Dating Topps Hocus Focus To 1955

[ALR-bishop]

Interesting analysis Dave. I have the 1948 Magic Photo subset, and added the Bendix as Babe Ruth card to that. I also have all the "1956" Hocus Focus baseball "cards", but so far have managed only 11 of the 23 "1955s. I have said before that I think the 1955 baseball subset is the toughest of all Topps "issued" set to complete.

I also have a slabbed 1956 unopened Hocus Focus pack ( it is labeled as Non Sport from the Rosen find) ...now I wonder if it is little or big, and how much the wrappers varied, if at all in design and size.

Also, while the 56s are not plentiful, I wonder why the 55s seem much more scarce. I wonder if they were distributed the same. For that matter I wonder what the distribution was on both

[toppcat]

Al-if it's a penny pack, about the size of a postage stamp, it's a small version. Only the sealed, elongated packs had the larger cards. I suspect the small cards were distributed outside of most cities, the larger packs in places like NY and Boston.

[CharleyBrown]

Both sets are incredibly difficult to find.

I've maybe found 3 '56 Hocus Focus cards and 0 '55s. Forget finding them at shows, and I have been scouring the Internet for them for some time....

Very interesting find..

[ALR-bishop]

I had found only 5 of the 55s until someone posted scans of 8 of them on CU that he had stumbled on. Two of them were listed in SCD only by number as not yet known. I bought 6 of them from him since I already had one of them ( J Robinson) and he sold another ( Haddix) to a Cardinals collector. I was pretty pleased to be able to finish the 56 set

They are not only hard to find, but when they do pop up, they are usually in poor condition or poorly developed, or both. Even in great condition they are ugly, which is why most people who got them probably tossed them

[ALR-bishop]

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/.../th_img010.jpg

http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/...ent=img013.jpg

[CharleyBrown]

Al, is that the '55 and '56?

[ALR-bishop]

1956