Sportscaster Cards and PSA - Almost a Year Later

In January of this year there were just over 5,100 Sportscaster cards graded by PSA.  Today that number is up to 5,662.  I had nothing to do with that since I've never sent a card of any kind to PSA.  I own a few PSA cards, mostly Kellogg's, but it isn't something I chase.

Are any of you submitted these cards?  Other than the top few cards in the set, what is your reason for this?

64 125 59

In January there were the following totals -

Larry Bird                 57
Wayne Gretzky       119
Magic Johnson         53

today

Larry Bird                64    --- added seven this year
Wayne Gretzky      125    --- added six this year
Magic Johnson        59    --- added six this year

These three certainly didn't help much with the increase of over 500 submitted cards. 

I don't follow player master sets but is this what is happening?

Sportscaster Series #15 Variations that I Have Found So Far

Here is what I found for the 24 cards in Series #15 so far.   It looks like the first print run has no letter.  I've only found those from Italy.  Is there a first print run from Japan?  In addition, I am finding print run "A" and print run "B".  So I'm working on getting all three versions for Series #15.

I have every card from the first print run and the 'B' print run.  I am only missing one card (#22) from the 'A' print run.

Here are the back variations I've seen.  I have yet to check for variations on the front of the cards.

15-01 The European Cup Winner - all three have different results
15-02 Roy Schuiten - 'A' and 'B' have updated results and text 
15-06 Althea Gibson - 'A' and 'B' have reformatted text
15-18 Tornado (Yachting) - 'A' and 'B' have different captions 
15-22 Heinz Gunthardt - 'B' has more awards listed

Large Auction in Illinois

I went to an auction yesterday that has generated some interesting comments online.

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/985256/chicago-area-topps-unopened-collectors

The inventory is so large that it is taking multiple days to get through the auction.  These people had everything 70s and 80s that one could imagine.  But, through two days I've not seen any lots of Sportscaster cards.  I will need to be on the lookout for the remaining days of this auction.

Starting Lineup Figures are Back?

I heard that the Cubs were giving out a Kris Bryant Starting Lineup at the game tomorrow.  So I went to search for more information on the return of these figures.  Here is what I found:

http://www.beckett.com/news/starting-lineup-sga-schedule/

Will this lead to any more figures outside of the major sports?  I doubt it.

Update - they gave away a Tim Raines Starting Lineup at a White Sox game to honor his induction into the Hall of Fame.  Even better, someone went to the game and got one for me.  Yeah!

Where are the Sportscaster Cards?

I spent two days on the trail of the Worlds Longest Yard Sale.  I spent time in both Ohio and Kentucky.  I saw lots of 1980s and 1990s junk cards and not much else.  I didn't see a single Sportscaster card during the entire trip.

What I Didn't See at the National

I didn't see the following Sportscaster cards -

Wayne Gretzky
Larry Bird
Magic Johnson

I saw no unopened packs, no advertising items and no trays.

I didn't even see a Walter Payton, a guy who is second only to Jordan in Chicago.


I'm used to not seeing many Sportscaster cards.  Maybe next year in Cleveland?

Sunday at the National

I picked up the following nine cards.  What makes them different for me?  They are from the set that originated in Sweden.  I don't have many cards from this set.

The next six cards are from Finland.  I have a lot of cards from this set.

I did something out of the ordinary this year - I brought a checklist to the show.  Only one dealer had more than a few Sportscaster cards.  Unfortunately, this was the same dealer I bought from last year and he didn't seem to bring any different cards.

I did consult my list so that I could at least get a few cards that I needed.  I picked up two baseball cards that I didn't have and one new variation.  Not the best, but I do like moving forward on this set.

Time to see how many cards I have in the set of 2,184 cards.  It looks like I need about 117 cards not counting variations.

Friday Shopping at the National

I only saw Sportscaster cards at one table yesterday.  I will spend more time tomorrow looking for more.  I couldn't resist buying the cards shown below.  Tomorrow I'd like to find a few to get me closer to getting a complete set.

I ended up buying some of the track stars from the set printed in Finland.  I think I only needed one of these, but I always grab the distance runners when the price is right.

More tomorrow after the show.

The National is Coming Up Next Week

I'm not going to get a lot of time at the National Card Show until Sunday.  I think I've got the entire day to search and find some of the Sportscaster cards that I need.  Now that I've documented my needs, other than variations, I hope to make a dent in all sets other than the high numbered ones.

Rarely do I find many of the Sportscaster cards at the National, but I will be looking for them.  I will post a recap of my finding on this after attending on Sunday.

How Are These Two Well Known?

I bought these two cards a few months ago.  Now that school is out I will have some time to catch up on a few things before the National.

Douglas Lowe and Lord Burghey were a big part of Chariots of Fire.  Lowe declined and Burghey didn't approve of the historical inaccuracies in the movie.  So, fictional character Lord Lindsay was created with similarities to Lowe and Burghey.

Burghey was the first to actually complete the Great Court Run, one of my favorite scenes in Chariots of Fire, and he didn't lose to Abraham as the movie depicted.

Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram tried the run and didn't complete it.  Only one other person finished before the last bell.

Sportscaster Series #14 Variations that I Have Found So Far

Here is what I found for the 24 cards in Series #14 so far.   It looks like the first print run has no letter.  I've only found those from Italy.  Is there a first print run from Japan?  In addition, I am finding print run "A" and print run "B".  So I'm working on getting all three versions for Series #14.

I have every card from print run 'A' and I am only missing one card (#09) from the first print run.  For print run "B" I am missing #03, #09, #11, #12 and #18.

Here are the back variations I've seen.  I have yet to check for variations on the front of the cards.

14-06 Kayaking - 'A' and 'B' have different text
14-07 Motorcycle Racing 500 cc WCH - 'A' has 1978 update; 'B' has 1979 update 
14-08 Victor Saneev Track and Field - 'A' and 'B' have different subtitles
14-21 Heini Hemmi Alpine Skiing - 'A' and 'B' have updated records


03 - George Foreman
09 - Oakland A's
11 - Maury Wills
12 - Emil Zatopek
18 - Oscar Robertson

I was surprised to see that I am missing Zatopek's other versions since I have lots of his cards since I've purchased numerous of track and field lots.

Sportscaster Cards from France

Track and Field cards are my first priority with Sportscaster cards.  Up until recently I had only one card from the French set.  Recently, I picked over over 60 cards from this set.  One card is from Judo and all of the others are Boxing cards (Boxe).

It's great to have these cards, even if they are not in perfect condition.  I don't know if I will ever try to complete the French set since I hear that is difficult to do.

If I get a chance I will try to trade them for track and field cards.  That shouldn't be too difficult since it seems as though here in the USA the most popular cards are from the four major sports - football, basketball, baseball and hockey.  After that, the boxing cards seem to be the only other ones with a big following.

Of the boxers that I purchased, about 20 of them featured boxers who I had heard of before.  Most were big names - Ali, Dempsey, Tunney, etc.  Here are a few pictures if you haven't seen a French version of Sportscaster cards before.

A Few Purchases to Help Me Trade?

I've gotten a large amount of Sportscaster cards from the UK and Finland sets.  I already have the Steve Prefontaine card from the Finland set but I couldn't resist buying a few more since I know I need many other cards.  Maybe I can trade these duplicates for some of the other challenging cards in the set?

Since I've yet to see a complete checklist, that will probably be a long way down the line.  Has anyone else seen complete checklists for each of the sets?

Grolier Life in America Cards

Are these Grolier Life in America readily available in bulk?  I wouldn't mind getting the entire set of 2,600 cards if they can be had for a low price.  Why?  I would enjoy reading them and I like the photos and design.

These cards are quite similar to Sportscaster cards.  I need to do some research to see how many track and field cards are in the set.  If the set is too much money, I certainly plan to get the track and field cards.

If you have any information on these cards please let me know.

Great Site for Track and Field Card Checklists

Here is another great site for track and field checklists.  I like how they detail which cards in a multi-sport set are track and field cards.

http://athleticards.com/index.html


I don't know how active the site is so I sent them an e-mail about finding a checklist for foreign Sportscaster cards.   I hope to at least get a checklist of all of the track and field athletes featured in the other Sportscaster sets.  There are plenty of cards in those sets that don't exist in the North American version of Sportscaster cards.

The site categorizes the sets in alphabetical order.

I have a bunch of track and field cards that I don't know much about so I will hopefully learn more about this using this site.  

Swedish Sportscaster Cards - I Now Have a Few Duplicates to Trade

I'm up to 171 different Swedish Sportscaster cards, all track and field.  I still have no idea about a checklist.  Has anyone found out anything about that?

I've also now got eight duplicates shown in the picture.  They are not perfect but they look good.

I'd be willing to trade these for cards that I need from this set.  

I have lots of doubles from the Finland version of these cards.  Unfortunately I don't have baseball, football, basketball and hockey cards because most people seem to sell those separately and then dump the other stuff in a lot.  That's good for me getting track and field cards but if I want complete sets that is a challenge.

Card Collecting Books Don't Always Ignore Sportscaster Cards

Many collecting books don't mention Sportscaster cards.  The book in the link below makes some nice comments about these cards.

Collecting Vintage Football Cards - A Complete Guide With Checklists

I'm still looking for that master checklist.  At this point I'm planning on creating one myself, something I've already made some progress with using Excel.  I haven't decided on the best online platform for such a checklist.  Does anyone have suggestions?

Swedish Sportscaster Card Updates

I found the remainder of my Swedish Sportscaster cards.  There were not many more.  Most of the track stars were in that stack, except for Prefontaine.

From what I've read, it looks like there might be 76 decks from Sweden.  I have cards as high as deck 73 so that makes sense.

I still have only track and field cards, so I don't know anything else about this set.

I've been too busy to get some different pictures.  

