The Post War Cards Newsletter #364

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A quick follow-up to my piece from NL #356, where I shared the artwork used for Cal Ripken Jr.’s 1986 Topps Tattoo.

Bill Haelig, who owns the piece and has been a Ripken family collector for more than 40 years, checked his records and noted that the Topps Vault described it as “paste-up art.”

Bill also believes Topps sourced the image from an Orioles team photo from the mid-1980s, when Mort Tadder was the team photographer.

And with a little photo-editing magic, it looks awfully close to me!

P.S. I’ve also been a Cal Ripken Jr. collector in the past. Having grown up in Baltimore during his playing years, Ripken was one of my childhood heroes. So, naturally, The Hobby Library has a pair of books dedicated to his collectibles. It took me years to finally track down these copies, and I haven’t seen either for sale in a while, but you may have better luck!

There are a lot of player collectors out there, and a lot of variations that even some of the most dedicated ones might not know about. I learned about a new one from Rich McKee on X: it turns out there are three variations of the 1987 Donruss #612 Roberto Clemente card. (There are a few PSA-graded copies on eBay, including the following Gem Mt 10 example.)

The differences are all on the back: one has a 5 mm space between the bio and copyright line, another has an 11 mm space, and the factory set version has an 8 mm space, with the bottom of the back matching up with the left side of the front.

Here are the examples TCDB has for each back, 5 mm, 8 mm, and 11 mm, top to bottom.

A quick clarification on yesterday’s Warren Spahn photo: I got the image from someone who believed it was connected to Spahn’s 1958 Topps card. I noted that it wasn’t an exact match, but I should have been more careful with the attribution.

Topps was shooting its own images by 1956 (in color), and the image used for Spahn’s 1958 card likely came from a 1957 shoot at the Polo Grounds, not Spring Training, other negatives from that same shoot are known.

So, while the photo I shared is still an interesting Spahn image, it shouldn’t have been presented as being connected to his 1958 Topps card. Thanks to those who reached out with the additional information and correction.

Have a wonderful Saturday!