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.