Hiya, Tomi. I got back on here 'cause I remembered I wanted to clarify non-mainstream versus oddball. There most assuredly are issues that the term "oddball" should definitely be applied to. Just off the top of my head, I think of matchbook covers, Topps Who Am I?, those Topps inserts from '65 that were golden cameos or something, the Topps Tatoos, a rare Topps test issue I believe is called Scratch-offs, having a minuscule black 'n white photo of the player with the rest stuff you scratch off, the marbles with a little player photo inside, and the 1954 New York Journal-American (Lionel Carter commented on them being "junk", as I recall he worded them). Team issues, and various player picture packets are not oddball, and may not be very valuable, but frequently are difficult to find and have a lot of eye appeal.
Say, you have an amazing ensemble of Mantle issues. Wow. I especially love the 1967 Coca-Cola Premium, as produced by Dexter Press, and the Dormand Postcard. I wrote of both those issues in my book, Never Cheaper By the Dozen.
Well, let's put our heads together, and come up with some savory terms for non-mainstream cards. I hope you find my "blue diamond gem" term appealing. Esoteric is ok, but it means understood by a select few. The sad part is many hobbyists are just like that, when it comes to appreciating the often rare and beautiful post war regional / food issues. I suppose what grates me the most is that they will put the mainstream gum cards above the regional / food. Again, with a name term designation such as "oddball", how would you view that connotation?
Precisely.
But then, I am very old-school, growing in the hobby at a time when the tough regionals were extremely hard to find and valuable (many were only available via trade, and if you did not have good enough trade bait, you could just "forget it"), while the gum cards were all easy weezie to find, and cheap.
All the best to you. ---- Brian Powell
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