA, Pacific Trading Cards). I thought that "cartoon" drawing and the design, somewhat similar to the 75 Topps was just the coolest look ever. Problem was, this was before the internet and even before very many shops, at least those known to a pre-teen who relied on his parents for transportation and of course, at their convenience (If a shop was on the way to somewhere we were going, we MIGHT stop. Forget it if we needed to go out of the way!). The first shows I ever attended were after I got back into the hobby after a bit of time off while I was on active duty in the Navy. I am pretty sure that I didn't finally get my Garvey card until after the Navy as well, once I discovered Ebay.

As with a lot of cooler stuff that was not necessarily rare, but less common, the supply seems to have dried up quite a bit. In the early days of eBay, I was older and had some disposable income so I was scoring a lot of great stuff that I'd never find locally. The Pee Wee's come up a fair amount, but the prints show up less and the packaged prints even less than singles. Sounds like you'll do an entry on the prints, but here is a sneak peek for those not familiar. I have the team set, All-Star set and even the photo that was used for the portrait drawing. All oversized, thus tucked away in a tote deep in my closet.

View attachment 83886

Like Jeff, I don't have immediate access to a lot of my stuff. Not because it is in remote storage or in a different location from me, but simply because I don't have the room in my home to freely get to all the boxes of crap I have saved over the years. I rely on old scans that I made when I had items out at some point, which pains me when I see threads like this where I know I may have something that would add to the value of the post, but can't find or get to it and I have no scans readily available.

The portraits have some variations as well. Here are the two Tiants that I have - one with a logo and one without.

I have not bought one yet but I keep seeing what appears to be a 3rd variation which has a black and white logo.

 

[mrmopar]

I would definitely ask the seller first. Sometimes scans can appear very different than the item. That could just be a bad scan where the color is missing. I don't think I have seen any with team logos on them. Were they issued differently? Maybe it was Red Sox only?

 

[oiccup41]

That's exactly why I haven't bought the black and white logo one yet.

Looking at tradingcarddb there are some players that have up to four variations. Garvey doesn't show any variations.
https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Checklist.cfm/sid/81003?PageIndex=1

I'm sure when [MENTION=2322]jeffv96masters[/MENTION] gets to the portraits he will know exactly how many variations and I will have my Tiant answer.

 

[mrmopar]

There are so many issues over the years and depending on what you collect, a lot passed you by without notice. I like oddball stuff, but still can't possibly track it all down. That said, a thread like this is nice to gain knowledge on certain issues when we crown source info. I hope that we are not ruining Jeff's thing here, but I came across this scan when I was doing a little organizing yesterday. I have been grabbing scan of neat stuff for years and have rarely taken the time to rename them so I can find them easier. That is yet another project I am wanting to dig into. Lots of neat stuff to share. Anyway, I don't even see young on the list from the site you linked. Goes to show how much info is missing on the average sets...Apparently these were given out at a game. Not sure where, but assume someone in the Milwaukee area.

 

[mrmopar]

Here is a few more neat items...an unopened pack I also grabbed a scan of at some point...Could be a single print, not sure. A special Ryan and a shot of Linnett himself.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

DAY 27- Early 1990'S PRO MINT Gold Cards

Today's discussion will center specifically on the PRO MINT 22KT GOLD RED SOX CARDS - in this case my Roger Clemens 1994 Pro Mint Red Sox item. I do know they produced many years - however I located the 1994 Clemens Red Sox so 1994 it is.

Let me start off the rest of this by saying below is fact- trace this info yourself and come to your own conclusions. I state my own opinions. And my opinions may be worthless to some and valuable to others. So take it with a grain of salt.

In the early 1990's outside producers of stamps, coins, etc were trying to tap into the now lucrative baseball card market ( one that was by then fully saturated and overproduced by Topps) by coming up with unique items that could attract the non-collectors to buy their products. Two producers come to mind immediately during that period and one is Highland Mint, a well know stamp and coin purveyor , and the other a smaller company that called themselves PRO MINT ( except that is not its real name).

