1981/82 Georgetown Hoyas Basketball Police Set

The Georgetown Hoyas basketball team was the subject of yearly police card sets that were first issued during the 1981/82 season, and continued through the late 1990s (up to the 1996/97 season, I believe). Quick backstory: The modern police card era began with the NBA's 1977/78 Portland Trailblazers set, while with college basketball the first modern examples were released in 1980/81 for both the Arizona Wildcats and Wichita State Shockers; Georgetown followed with their first set a year later.

The 1981/82 Hoyas police set consists of 20 cards, and consists of fourteen players, four coaches, a team photo, and a mascot card. Card fronts feature black and white portraits, flanked by a dark, large blue border with white edges. Each player's name, uniform number, position, height, college year and home town are listed across the bottom fronts. Each card back features a basketball term and safety tip, as well as a Safeway sponsor logo across the bottom. Sets were printed on very thin white cardboard stock, which makes them very condition sensitive to corner wear and "toning" on the backs.

Whether by design or luck, Georgetown's first police set has the distinction of featuring a card of freshman center Patrick Ewing, who would of course go on to make eleven All-Star appearances in the NBA, be a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and be voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (Ewing is also featured in the next three Georgetown police sets). Senior Eric "Sleepy" Floyd, who is also represented, went on to play thirteen productive seasons in the NBA. Another card of note is that of legendary head coach and Hall of Famer John Thompson, who guided the team quite successfully from 1972 through 1999.

These 80/81 cards seem to be pretty scarce. I have been on the police card prowl for many years, and rarely do I see these sets hit the market; even on eBay at the time of this writing, only one incomplete set and two graded Ewing singles are to be found on the entire site. I'm not sure if the production numbers were ever released for any of the Georgetown cards, but later Hoyas issues are certainly much easier to find than this inaugural set. 

The next year's 1982/83 set is very similar in appearance, but lacks "GEORGETOWN BASKETBALL" across the top fronts of the cards. On the lower backs of the 1982/83 cards, the "GAMES PRODUCTION, Inc." name is found in the place of Safeway.

At one time, during the glory years of Patrick Ewing as well as the glory years of speculative card collecting, this 1981/82 set was known to sell in the $100 to $120 range. Today's value is more likely in the neighborhood of $75 to $100.

Random Fact: According to the back of the mascot card, collecting a complete set of these cards would have won two free tickets to a Georgetown basketball game. 

Click here to find Hoyas Police Sets on eBay

1. Jack the Bulldog

2. Elvado Smith, G, Freshman

3. Eric Smith, F, Senior

4. Pat Ewing, C, Freshman

5. Anthony Jones, F, Freshman

6. Bill Martin, F, Freshman

7. Bill Stein, Asst. Coach

8. Norman Washington, Grad. Asst. Coach

9. Ed Spriggs, C, Senior

10. Eric Floyd, G, Senior

11. Gene Smith, G, Sophomore

12. Fred Brown, G, Sophomore

13. Mike Hancock, F, Senior

14. Kurt Kaull, G, Junior

15. Ed Meyers, Asst. Coach

16. Ron Blaylock, G, Senior

17. David Blue, F, Junior

18. John Thompson, Head Coach

19. Ralph Dalton, C, Freshman

20. Team Photo

1982 Topps/Coca-Cola Cincinnati Reds Set

Who doesn't love Topps baseball cards from the 1980s? If you say "I don't," you can just walk your ass out of here and find something else to read. Perhaps you may wish to see how your favorite movie is faring at the box office. For the rest of us, great things await within the cards known as the 1982 Topps/Coca-Cola Cincinnati Reds set.

Consisting of 22 player cards and a header, the Reds were one of two MLB teams (the Red Sox were the other) that continued a regional card promotion with Coke for the second year in a row. These team sets were increased in size from twelve cards in 1981, to 23 cards in 1982. The design of the Coca-Cola cards are quite similar to the regularly-issued Topps baseball cards from the same year, with the most obvious difference being the large "Coca-Cola" logo found at the top of each card front. 

When comparing the fronts of several of the cards, the Coca-Cola logo is the only difference between the Coke set and regular Topps set. On others, however, major differences can be seen, to include different photos, different teams, different haircuts, and in the case of outfielder Clint Hurdle, all of the above.

Here at the Oddball Card Collector Blog, we've always been fascinated by oddball sets that went the extra mile to include updated teams and photos for players on the move. By our count six players here fit the bill, as in the regular 1982 Topps set Clint Hurdle was pictured with the Royals, Cesar Cedeno with the Astros, Greg Harris and Alex Trevino with the Mets, Wayne Krenchicki with the Orioles and Jim Kern with the Rangers. Another card worth noting is that of outfielder Paul Householder, who was forced to share the spotlight on three-player "Reds Future Stars" cards in both the regular '81 and '82 Topps sets.

