article
 

Sorry, I guess this is a distraction from the thread intent, but it's such a great read I thought it worth sharing. Sent to me by a new email friend I made a purchase from recently. It's from a few years ago but I hadn't come across it before:

https://lithub.com/the-greatest-forg...n-of-all-time/

Thanks for sharing the article!
 

Great read. Interesting, I certainly had heard about and read about the feat before, but never stopped to contemplate the enormity of it!

So fitting that it was Clemente!

New member with my first posting to this outstanding site. Excited to share these 3 panels but just noticed this is an older thread.... I'll share anyway as they are very cool. Anyone else into this '72 Puerto Rican winter league sticker set?

Nice panels, thanks for sharing!

Welcome cornhusker. Older thread, yes, but there are a handful still following it routinely.

Very nice panels. I don't know much about the proper set of sticker cards, other than it is a bigger set than I thought it was once I looked into it further. There seem to be more of the recognizable names of bona fide MLB stars floating around than lessor known names. I do like the giant Clemente in panels.

I don't have any panels but do have an uncut sheet, from back when it seemed like the sheet was fairly scarce. Since PSA enlarged its slabs to accommodate items of that size, more of the sheets have come out in the open. Mine is still raw.

I can't recall if it was discussed before, but can anyone say whether, was it that the giant Clemente was issued in panels and that's why there are more of them than sheets? Making the sheets an aberration of sorts?

Michael,

I have seen a few uncut sheets, but mostly have seen the panels offered. The way the panels have the lines in them, I would assume that they were meant to be cut down further? Or maybe at one time they were folded. Maybe Howard would know. Does your uncut sheet have those lines present?

Best of my recollection....
 

The Clemente was issued in packs as 9 separate stickers/stamps - making up 1 of a couple of "puzzles" from the set. You will note on the back there are 9 individual numbers 201-209. They have been available as full sheets for a long time - not sure where/how the sheets originated. It was only when PSA started grading the " 3 stamp panels" that I recall seeing the 3 stamp panels. My educated guess is that people who had full sheets cut them into panels of 3 as that is the only way PSA would grade them at the time. The sheets are not easy, but findeable - considerably more expensive since PSA started grading them.

Thanks for the info. A full Clemente is on my "want list" but I feel fortunate to have the strips. Pure speculation on my part but, the 3 card panels were folded to the size of one sticker (like an Hassan tripple folder) at some point in its life - probably to fit into a pack as some sort of insert bonus? The team panels are the same way. fold lines are not visible on Clemente full sheets that I've seen. I doubt anyone would cut down a sheet then fold it up. Possibly the full sheet was some sort of mail in program? I've never seen the team panels or Clemente panels cut down to singles so I'm assuming strips of 3 are as small as were produced? Team strips are usually cut vertically while Clemente cut horizontally. Fun set since it was printed in Spain and distributed in Puerto Rico making it a bit scarce in the states I guess. I'd welcome any reference info anyone may have on this particular set - I've just been stumbling around picking up what I can here and there. Would love to talk to the person who brought in hundreds of sets to PA :)

Roberto Clemente Arco Gas Proof?
 

I don't have a whole lot of post war, but I do have what I believe is a Clemente proof from the Arco set. Mine measures 9.75" x 10" (sorry for the weird photo angle - it is too big for my scanner).

The Arco Gas premiums are 8 x 10, have a caption that goes right to the border of the photo, and the photo is cropped tighter on all four sides compared to mine. And when I posted this in the memorabilia forum, 71buc kindly pointed out that I somehow missed that the location of the signature is different as well -- and told me that this thread is the place for my question (thanks Mike!).

I am curious if anyone has seen one similar to this and can help me figure out what it is. (Mine is the first photo, and Arco premium, which is not mine, is the second.)

Bryan,

Have not seen one of those before, but it seems like it could very well be some type of proof. Recent pickup?