PRO MINT however was not the company's real name- it was a product name. During that time period mail order was king still. Catalogs abounded and even though it was early 1990's many people still did not own PC's. Even those who did owned clunky, slow, dial up style systems. I know it wasn't until 1995 or so when DSL came around my system started moving quick. So the catalog crowd still was able to co-exist. This was a factor this company counted on.

PRO MINT started a series of sets around gold plated items like Nolan Ryan, Babe Ruth Ruth and other stars of the day like Ken Griffey Jr, culminating in one called the "1994 Baseball Diamond Edition" similar to the Highland Mint cards. They intended to attract people who knew of these mega stars but may not collect baseball cards and instead opt for "gold" items. Lots of people collect coins, gold, jewelry etc. This was well thought out ahead of time in the marketing. Be as generic as possible yet show enough to attract interest. An age old catalog trick. Nice pictures- below average products.

It was interesting material in the first read over- yet when I traced info on the company back then to see if I wanted to order - did not like what I saw. A phone call (or five back then) and what a maze it became. Warning bells went off big time .

The product is supposed to be a 22 kt gold / white gold mix. I'll touch on why that isn't possible to be cheap later on.

Below is an original order form for one of the products- a standard mail order promotional pitch. Lots of fluff- little of cold hard fact. Here as you can plainly see they are claiming " the card is the first 22kt gold on 14kt White Gold card". Which if true would be ultra expensive- even then. Go into the album to see full sized if needed. Read the description in the ad. A business could get away with a generalized statement- who had time to check a company's business info back then ?? Very few knew how or had the means.

Problem # 1 I had originally- I collected coins as well as cards at that time. Gold is a very soft metal- very malleable. Its the reason why jewelry can be made out of it. Its also very pliable and easy to form. No one can create that type of card cheaply if true. So I knew it would have to be "plate" at best. More likely leaf. So I dig further

Checked into the address listed on that order form above ( Preferred Direct, 2200 W 66th St, Ste 224, Richfield, MN 55423) and that's the below locale and has been for years. While its updated its signage to be with the times, its the same business it was in the 1990's. Its called "mail pickup" or "portable post office box" in credit terms.

Problem # 2 - I don't like "mail pickups"- as a credit person this generally tells me someone trying to hide something. After all most businesses use the USPS. The ones worried about being charged with mail fraud avoid USPS mail boxes. Or the ones trying to hide who they are and where they really are doing business.


The address listed on company letterhead touting the "Diamond Edition Gold series" cards was on the letterhead ( see below ) and was 9555 James Ave Ste 245- a warehouse locale that rents space out . Checked further into the product- not real 22k gold or white gold =but imitation leaf. Its where you can mix certain metals and get what looks like real gold but isn't. Worthless- looks great, not worth diddly.

And notice that paperwork- who in their right mind sends a letter with "Preferred Customer Service" as the header?? Why not the company name ( i.e. Pro Mint?? or Preferred Direct ??) And why is said "President" Duane Heydon so difficult to find?? You'd think he'd be able to be found. Seems nowhere else but the letters of "authenticity." He's not on the business info when checked back then, nor was he ever listed on anything that meant anything to the general public. Why? I'll let teh reader draw their own conclusion. I know why.

Boy what a doozy the guy(s) who ran this company were. Let's start now with public face Steve Klimek- the "program director" . Supposedly a noted "sports authority" . Lots of bombast- no hard facts. Generalized statements as in "been in the hobby for X number of years ( yet no one knew him all that time somehow in Minneapolis despite numerous major dealers there).


So I avoided buying those PRO MINT items and just kept to myself my thoughts on the company. Let others buy from them like other places like "Merrick Mint" etc.

But lo and behold- they pop up again closer to home- this time in Lakewood NJ of all places.
I get an email from a guy who knew me well enough to know I'd appreciate the info

https://www.collectorsalliance.com/aboutus.asp


Same guy- how amazing a coincidence. FYI these guys all are considered the Don Wests of coins. Sad to say but that Lakewood NJ warehouse went in foreclosure.
How do people successful enough to be on TV get their business foreclosed ?? Huh ??