A long-forgotten promotion can be found on the back of the header card:

For just five dollars, collectors could receive a full-sized, uncut sheet of 132 Topps baseball cards. Many of the sheets sent out in the promotion were considered printer "scrap," due to errors such as color runs and imbalances, register problems and wrong backs. To this day, it is common to find many of the uncut sheets from this era available for sale on Ebay that contain one or more of these printing flaws.

The set can usually be picked up for five dollars or less. Considering the likes of Johnny Bench, Tom Seaver and Dave Concepcion are found within the set, it's hard to see the downside of slipping one of these into your collection.

Click here to find Reds Coke Sets on eBay

1. Johnny Bench

2. Bruce Berenyi

3. Larry Biittner

4. Cesar Cedeno

5. Dave Concepcion

6. Dan Driessen

7. Greg Harris

8. Paul Householder

9. Tom Hume

10. Clint Hurdle

11. Jim Kern

12. Wayne Krenchicki

13. Rafael Landestoy

14. Charlie Leibrandt

15. Mike O'Berry

16. Ron Oester

17. Frank Pastore

18. Joe Price

19. Tom Seaver

20. Mario Soto

21. Alex Trevino

22. Mike Vail

Header Card

1980 81 82 Tampa Rowdies Police Sets - How to Tell the Difference

The Tampa Rowdies soccer club was the subject of three police sets in the early 1980s. All three sets utilized a design format that was typical for safety sets of the time, with the fronts of all three being exactly the same. Here's a look at a card front from each:

I don't know about you, but I can't see much of a difference on the fronts. The key to discovering the year of issue lies on the backs of the cards, as there are subtle but unmistakeable differences. Each of the three years features a different set of sponsors listed on the back bottoms of the cards. Here they are:

You'll immediately notice that the 1980 set features two logos near the bottom, with the circular logo representing the Exchange Club of Tampa. This is the only year that the Exchange Club was a sponsor. In 1981, the two sponsors listed were the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and Law Enforcement Council. Luckily, between the printings of the 1981 and 1982 sets, the Law Enforcement Council changed their name to the Community Security Council, with the 1982 set reflecting the name change accordingly.

We will spend more time detailing these sets in the future. These really are some great oddball cards that feature cards for players, cheerleaders (Wowdies), the band (Loudies), the stadium, and even mascot "Krazy George."

Click here to find Rowdies stuff on eBay

1982 Milwaukee Brewers Police Set

The endless sponsor variations of Milwaukee Brewers police sets released from 1982 to the present make it virtually impossible to collect the entire run. There's little to no chance of completing a master collection.

I'm not joking. You'd have a better shot at spending the weekend with Selena Gomez.

The promotion began in 1982, which is the year we will focus on in this post. This first year of 1982 saw the printing of five sponsor variations. But before we get into that, let me mention the basics...

Brewers police sets typically consisted of 30 cards (the first exception wasn't until 1995, when the set had 33). Even though there were several different sponsors listed on the cards each year, the player selection and photos were always the same among the sets. Because of this, only the most dedicated of collectors are interested in the different sponsor variations, with most of them being single-player specialists. 

I have personally never seen a complete checklist for this run of Brewers sets, and the couple of hardcore collectors I know who are working on this herculean task are in no danger of completing their collections anytime soon. The Milwaukee Police Department is always the easiest sponsor to find (sometimes having 100,000 sets or more printed), while some of the more obscure departments may have printed as few as 500. 

Needle in a haystack? At best.

Focusing in on 1982 again, I know of five departments that participated in the inaugural promotion: Milwaukee PD, New Berlin PD, Brookfield PD, Wauwatosa PD and the Wisconsin State Fair Park Police. As usual, the Milwaukee PD version is the easiest of the five to find, with New Berlin, Brookfield and Wauwatosa being somewhere in the middle. And finding the Wisconsin State Fair Park Police set, you ask?

You'd have a better shot at spending the weekend with the girl at your school (or office) who looks

like Selena Gomez.

The scans above show three Robin Yount cards, each with a different sponsor printed across the bottom. As noted before, the photo and player selection is the same in each of the sets. Also shown here is a New Berlin back, which is how most of the 1982 backs appear (the Milwaukee PD backs have an extra badge graphic on theirs, if anyone cares).

The 1982 Milwaukee PD set is valued in the $10 to $15 range. It's hard to put a price on the others, due to both the limited supply and limited collector demand. In this type of tricky scenario you might see a set appear with a $5 Buy It Now on Ebay, or the same set might appear (and be sold) with a $50 Buy It Now. All I know is that I like collecting these, and will continue hunting down Brewers Police Sets at prices I can live with on a case by case basis.

