|
Thanks, fellas, for the info on this set. I'm still pretty much a novice concerning its history and distribution so it is much appreciated. In '74, I was in my last years as a mid-teen collecting cards (1975 Topps were the last packs I bought) but I have no recollection of the Laughlin sets (I grew up in LA). Were they only dist'd via mail-order? Did they come in clear cello packs or was there any designed wrapping associated with them? Does anybody own, or if not, has anyone seen "unopened" '74 or '78 Laughlins recently?
|
My guess would be mail order only sets.
|
3 Attachment(s)
Given the scarcity, yet affordability of these, and the number of RC's(especially in the '74s), I've had a lot of fun tracking down the Laughlin cards. I'm always excited as hell to find new ones...And I'll agree, the '78 seem WAY harder to find.. Just picked up these 3 '74s today...
|
All of Bob's independently sold (i.e., non-Fleer issued) sets were not sold in packages (OK, except maybe the 1980 Famous Feats set) but were sold as complete sets through Bob (mail order or at shows) or through a dealer he supplied with sets. He sold the sets for roughly $3 a set.
Bob did these as a labor of love, I think, and I doubt he ever made a ton of money on any of his independent sets. For most of his sets, he did a print run of 500 sets, which would allow him to recoup all of his costs for production. If he sold enough, he would do a second run (again of about 500) which would provide any profits from a set. As of 1976 (two years after the 74 set), the most sets he had ever produced of any of his sets was 1500. My guess is that 1500 number was for either his Great Feats set (from 72 with a great selection of popular players) or the Old Time Black Stars - those two seemed to be the most popular of his independent sets. The Long Ago set from '78 again seemed to be a lot less popular at the time, again I think because the player selection (and maybe the card design itself) was much less attractive. I would be very surprised if he did a second run of the 78 set, which is why I pegged the number of those sets at maybe 500. And since you guys are looking for the sets/cards to some extent, I am sure you would agree that the 78 set seems to come up even less often than a 1500 to 500 ratio would suggest. Bob may not have sold all that he printed of the 78 set, or maybe he eventually printed another run or two of the 74 sets (sometime after 1976). Hope this helps! If anybody ever runs into any Laughlin original art or Stand-ups, let me know! Would happily trade for what I need! Marty |
|
Variation?
Just picked-up another raw set of '74 Laughlins and noticed something I hadn't seen before on the back of Card #1 - Smoky Joe Williams: a Laughlin tag-line. Perhaps this is a set that was printed in a later run? Anyone else have this on the back of their #1 Williams?
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...illiams74b.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...lliams74b2.jpg |
Nice catch on the variation - I'll have to check my sets and see what I have. My guess would be that the 1974 tagline was the first printing, and the other would have been the second or third run. Bob did a similar thing with his 1967 WS set - the original print run has his address on the bottom of the back, while subsequent runs didn't. He talked about making subsequent runs obvious, but this is the first time I have seen that he may have done that with the 74 set.
|
I could only get my hands on two of my 74 sets, pretty sure I have one or two more (someplace!) - one had the Copyright line on the Williams card and one didn't. Not much help there. My set I picked up in probably 75 or so did not have it. The other set I got (from Bob's personal collection a few years back) did have the tag line. I know he was really proud of the set - I am guessing he kept a set from his first print run - so I will stick with the guess that the first print run had it and subsequent didn't. But that's just a guess!!
Happy collecting! |
Collecting goal reached: #1 PSA-graded set
My first raw set I won in an eBay auction from bbcexchange in April, 2010. I graded all of the HOFers from that set at that summer's National in Baltimore and was thrilled when 5 cards came back Pop 1's (with none higher). One of these was the 1st PSA 10 (#29 Martin Dihigo) ever graded from the set out of a total population of 335 at that time. I subsequently graded most of the rest of the cards from that raw set pulling a few more "highest graded." I upgraded periodically over the next year buying graded cards online when they became available, but in February of this year another raw set appeared on eBay and I was lucky to see it first. B-e-collectibles was selling it for $99 and they immediately accepted my Best Offer of $89. When the cards arrived I was stoked, they were even sharper than they looked online. I submitted the entire set on the $5.25 February Special and 49 (business) days later the grades popped and I knew I now had the highest-graded set. It has a GPA of 8.542 with 27/36 of the highest graded and 17 of those are Pop 1's.
Here's the break-down from that submission: 1 PSA 4 (the only wrinkled card in the bunch), 3 PSA 7s, 2 PSA 7.5s, 14 PSA 8s, 12 PSA 8.5s, 3 PSA 9s and my second PSA 10 (#27 Biz Mackey). Thirteen of them represented upgrades and seven were now the highest graded examples; here's the sub: NEAR MINT 7 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 1 SMOKY JOE WILLIAMS Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 2 RAP DIXON Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 3 OLIVER MARCELLE Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 4 BINGO DeMOSS Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 5 WILLIE FOSTER Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 6 JOHN BECKWITH Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 7 FLOYD GARDNER Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 8 JOSH GIBSON Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 9 JOE MENDEZ Card VERY GOOD-EXCELLENT 4 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 10 PETE HILL Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 11 BUCK LEONARD Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 12 JUD WILSON Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 13 WILLIE WELLS Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 14 JIMMIE LYONS Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 15 SATCHEL PAIGE Card MINT 9 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 16 LOUIS SANTOP Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 17 FRANK GRANT Card NEAR MINT+ 7.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 18 CHRISTOBEL TORRIENTI Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 19 BULLET ROGAN Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 20 DAVE MALARCHER Card MINT 9 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 21 SPOT POLES Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 22 HOME RUN JOHNSON Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 23 CHARLIE GRANT Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 24 COOL PAPA BELL Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 25 CANNONBALL REDDING Card MINT 9 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 26 RAY DANDRIDGE Card GEM MINT 10 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 27 BIZ MACKEY Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 28 FATS JENKINS Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 29 MARTIN DIHIGO Card NEAR MINT 7 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 30 MULE SUTTLES Card NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 31 BILL MONROE Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 32 DAN McCLELLAN Card NEAR MINT 7 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 33 JOHN HENRY LLOYD Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 34 OSCAR CHARLESTON Card NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 35 RUBE FOSTER Card NEAR MINT+ 7.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 36 JUDY JOHNSON Card Date Received: 2/27/2012 Date Shipped: 5/4/2012 Order Status: Shipped I also now have a second complete graded set (GPA 7.792) that I 'd like to sell. Any ideas how best to do so? Consign it to PWCC? Sell it myself on eBay either as a complete set or individually? Thanks for any input. |
Very nice! The brown borders on this set are very challenging for condition sensitve collectors to be sure. I would think, and your submission would follow, that getting the first and last card in a PSA 8.5 or better might be very hard, since they almost always distributed in decks of 36 with those two getting the brunt of the handling.
Are you going for the 1978 set next? :) |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:31 PM. |