It all traced back to a direct media company called Novus Marketing. Strange how a company that started as mail order changed to a direct marketing arm. Want even more of a concern- look up who is associated with the above company. I'll stop now suffice to say this hobby is full of people who do not pass my smell test and who I personally choose to avoid.

I eventually did get these PRO MINT items below sent to me by someone who picked them up in a dollar bin
I'd say they are now priced at what they always should have been priced at.
Sadly many people paid the $49.95 back then.

 

[mrmopar]

Boy, it seemed everyone was pumping out metal cards in the early-mid 90s or porcelain or wood....I picked up a few that caught my eye, but never direct from anyone selling them first hand. I'd say most of my hobby purchased have been secondary market. There was a lot of variety to choose from and that was right in the early stages of my return to the hobby after a 5 year absence. I'm surprised I didn't go more crazy with my buying. Thankfully, I didn't.

I don't recall how I got this one, may have been in eBay impulse buy, but if I remember, this card is fairly thick and substantial. it's buried now, but I did have a scan of it. I have not come across another like it from Score or any other replica of a licensed card in this format. I don't know anything about it unfortunately. Maybe someone else does?

 

[finestkind]

Wow, great detective work on the Pro Mint cards. I'm glad my wife never saw those. She was always trying to get what she thought was a good thing like that for my collection.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

DAY 28 - 1990 TOPPS TV AND 1991 CRACKER JACK UPDATE

Today's subjects will cover the 1990 TOPPS TV RED SOX and a follow up to a prior 1991 Cracker Jack post

The 1990 Topps TV sets were available via a special TV offer. There were five different teams sets made the Cardinals, Cubs, Mets, Red Sox and Yankees. The five team sets were only marketed in that teams general areas, while the 6th set , the "All-Stars set" , was marketed nationwide. I've seen bloggers call these the " 1990 Premier Collectors Edition" which is because of the box. I prefer calling them something close to that but Topps tended to call any first edition that nomenclature so I'll use the TV set as my name for my records.

I can tell you the above info has been printed forever. This does an injustice to what to me was a great 1990's set.

Anyways I remember these box sets going for either $49.95 for some crazy figure around that mark. I used to see them late night when the infomercials and HSN / QVC folks did their best business. I'll try and dig up my additional advertising on these. I know it was posted in a catalog but I can't remember the catalog. While they sold on TV I know they immediately started showing up at shows and in magazines for sale so distribution may have initially been on TV but that didn't last long. I know they were available on dealernet back then as well. If you have more info- post it I'd love love to hear it.

By the way I'm NOT saying they sold via HSN / QVC = I just said back then those other 2 outlets were hawking cards on late night TV similar to how these got sold. Back in 1990 QVC and HSN were selling cards online. Remember Crazy Don West ? "I'll sell you all these overproduced box sets- for just $99.95. You get all 10 of them for that price !! " Was a hoot then and still is. How did they have so many available and yet they were "limited' according to Don ?? Yes folks we do what we are paid to do.

Below is pics of all 6 boxes and the backs / sides of two Red Sox boxes

I have the raw Clemens you see here and I've had that graded BGS Gem since 2006.

And on another note my Etsy seller finally sent my unopened 1991 Cracker Jack purchase 3 weeks after purchase. I was happy to get them in . Plenty of players recognizable inside. Many of these unopened packs have multiple cards in them so could be hard to tell on some ,but I can see some commons and some star unopened packs here. While I have a loose card and a 4 in 1 as well I was missing an unopened pack which I just checked off my list of things I needed = 27 years later !!!

