1939 NEWSSTAND PIC TIME MACHINE JOURNEY INTO THE PAST 18 18

[JazzMan]

Here are a couple good pictures from 1952 and 1953 of five and dime store confectionery stock:

 

 

 

 

I think I lived across the street from this store 15 years later.

[Hepcat]

The Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card is generally considered the most important post-war card.

 

Yes, true.

 

This picture is tantamount to a 1938 photo showing piles of Action #1s on a newsstand.

 

Since we're talking post-War, I'd say that the 1952 Mickey Mantle card would be most closely equivalent to Showcase 4. The card I'd be tempted to compare to Action 1 would be the 1911 Honus Wagner Sweet Caporal card.

 

 

 

[ft88]

I'd love to see the business notes from Topps in 1951-1952 timeframe. They basically went big in 1952 (sports and non-sports) and to get Woolworth to provide that kind of floor space is incredible. I wonder who the driving force behind that was and how he was able to convince the store owners to distribute in such a big way.

 

I don't think Walmart even gives that much space to trading cards today, and that's with a sure bet and history of sales. This was a first time experiment.

 

A mind blowing picture, of the most important year in sports card history. Might as well show the distribution trucks for Marvel in 1962.

[lambfan68]

The 1952 Woolworths picture shows stacks of unopened packs of 1952 Topps baseball cards. This set contained the rookie cards for both Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. The Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card is generally considered the most important post-war card. This picture is tantamount to a 1938 photo showing piles of Action #1s on a newsstand. Quite a find.

 

Actually, chances are there aren't any Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays cards in that pile of boxes. The 1952 Topps set was released in several series. Based on the cards on the salesman sample sheets that are tacked up, that is the first series.

 

Mantle and Mays are in the last series that came out in the fall. Typically the last series had fewer cards printed and didn't sell as well as early the early series.That scarcity drives up their value as does the whole rookie card thing.

 

 

 

[ft88]

That is most likely true especially given the blowout display. My understanding is that the high number series were only distributed in upstate New York and Canada.

[Hepcat]

No, the high numbers were distributed nationally. It's just that they didn't sell worth a darn so Topps got returns, many many cases of returns.

 

Says Topps' card designer Sy Berger:

 

We used to start our first shipments March 1. High numbers were always printed in shorter numbers, I would say at least 50 percent of the other series. The 1952 high series (#311-407) went all over the country, everybody was happy to buy it, but when it didn’t sell that was when we found out what returns meant. It was clogging this warehouse in Brooklyn.

 

Around 1959 or so, I went around to carnivals and offered them for a penny a piece, and it got so bad I offered them at 10 for a penny. They would say, ‘We don’t want them.’

 

I couldn’t give them away. So we said let’s get rid of them. We decided to dump them in the ocean.

 

They were put in boxes. It took three garbage trucks. I would say 300-500 cases. All high series of 1952 Topps. I found a friend of mine who had a garbage scow and we loaded the three trucks-worth on the barge. It was tugged out by a tugboat. I was out there with it. (We dumped the boxes) opposite Atlantic Highlands, a few miles out.

 

And that was the end of it. Whoever thought that they would have the kind of value that they would have?

 

There you go. Back in 1959 nobody would buy seedy, old 1952 baseball cards of players like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays ten for a penny so Topps had to dump them all in the ocean.

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2013 by Hepcat

[rjpb]

No, the high numbers were distributed nationally. It's just that they didn't sell worth a darn so Topps got returns, many many cases of returns.

 

Says Topps' card designer Sy Berger:

 

We used to start our first shipments March 1. High numbers were always printed in shorter numbers, I would say at least 50 percent of the other series. The 1952 high series (#311-407) went all over the country, everybody was happy to buy it, but when it didn’t sell that was when we found out what returns meant. It was clogging this warehouse in Brooklyn.

 

Around 1959 or so, I went around to carnivals and offered them for a penny a piece, and it got so bad I offered them at 10 for a penny. They would say, ‘We don’t want them.’

 

I couldn’t give them away. So we said let’s get rid of them. We decided to dump them in the ocean.

 

They were put in boxes. It took three garbage trucks. I would say 300-500 cases. All high series of 1952 Topps. I found a friend of mine who had a garbage scow and we loaded the three trucks-worth on the barge. It was tugged out by a tugboat. I was out there with it. (We dumped the boxes) opposite Atlantic Highlands, a few miles out.

 

And that was the end of it. Whoever thought that they would have the kind of value that they would have?

 

There you go. Back in 1959 nobody would buy seedy, old 1952 baseball cards of players like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays ten for a penny so Topps had to dump them all in the ocean.

 

 

 

If they hadn't been dumped they would've been the Major Inapak of baseball cards. The smart thing would have been to hold out ten cases and dump the rest.

[Hepcat]

If they hadn't been dumped they would've been the Major Inapak of baseball cards. The smart thing would have been to hold out ten cases and dump the rest.

 

Actually I wish the boxes had been distributed as a door prize to the first 10,000 attendees at the first National Sports Collectors Convention. That way all collectors today would be able to afford Mantle and Mays rookie cards.

 

[ft88]

Not saying this didn't happen but this is a much better yarn than simply,

 

"As we got fewer orders during the year we distributed less and then pulped a lot of the leftovers."

 

It's like the guy who's mom threw away his comics. He always had an Xmen #1 and all the rest of them too.....