Click here to find Brewers Police Sets on eBay

(4) Paul Molitor

(5) Ned Yost

(7) Don Money

(9) Larry Hisle

(10) Bob McClure

(11) Ed Romero

(13) Roy Howell

(15) Cecil Cooper

(17) Jim Gantner

(19) Robin Yount

(20) Gorman Thomas

(22) Charlie Moore

(23) Ted Simmons

(24) Ben Oglivie

(26) Kevin Bass

(28) Jamie Easterly

(29) Mark Brouhard

(30) Moose Haas

(34) Rollie Fingers

(35) Randy Lerch

(37) Buck Rodgers

(41) Jim Slaton

(45) Doug Jones

(46) Jerry Augustine

(47) Dwight Bernard

(48) Mike Caldwell

(50) Pete Vukovich

Team Photo/Roster

Harry Dalton, General Manager

Coaches (Pat Dobson, Larry Haney, Ron Hansen, Cal McLish, Buck Rodgers, Harry Warner)

1982 On Deck Cookies Discs (MSA)

If you've collected baseball cards for any amount of time, chances are you've run across one or more small baseball "discs" featuring colorful borders and black and white photos of star players. This style of disc was issued countless times by a company called Michael Schechter Associates (MSA) between the years of 1975 and 1985, and while the design itself was largely unchanged during this time, the variety of sponsors found on the backs of these discs are what keep hardcore collectors searching on their never-ending hunts. MSA produced sets for baseball, football and even basketball during this eleven-year period. Some MSA disc issues are about as common as dirt (1976 Isaly's Baseball Discs), while others are notably scarce (1976 Coca-Cola Chicago Bears Discs). 

Featured here is a 32-disc effort released by MSA and a company called "On Deck Cookies" in 1982. Sold primarily on the East Coast, one card was randomly packaged with a large cookie and typically sold in the 25 to 29 cent range. Nearly a dozen Hall of Famers can be found within the set, as well as Pete Rose and many other fan favorites of the early 1980s. The discs are not numbered, and the backs do not feature any information regarding the player pictured on the front.

The set was endorsed by the MLB Players Association, but not Major League Baseball; accordingly, no team logos are found on the player ball caps. This worked well for MSA, as many players were photographed wearing the uniforms of their former teams. Many of the photos were used on multiple MSA issues and were several years old by the time they were recycled for use in the 1982 On Deck set. "Vintage" player pictures include George Brett, Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson, who is pictured wearing his Baltimore Orioles uniform from 1976!

Regarding the scarcity of the various MSA baseball disc sets produced during this time, the 1982 On Deck set is one of the tougher ones to find. An Ebay seller auctioned off several uncirculated sets a few years ago (we grabbed three of them), but the hobby apparently absorbed them without decreasing the long-term value. While complete sets do appear on Ebay from time to time, it is much more common to find random singles. We'd estimate the current value of the set at $35 to $50.

Click here to find On Deck Cookie Discs on eBay

(1) Buddy Bell, Rangers

(2) Johnny Bench, Reds

(3) Bruce Bochte, Mariners

(4) George Brett, Royals

(5) Bill Buckner, Cubs

(6) Rod Carew, Angels

(7) Steve Carlton, Phillies

(8) Cesar Cedeno, Reds

(9) Jack Clark, Giants

(10) Cecil Cooper, Brewers

(11) Bucky Dent, Yankees

(12) Carlton Fisk, White Sox

(13) Steve Garvey, Dodgers

(14) Rich Gossage, Yankees

(15) Mike Hargrove, Indians

(16) Keith Hernandez, Cardinals

(17) Bob Horner, Braves

(18) Reggie Jackson,Angels

(19) Steve Kemp, White Sox

(20) Ron LeFlore, White Sox

(21) Fred Lynn, Angels

(22) Lee Mazzilli, Rangers

(23) Eddie Murray, Orioles

(24) Mike Norris, A's

(25) Dave Parker, Pirates

(26) J.R. Richard, Astros

(27) Pete Rose, Phillies

(28) Mike Schmidt, Phillies

(29) Tom Seaver, Reds

(30) Willie Stargell, Pirates

(31) Roy Smalley, Yankees

(32) Garry Templeton, Cardinals

1982 and 1983 Mother's Cookies Baseball Retailer Sheets

Mother's Cookies produced arguably the nicest baseball card team sets of the 1980s, and found a niche by distributing the cards only in the regions from which the teams were based. The company's first set of the decade featured the San Francisco Giants in 1983, then expanded to feature sets for the A's, Astros, Giants, Mariners and Padres in 1984.