I saw Roger Clemens,Nolan Ryan, Kirby Puckett (x2), Cal Ripken Jr, Ken Griffey Jr (x2), Bo Jackson, Eric Davis, Rickey Henderson, Dave Parker, George Brett , Don Mattingly,Barry Bonds and a whole bunch of others ( oh yeah- Mark Grace ) as I went thru them. Some unopened pics below

 

[banjar]

This is an awesome thread. I'm really enjoying reading about all these old obscure issues. The Promint one was especially fun. I never bought any of that stuff being hustled on TV but I do remember it. There's a Promint Alomar card that I would like to add to my collection...but the only one I've seen in recent years was somewhere near the original price tag, like $45 or something. No thanks

 

[mrmopar]

I guess I was glad at the time that the Dodgers didn't get a TV set, as they were quite expensive for a really long time. It was not until just recently, this year in fact, that I added any to my collection. I was trying to get a couple players as cheaply as possible and stumbled upon some cheap sets. I think I ended up with all but one team (can't recall which now) for less than the original price of one back in the day. They are still nice cards to have and now that I was able to add nearly all of them at bargain prices, I wish there had been a Dodger set!

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

DAY 29 - 1977 BURGER CHEF FUNMEAL and loose discs

Today's post is about the 1977 BURGER CHEF RED SOX FUN MEAL DISC SET and meal packages.

Back in the late 60's and early 1970's Burger Chef - not Burger King - was the chief competition that McDonald's was worried about With nearly 75% of the restaurants that McDonald's had , Burger Chef was a huge burger chain slowly expanding across the continental US. They specialized buying and opening restaurants in small towns who needed a burger joint. While they were in 39 states its surprising how few people remember them back east . You'd have had to travel to many states to come across one and I believe the closest one to where I lived back east was in Pennsylvania.

They were quite unique in how they named their products. Their double burger was called a "Big Shef" and the quarter pounder a Super Shef. A little after 1972 they started opening the "Works Bar" where guests could put their own topping on their burgers ( who doesn't love that idea !)

Many people remember the restaurants two mascots = Burger Chef and his young sidekick Jeff = who always came into contact with these crazy characters who had names like Wolfburger, Count Fangburger and Mrs Fangburger, Burgerilla (a talking ape), Where Wolf, and Cackleburger the Witch. They were pasted on many of the promotional materials and usually were on the back of glasses, cups, and the trays covers. They always told a story that kids could follow

Anyways in 1977 two huge promotions came to my attention and they were the Funmeal Baseball set and the Star Wars promotions. Now folks this will sound weird but I never liked Star Wars ( still don't) so I avoided that promo but ate up the baseball funmeal promo's like crazy. I sometimes went twice a day every other day for a few weeks on end to get as many as I could. Finally after several months I became sick of their burgers and stopped going but not until I'd acquired several hundred of each type. Now over the years I've sold many unopened ones and popped off discs from various team sets until I might have two or three of each type left in storage

Below is the full FunMeal unopened RED SOX packages and the single discs popped out of some of the players.While I keep saying I divested myself of Yaz seems I have lots more of his stuff apparently to get rid of !! As you can see on the reverse of the discs the various characters of their Fun Meal stories appear.
What load of laughs they were back in the day.

Sadly they were sold by General Mills to a Canadian conglomerate who owned the Hardees restaurant chain most of these restaurants either got renamed or closed. I'd be surprised if any still exist at all.

Go into the album to see the Funmeal full sized of course. I have more spare loose ones didn't feel like scanning still a little weak from being sick the last month

 

[mrmopar]

Yet another food chain that I never got to experience in person. The trays seem to be dime a dozen after all these years, but this poster is a tough find. I saw someone selling paper "proofs", so this issue may have fallen victim to the dreaded scissors more than once. I was able to find a slightly tattered copy, but someday would like to upgrade to a nicer copy. Sadly for me, the Garvey disc is partially obscured by the other graphics on the poster. I suspect these were from restaurants and not available otherwise, given how few seem to pop up.

 

[Ct Sox Fan]

Learning so much about some of the odd ball sets thanks to this thread Jeff. I have a few of those Burger Chef discs, probably from you! Thanks for doing this. Great knowledge you are sharing!

