FS: Added 15 Unopened Wax Packs (one hockey pack) in December

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Steve_NY

I found this in an article from 2012 on the Tall-Boys:

That's this article:

The 1964 Topps "Tall Boy" Hockey Card Set - PSA

Originally Posted by Steve_NY

The Tall Boys were distributed in five-cent packs that housed four cards and a stick of gum.

Well... It is true that card packs in Canada from 1956 or so through most of the 1960's contained four cards plus a sheet of gum (a four sectioned sheet of Bazooka in the case of Topps/O-Pee-Chee). What I don't remember is whether O-Pee-Chee included five (or even six) cards in each pack of these 1964-65 Hockey cards instead of just four. But I have a fairly distinct memory of my buddies and I scowling when the 1964-65 Hockey packs appeared for ten cents in corner stores. I also remember doing the value calculation in my head (which implies that there must have been over four cards in each pack) and concluding I/we were being ripped off by the ten cent price. And for what? Taller cards, which we didn't like because they didn't fit into our pockets! I mean what the hell? That's why the set wasn't very popular at the time, and is accordingly tougher to find these days.

The fact that one of the two different wrappers that's been found does not feature a 5 cent price marker would also seem to imply some kind of pricing chicanery or shenanigans on O-Pee-Chee's part.

While Bobby Burrell has done a wonderful job cataloguing hockey cards and such, he's not dead on correct about everything.

Originally Posted by Rob Dezoete

It's one of the top vintage hockey sets of all-time.... If it's not at the top, it's second to 1951-52 Parkhurst. To me, it's the best hockey set ever produced.

I'd agree with Rob if all the cards were like the first series:



With a few exceptions, the first series cards feature absolutely fabulous full body shots. The second series though is mainly very boring (at best) head shots:



The second series therefore sold even more poorly than the first series even if the price was subsequently dropped to a nickel.

I got close to completing a 1964-65 set nearly twenty years ago but then lost enthusiasm about completing it. Quite simply, the few cards I still needed (with the exception of Henri Richard) were cards that were short printed on the second series sheet. As short prints, they were rather costly - but still very ugly head shots like the ones above! And there's no shortage of cards and other collectibles competing for my money.