I have 127 singles.  Here is the breakdown:

1.  All of the stars that I just added to my checklist have the same numbers as the USA set counterparts.  Now I have 54 cards with the same card number that was used in the USA (North American) version of Sportscaster cards.

2.  18 cards are different from the ones produced in the USA version.

3.  55 cards appear in both sets but with different card numbers.  I didn't check yet to see if there are variations since I can't read the backs which I assume are in Swedish.


Good news for someone.  I have seven doubles that I'd be willing to trade for my other foreign Sportscaster needs.  I've got Faina Melnik, Abebe Bikila, Guy Drut, Alberto Juantorena, David Hemery, Tom B. Hansen and Eremitage-loppet.  The last two cards seem to not be in the USA set.  I still need to confirm the last card since there is a language issue for me.

Does anyone know how many track and field cards are in this set?

Ugh! I Really Need a Checklist for These Foreign Sportscaster Cards

I was trying to inventory the Sportscaster cards that I have from Sweden, Finland and the UK.  I started with Sweden since I have between 100 and 200 track and field cards and nothing else.

Of the 104 that I entered so far here are some stats:

1.  Only 33 of the cards have the same card number that was used in the USA (North American) version of Sportscaster cards.

2.  17 cards are different from the ones produced in the USA version.

3.  54 cards appear in both sets but with different card numbers.  I didn't check yet to see if there are variations since I can't read the backs which I assume are in Swedish.

If these ratios hold true, I might not want to get more of these cards since it will be another long-term project just to get a checklist created.  My work from the USA set isn't even paying off much.

I give up!

I can't find the stack of cards that has the Beamon and Jenner above so they haven't been included in these counts.

I really dread sorting the cards from Finland because I have a lot more and they use a different numbering scheme.

Someone must have a checklist of these cards.  Maybe not, since I haven't even found a checklist for the North American Sportscaster cards.

On a positive note, I have completed my list of Sportscaster cards from French set.  Unfortunately, I am still at one card - the one shown above.

Sportscaster Cards and PSA

I was reading on a forum that it could cost about $18 to get a Sportscaster card graded.  With that in mind I can only imagine that one would great the three expensive cards (Bird, Magic, Gretzky) or maybe some of the last series because they are in such short supply.

I'm making no effort to verify the cost or to see how much more it would cost to get the autograph certified.  How would they even certify some of the thousands of athletes on those cards?

I was quite surprised to see on PSA's site that they have graded 5,166 Sportscaster cards.  Maybe it would be useful to grade cards from some of the harder to find foreign sets.  

Is it like the 1989 Donruss Craig Biggio where PSA must have given someone a good price to get lots of them graded and advertise the product?  

Here are some surprising numbers:

# graded   name  (pack/deck)

110           Bobby Orr (001)         ---  set one is the most plentiful set, right?

  80           Muhammad Ali (001)

  57           Larry Bird (074)

119           Wayne Gretzky (077)

  53           Magic Johnson (078)

Lots of cards have none that have been sent to PSA.  Imagine the cost of getting all 2,184 cards graded.  Would that person also go for variations?

Checklists for Foreign Sportscaster Sets?

I've gotten a lot of Sportscaster cards from Finland, Sweden and the UK version
.  Does anyone have a lead on complete checklists for these sets?  In the meantime, I'm going to start making a checklist.

I don't have enough cards from some versions, like this French card, to make a checklist.  

How Am I Going to Get The Big Three Sportscaster Cards?

I'm not a big budget collector.  I rarely buy a card for more than $20 and usually cards I purchase are much cheaper than that.  Does anyone have any unique ideas as to how I might acquire the big three Sportscaster cards - Wayne Gretzky, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird?

I'm not in the need for PSA 10 versions of these cards.  Does anyone ever seen them available in VG-EX condition?

I might as well start thinking about this while I find the other 117 cards that I am missing.

I Thought About This Card Recently - Sportscaster 07-14 The Morat to Frbourg Race

I didn't know anything about this race but I thought about this card on New Year's Eve.  Why?

We ran two small races on New Year's Eve / New Year's Day.  I was thinking about how different they were compared to this card that I was just sorting.  

I've been racing for a long time and these two races had starts that I'd never seen before.  Usually a race begins with a verbal command, a whistle, a gun, etc.  Not these races.  The morning race begin with someone saying "on your marks" and then someone else blasting the horn on their car.  At least we thought it was planned that way since we all started running.  

The second race was run in the rain just before midnight but they didn't change their plans.   After a verbal "on your marks" they threw a lit pack of 10 firecrackers about 10 yards in front of us.  When the first one exploded the race began.  Only nine of them went of before the leaders went past.  Everyone freaked out when the last one exploded in the middle of the small herd of runners.  Good memories. 

So, I decided to first find out if this Morat to Fribourg Race still existed.  It does.  I also decided to check out the great story on the back of this card.

The race started officially in 1933.  It sounds like a fun even to do, but how far is it?  It looks like the race is currently 17, 170m or 10.67 miles.  The record is now 50:28.

This seems like a fun event to do.  It still draws nearly 10,000 people each October.