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

DAY 30 - 1987 OPC SHEETS AND BOX BOTTOMS

Today's post is about the 1987 OPC BOX BOTTOMS and OPC SHEETS

First- an apology about slowing down on the writing. I've been sick recently and its shown in everything I usually do- sorry about this slowness. Hoping to catch up in the next week or so on the writing and personal stuff. Dropped 15 lbs in 2 weeks- not in a healthy way either. Have been very tired So I apologize to everyone involved I'll catch up this week to what I need to.

[MENTION=4047]mrmopar[/MENTION] and [MENTION=5090]oiccup41[/MENTION]- on the Linnett large sized - I'll refrain from comments until the post when I locate them. I do have info for you about the variations. Just for another day. And the poster with the Burger Chef items (NL) doesn't come up often - would love to add one if I ever see one. The poster on the 4192 website is only the 3rd poster of its type I've ever seen. All NL- none of the Triple Play I have seen have been AL.


In 1987 OPC put out numerous examples of cards and part of their promotional materials included sheets ( full sized 132 cards), partial sheets, and box bottoms. I enjoyed the box bottom items as they were a) different , b) separately numbered so a variation, and c) probably would be tossed by the average person.
I kept a bunch around and used to cut the box bottoms, sides etc off.. The OPC sheets did not get the same attention Topps sheets did. Generally lots of off center items on them and minimal promotion of the OPC product will do that. I'd suggest picking up a sheet if you able. They were put out on a display of 3 of them with a Topps Gum promotion. You'd be encourage to purchase the gum and candy and they'd send you the sheet set up for free. You could also send in money for the sheets . I'm still looking for my OPC ad materials sorry the post will need to be truncated about the sheets. Will update later on in another post when found

Go into the album to see the sheet below full sized. Standard 132 card sheet and I believe its sheet # 3 if I remember correctly the sheet order.

I saw this on an eBay auction- like usual after it closed sadly.

After seeing this auction I went looking for my partial sheet and found my Clemens version ( I have others with Red Sox somewhere)

I then wanted to locate my box bottoms- sadly I couldn't find any available but did find my scans of them
There were two versions of the 1987 OPC Box Bottoms

Box 1 - had cards A ( Don Baylor) B ( Steve Carlton) C ( Ron Cey) and D (Cecil Cooper)
Box 2 - had cards E ( Rickey Henderson) F (Jim Rice) G ( Don Sutton) and H ( Dave Winfield)

This close up shows the printed promotional

And pics below of the bottom of one

FYI - if anyone cares to pic up there is a seller on eBay who has lots of the OPC box bottoms available called " canadacollect".

OPC BOX BOTTOMS

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

DAY 31 - 1988 FANTASTIC SAM'S

Today's post will be about the 1988 FANTASTIC SAM'S RED SOX . I located my Boggs and some non Red Sox so will discuss this series

Fantastic Sam's as many know ( or may not if one isn't near you) is a hair salon that was started in 1974 by a guy named Sam Ross (see pic below). He had noticed barbershops had loyalty from regular customers and decided if the whole family could get it cut cheaply he'd get a whole market of people wanting his service. His first salon in Memphis TN was named " Incredible Sam's" . He began to branch out in 1976 and decided it would be easier to remember 'Fantastic Sam's" and his franchise career began with that decision. Each franchise was to be catering to kids and parents as a whole and he wanted impeccably clean places and friendly staff.

I have NO idea where the closest one was to me in the 1980's. NJ I would gander since they hadn't yet cracked New England until the 1990's.

Ad from 2008 that shows a man and woman-- strange as Fantastic Sam's was designed originally to cater to FAMILY cuts- where's the kids ???

Founder SAM ROSS at one of his original locales in Tennessee in the 1980's

In 1988 the chain decided to hold a sweepstakes contest where people could win time with a Major League ballplayer ( Sparky Anderson--Manager), an autographed ball, or a baseball cap. When people walked into the store they would be greeted during the promotion using various methods including a life sized cut out Sparky or various wall posters they could hang. Customers received an entry card that showed a ballplayer with a tab they could take off to enter the contest. People could also send in for a Fantastic Sam's wall commemorative poster as well. As with almost all 1980's promotions we see Michael Shecter Associates (MSA) was involved. Strangely folks when we say its a small world it really is-- Sam Ross died the same year / time frame as Sparky Anderson did ( 2010). What a coincidence !!