[MrBedrock]

Someone posted this on Facebook. Don't know if this has been posted here already and I have no idea what the story is, but apparently the photo sessions got more risqué...

[Scrooge]

Dell comics are good comics

[Comicdey]

Risqué photos with porky pig. Whodathunkit

[BangZoom]

 

 

 

 

 

[MrBedrock]

That's a different photo

 

The Planet looks a little out of place there.

[Sarg]

I love these pictures of newsstands. I'm amazed at the members' ability to spot the exact issue based on the smallest clues.

 

Looking at all of these pictures, you get the impression that pretty much every magazine was either romance for the women or detective/sports for the men. Not much variety. I didn't realize until these pictures were posted how few serious news/politics magazines were featured on the newsstands. "Time" looks very lonely in some of these pics.

 

2. in this nyc stand (nov 19 1935) that has been posted before, there is one comic.

 

 

 

Lucky I found this picture in the thread. Someone photoshoped a couple action 1s in it as I stumbled upon the picture on a website. Knew it was too good to be true

 

[Sqeggs]

I love these pictures of newsstands. I'm amazed at the members' ability to spot the exact issue based on the smallest clues.

 

Looking at all of these pictures, you get the impression that pretty much every magazine was either romance for the women or detective/sports for the men. Not much variety. I didn't realize until these pictures were posted how few serious news/politics magazines were featured on the newsstands. "Time" looks very lonely in some of these pics.

 

2. in this nyc stand (nov 19 1935) that has been posted before, there is one comic.

 

 

 

Lucky I found this picture in the thread. Someone photoshoped a couple action 1s in it as I stumbled upon the picture on a website. Knew it was too good to be true

 

 

Good point, although I see Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post featured prominently in the first row. They were big sellers and published fairly serious stuff, including short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary types.

[jpepx78]

I love these pictures of newsstands. I'm amazed at the members' ability to spot the exact issue based on the smallest clues.

 

Looking at all of these pictures, you get the impression that pretty much every magazine was either romance for the women or detective/sports for the men. Not much variety. I didn't realize until these pictures were posted how few serious news/politics magazines were featured on the newsstands. "Time" looks very lonely in some of these pics.

There are newsstand pictures with news or political magazines but I don't find them to be interesting.

Russian magazines and communist propaganda in a New York City newsstand in 1937.

 

Here is a reason why I find newsstand photos with comics to be fascinating.

These 2 photos were taken by Marjory Collins of 2 workers looking at newspapers while waiting for a trolley after work in Baltimore Maryland in April 1943.

 

Look closely and see there are 7 different comics in the photos and one of them is Gift Comics #3. Gift #3 is a 324 page squarebound of different Fawcett titles printed at the same time as the individual original comics bound inside.

So based on the appearance of the other comics and the April 1943 issue of Esquire magazine pictured, here is evidence that Gift #3 was published in 1943 and not in 1949 as indicated in the Overstreet guide and the Grand Comics Database. You read it here first.

 

Notice the Hi Ho Inn restaurant/bar sign over the worker's shoulder. The Hi Ho restaurant was located on 308 East Baltimore so these pictures were taken at the corner of East Baltimore St and North Holliday St in downtown Baltimore.

matchbook covers from the HI Ho Inn

 

Can you identify the other 6 comics? Answers in a couple days unless people figure them out before then.

 

[markseifert]

So based on the appearance of the other comics and the April 1943 issue of Esquire magazine pictured, here is evidence that Gift #3 was published in 1943 and not in 1949 as indicated in the Overstreet guide and the Grand Comics Database. You read it here first.

 

That's the stuff. Brilliant.

[Primetime]

I love these pictures of newsstands. I'm amazed at the members' ability to spot the exact issue based on the smallest clues.

 

Looking at all of these pictures, you get the impression that pretty much every magazine was either romance for the women or detective/sports for the men. Not much variety. I didn't realize until these pictures were posted how few serious news/politics magazines were featured on the newsstands. "Time" looks very lonely in some of these pics.

There are newsstand pictures with news or political magazines but I don't find them to be interesting.

Russian magazines and communist propaganda in a New York City newsstand in 1937.

 

Here is a reason why I find newsstand photos with comics to be fascinating.

These 2 photos were taken by Marjory Collins of 2 workers looking at newspapers while waiting for a trolley after work in Baltimore Maryland in April 1943.

 

Look closely and see there are 7 different comics in the photos and one of them is Gift Comics #3. Gift #3 is a 324 page squarebound of different Fawcett titles printed at the same time as the individual original comics bound inside.

So based on the appearance of the other comics and the April 1943 issue of Esquire magazine pictured, here is evidence that Gift #3 was published in 1943 and not in 1949 as indicated in the Overstreet guide and the Grand Comics Database. You read it here first.

 

Notice the Hi Ho Inn restaurant/bar sign over the worker's shoulder. The Hi Ho restaurant was located on 308 East Baltimore so these pictures were taken at the corner of East Baltimore St and North Holliday St in downtown Baltimore.

matchbook covers from the HI Ho Inn

 

Can you identify the other 6 comics? Answers in a couple days unless people figure them out before then.

batman 17 and Tec 75 , all flash 10, More Fun 91, whiz 53....should be a cap 26 and USA 8 too

[Primetime]

Cool stuff Jeff. Keep those old pics coming