Each five-cent wax pack of 1961 contained two-stamp panels of stamps as an insert. The players were available in two tints:
There was a green tint (seen above) and a brown tint as shown below:
As you can see, the players weren't given a league-specific tint.
There were 207 players in the set. However, that number can't be divided by two, so Al Kaline is found with both tints. That makes 208 stamps in a compete set, which is very affordable for collectors because there's limited interest in non-card inserts. Superstars from the set are able to be picked up for a fraction of their corresponding card from the base set.
Advanced collectors have identified 182 different panel combinations as well. Surprisingly, most complete panels do not have a large premium over the combined price of the two individual stamps. For instance, the panel price for two common players is about a dollar over the stamps' combined value. For stars, however, a premium is more significant because of their collectability.
An stamp album was also available from Topps as a mail-in offer for 10 cents.
These are really cool. I hadn't ever seen them.
ReplyDeleteAny pics of what the stamp album looks like?
ReplyDeleteGoogle image search for Topps 1961 Stamp Album. A guy is selling one on Craigslist and has pics. I can't get to it from here at work. It's the green album with team pages inside.
DeleteThese were my favorite inserts' as a kid collecting back then (although we didn't call them inserts). I liked these even more than the full color ones that came later.
ReplyDeleteThere were two stamp sets in hockey - a 1961-62 Topps set that mimicked these and a '69-70 Topps/OPC release that was meant to be stuck to the back of the cards in the set. Both are tough to find.
ReplyDeleteHm. The Bob Allison stamp says "Minn. - St. Paul" as the team, with no mention of the Twins. Does that indicate they were put together well before the 1961 first series of cards?
ReplyDelete