Below is my Boggs card with the entry form tab still attached along with a few others ( I own a bunch of whole sets)

Sometimes you will see a white square version sold ( BA Murry sells these under "BAMCARDS" on eBay)

Those square items are all cut off from the below poster that can be found regularly on eBay and elsewhere

Some of the wall mounted posters from the promotion are below

A full sized Sparky cutout was for sale a while ago. Need lots of space for this one !!

And for those who may remember the commercials- 1980's Sparky promo !!

SPARKY AD

 

[mrmopar]

Funny thought on the ad you posted with no kids included. I was in Orlando for Navy bootcamp and schooling from Nov 87-Mar 89 and we were told that Orange Blossom Trail was essentially OFF LIMITS to Navy personnel. Now, obviously they couldn't control personnel access to places off the bases, but if you just happened to be caught there or worse yet, got in trouble while at an establishment on the OBT, you were apparently going to be in deep doo doo!

I never paid close enough attention to realize Fantastic Sam's was a hair place. I guess I took the lazy route and assumed it was a food chain or maybe even an early name for Sam's Club Shopping Warehouses. With all of the similar discs in that time frame and no player to collect in any of those sets, I kind of tuned these out for the most part.

 

[mrmopar]

Double posted, but might as well use the space now for an added thought. Consider if they were strict and only handed out one disc per customer, per visit, imagine how hard these may be to collect in set form. Odds are folks would not be paying for a haircut every couple of days just to get a baseball card. It could take a year or more to get all of them, especially if you were not getting 3-4 or more cuts at a time as a family. However, most of these disc issues seem to be incredibly easy to find even after 30 years!

 

[finestkind]

There are three Sam's salons still in the Boston area. I've never heard of them. Something different a hair salon having a baseball card set.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

DAY 32- 1992 STARLINE PROTOYPE PLUS MORE

Today's post is about the 1992 STARLINE PROTOYPE PLUS MORE Red Sox items- in this case my 1992 Roger Clemens Red Sox items.

As many may know in the late 1980's a company called Starline created a series of promotional items out of Richmond Hill NY 11418. In reality this company was Canadian based out of Ontario, Canada and specialized in plastics and promotional items used from plastics and other materials. We all hopefully remember the late 1980's Starline Promos ( if you don't say so I'll do a post on them). These promo's were for various food companies and involved sports cards, posters, cups, bottles,etc. I even saw key rings and other plastics related Starline promotional items. A salesman would move around, depending on their areas, with a book of mini posters that showed the various promotional items being offered. Somewhere I have my mini-Red Sox Starline poster sheet. Anyways they used the order sheets and back ordered a set of items for people to use. Many were prototypes to show companies what an item would look like and just a few examples of them may exist. Some were mass produced with hundreds of thousands.

In 1992 several of the newest Starline items cropped up at the East Coat National I attended and I immediately snatched them up. One was a ticket style item that came with a matching hologram. The base items had the authentix "full tickets" with the Silver Star Holograms had a print run of 175,000 total- rather small for those early 1990's days. The harder to locate Jumbo Prototypes were even more rare - as you can see from my Clemens below just 1,000 copies for all of America which was an unheard of low production run in those days. Many of them also included an Ad card promoting the item- the ad card was mass produced and several tens of thousands are floating around.

They made several other players during 1991/92 including Nolan Ryan, Will Clark, Darryl Strawberry, and David Justice to name a few ( can show pics if you care. The Clemens ticket, ad, promo card and Prototype shown below are all from 1992. You'll see they are called " Field of Vision". This was the promotions name.




I've had the below ad slabbed for years haven't gotten around to the holo card or the jumbo yet. Big pics as always available in the album itself

The authentix ticket and actual card are below

And lastly the Jumbo ProtoType limited in production to just 1,000 examples