1984 Mother's Cookies A's Bill Caudill

Mother's tried cross-promotions with Major League Baseball before issuing the cards. Of note are their "ticket promotions" which were conducted at MLB local-market retailers. Displays were set up in the stores to promote 1/2 priced reserved seat tickets for specific games. A while back we added a few promo sheets to our collection. These sheets were distributed to retailers to give details on the campaign, as well as a look at how the in-store displays would appear. Here's the 1982 Astros sheet, which explains the 1/2 ticket promotion for the Astros vs. Pirates game on July 18, 1982 (Bob Knepper pitched a complete game for a 4-2 hometown victory):

Here's the Dodgers version of the sheet, which detailed the 1/2 priced reserved seat tickets for the Dodgers vs. Phillies, played on July 25, 1982. Fans watched Phillies ace Steve Carlton pitch a complete game shutout against Dodgers hurler Jerry Reuss, who surrendered just a single run on a Manny Trillo RBI:

Seattle Mariners' fans were the beneficiaries of 1/2 priced reserved loge tickets for the contest versus the Royals on June 20, 1982. The aging Gaylord Perry could not hold off a bat-happy Royals club, with Willie Wilson, George Brett, U.L. Washington and Hal McRae each clubbing multiple hits (Quisenberry earned the save by pitching 2 2/3 innings):

Both the A's and Giants were featured on one promo sheet. Note that this promotion also included team poster giveaways, as well as multiple game dates. For the Giants, the game featured on the sheet was versus the Pirates on Aug. 28, 1982. Attendees were treated to a 4-2 Atlee Hammaker win and Greg Minton's 23rd save of the year (he would save 30 games by the end of the season). The game highlighted on this sheet for A's fan was the Aug. 22, 1982 contest that saw A's workhorse Rick Langford take a loss versus unknown hurler Brian Denman:

We also own two sheets for the 1983 season. Of special interest is the A's/Giants sheet, because it mentions the Giants baseball cards that were given out on August 7, 1983 (A's fans were once again given a team poster). The Giants hosted the Astros that day, with none other than Nolan Ryan pitching the complete-game 2-1 win over the Giants, snagging eight strikeouts along the way. The A's game was played on Aug. 14, 1983 against the Twins, with Davey Lopes, Mike Davis and Dwayne Murphy each smacking two RBIs for a 6-0 hometown win:

The last sheet in our collection is for the Dodgers' 1/2 price ticket promotion for the July 17, 1983 game versus the Cubs. The event was an unfortunate one for Dodgers fans, as Cubs hurler Dickie Noles pitched a complete-game shutout and enjoyed a 7-0 win:

These sheets may be of interest only to the die-hard Mother's collector, or perhaps the advanced team collector. With that being said, someone has to waste their day off updating their overdue blog, right?

Click here to find Oakland Mother's Sets on eBay

1982 ASA Mickey Mantle Story Set

The Authentic Sports Autograph Company released their first single-player set in 1982, featuring 72 cards of Yankee hero Mickey Mantle (several others were to follow, featuring retired star players). A total of 20,000 sets were produced according to the company, with 5,000 of the sets containing a hand-signed autograph by Mantle on card number one. The cards basically chronicle Mantle's life from his rookie year of 1951 through his appearance at the Yankees Old-Timers Game in 1981, and many of the photos used for the set were provided by Mantle himself. The original retail price for an autographed set was $24.99, while an unsigned set could be purchased for $12.99. 

Of the 20,000 total sets that were produced (according to the manufacturer), 5,000 of these sets featured a header card personally autographed by Mantle. Please note that ALL sets feature a facsimile Mantle autograph on card number 21, which looks like this:

All of the cards in an autographed Mantle set were printed with blue-colored card backs. The remaining fifteen-thousand unautographed sets were printed with red backs. In addition to the certified autograph sets having blue backs, they also include a serial-numbered card like this:

Like other 1980s sets that are somewhat hard to find today, prices vary when a set becomes available for sale or auction. We believe an unautographed set (red backs) has a fair market value of $35 to $40, while an autographed set (blue backs) can easily sell for $120 or higher. Given the continuing popularity of Mantle, and the large number of forged Mantle signatures that litter the hobby today, the autographed version of this 1982 A.S.A. set is highly prized by collectors.

NEWS FLASH

OK now... After understanding that ASA produced 5,000 autographed Mantle sets with blue backs, and 15,000 unautographed sets with red backs, we have a startling revelation to make...

Mantle DID NOT autograph 5,000 sets! That's right kids, we have seen at least three examples of blue-backed sets that are not autographed -- as a matter of fact, we own one. See the certificate shown above for set number 4,136 of 5,000? It is tucked safely in our collection, in all it's autograph-free glory. Here's a front scan of card number one, the header card that should feature the signature:

The other examples of unautographed blue-backed sets were listed on a popular internet auction site and featured serial numbers 3,839 and 4,568 (we are not actively looking for more examples...) One does have to wonder though... How many sets did Mantle actually sign? 3,000? 4,000? 4,997? 

Click here to find ASA Mantle Sets on eBay