Topps 1968 Milton Bradley set

[goheels]

Vorzverti,

You bring up a great question about the possible difference in the front of the cards. Your two Ryan MBs sure look different.

If you look at my two, one is orange looking and the other is red. I looked at my Ryans and I don't see a pattern.

A better test was the 155/156 World Series cards. I had exactly 6 regular WS 5 and 6 cards each to compare with 28 and 25 MB cards respectively. I think that's a good sample size. I don't see a difference in the cards. Some look like red and some like orange.

I did a decent look at cards 7,8,10 (leader cards with red/orange tops) and the lettering for the Indians Rookies/Tigers Rookies, both Marichal check list cards, and Dodgers/Yankees cards which have red circles. Didn't see a difference. It would be nice if picking out MBs were that easy.

Al Richter has a great picture of the 68 Billingham rookie card regular Topps issue which has the orange and red variations. There are a few rookie cards like that in the regular 68 set, and amongst variation guys I think there is a bit of divided opinion. It really is hard to distinguish. I feel the same about the 1964 Topps Leaders Cards, red vs orange "variations".

The only difference I have seen on the MB vs regular fronts so far (other than cards with borders) is that the cards with bluer backgrounds like Jim Merritt, Don Wilson, and Ron Willis are more intense and darker hues than the regular cards. I have 46 Merritt MB cards and 14 regular Merritts. In general the MBs are bluer but at the end of the spectrum some of the lighter blue background MBs are lighter toned than the darker regular cards. It does get to the backs of the cards with this issue. I quit trying to guess on the fronts after wasting quite a few dollars on ebay buying what I thought was an MB and I finally figured out I just couldn't tell. I wouldn't gamble on a Ryan with those prices, to be sure.

But then my eyes are quite middle aged.

[goheels]

The WS Game 6 card is badly miscut. It resides in the 7th row, 7th column, and the white border is a Pete Beathard. The Hudson (3rd row, 10th column) is worse and you can see the AL 10 card on the obverse.

The corners are perfect, these cards came straight from a sealed game. I don't know if the resolution shows it but there is an indent at the top of the WS GM 6 card and a small one at the bottom. Whenever the rubber bands were placed vertically and not horizontally there was more of an indent. This card was 3rd down in a stack of 26 cards. The Hudson likewise came from the same game, different stack. There were six terribly miscut cards in this one game, none in my other games. The Hudson has a small ridge at the upper right border, from years of pressure in the box. That indent usually knocks a PSA grade down to a 5 to 6.5. The cards before and after these two were perfectly centered, rare for MBs. Go figure.

These scans were high res 600 DPI. You can't see the flaws on the scans but they are there. PSA misses them sometimes but not often. It certainly adds to the challenge of getting decent grades. These cards with the high gloss and brighter than average colors look sharper than regular 68 vending cards, but the dings of the box and rubber bands make it a crap shoot.

[horzverti]

Thanks for the analysis Heels. I need to find myself a red lettered MB Ryan now.

[Mark70Z]

Ok... Any good looking Belanger's to share?!?

[goheels]

1 of 2 graded 8s, none higher.

[kickstand19]

Nice Belanger Heels... I haven't had much luck finding him in high grade. Very tough card... EX is the best I have

[Mark70Z]

That's a great looking card; thanks so much for posting Carlton. I've always like the pose of Belanger in this shot, with the away Baltimore uniform...classic!

Has there ever been any information discovered as to who selected the baseball players in the set? Just seems like an interesting selection. I'm just glad there are two awesome O's in there, Brooks (greatest 3rd baseman of all time), and Belanger (greatest defensive shortstop of all time). No debate; I'm correct on this one.

[goheels]

I don't think we will ever know why those seven rows of cards were selected out of the 10 possible 1st series rows and 8 possible 2nd series rows.

I never spoke with James Shea, Sr. He retired in late 1967, stayed in the Springfield area until his death around 1984.

I did speak with his son briefly, James Shea, Jr. He ran the company from 1968 until the merger with Hasbro in 1984. He moved to California, and died there in 2013 at the age of 87.

The last contact I had with anyone at Milton Bradley who had anything to do with this set has no memory left, severe dementia.

Mr. Shea Sr. was a lifetime Red Sox fan. I have always wondered why he wouldn't have picked some of the Yaz League Leader Cards--he was the triple crown winner in 1967. He might have also picked Tony Conigliaro #140. Willie Mays #50 was still one of the most popular players in those two first series. I believe the selection was random, as the atmosphere in that company in early 1968 was very hectic. I don't think Mr. Shea picked them. Checklists and rookie cards were not popular with kids back then.