Quote:
Originally Posted by DeanH3
Id take a look at the '54 Johnston Cookies Hank Aaron. An undervalued rookie in my opinion. Yes, it's a regional issue.
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"Yes, it's a regional issue." As if that's a downer? As if that's a "lesser than ...". As if that's second-rate? Or even, "Well, I guess I'll have to settle for the...?
Dean, I realize the '54 Johnston Cookie Henry Aaron was released the same year as Aaron's beautiful '54 Topps regular issue, and we both know what the hobby has done with mainstream issue rookies.
But seriously, a regional is most respectable. Some are still referring to them by the antiquated and appalling term, "oddball", but the niche of regional / food issues typically carries with it strong aesthetics based upon attractive card / coin design, very moving player photos not to seen on a Topps card, a fascinating and highly challenging promotion that made cards not only hard to come by, but even harder to hunt a desired player card down in ultra high grade condition. The number of survivors of a given regional issue depended upon what was done with the leftover, unsold "free prizes". Fortunately, some were sold to one of the very, very, very few mail order trading card mail order firms. In the case of the 1954 Johnston Cookie cards, the leftovers were sold to Wholesale Cards Company from New York / Connecticut. Had they not been, surviving specimens would have been those saved by the original intended recipients, children, who tended to handle them, or should I say, mishandle them. Back then, there was nothing to protect a kid's cards, and really, at the time they were just cheap boy's toys, and in this case, a lure to get them to get their parents to buy Johnston Cookies. As I have discovered, EVEN regional sets that were sold to a party after the promotion was over, whether many or just a few, did not eventually sift out PSA 9 MINTs as often as most collectors assume. Didn't happen.
LONG to short, the regional / food issues carry with them beauty, significance, importance, built-in scarcity and genuine rarity, and unchallenged bragging rights that fill your fellow collectors with admiration, and some other unsettling emotions.
Yes, it IS a cool regional issue gem!
Furthermore, good choice to advise our fellow collector wishing to plunk down 10 C-notes.
----Brian Powell