Wallet Card with a whole lot of privilege signs

I always love to post any privilege signs I find. Those are the signs that certain companies, mostly soda manufacturers, would pay for a business's sign in exchange for the privilege of having their logo prominent on the sign. These were highly prevalent in the 1950s-1970s; any surviving signs almost certainly date from that time, and provide a little window back into the past.

I found a lot of them in my ramble across the city this summer.

COCA-COLA

I found a lot of surviving Coke signs throughout Brooklyn.

 

 

 

Most of those signs have likely not moved for decades, though it is possible one or two were added at a later date for a "retro" look. This one in Greenpoint clearly falls into that later category, but it's still really interesting. It's a double-sided sign at a bowling alley.

 

 

 Take a closer look at the hanging part of the sign.

 It's clearer to see on the "BAR" side.

 

At some point, somebody painted over an old sign for "Evelyn's Groceries". Over time the white paint has faded and the original is once again visible. 

 

One more Coke privilege sign, this one is in Astoria, Queens. This was originally much longer and had a Coke sign on either side, but half the sign has been replaced by another business.

This is a "ghost sign", not a "privilege sign", but still fits the Coke theme. Partially obscured by a modern billboard in Soho, Manhattan.

 PEPSI

Moving on to Pepsi. This double-sider is another vintage sign that was added in recent years, but still gives off that nice retro feel.

This particular one was my personal favorite. While it is certainly possible that it is a reproduction added at a later time, the sign and bracket are both pretty old, and they fit in very well with the buildings around them. I've found a photo of it in the 1980s (above a business at the time which had a Coke privilege sign) so it's probably legit. Whether or not it's truly been there for 70 years, it felt like it to me, and it's one I looked at for quite a while (well, maybe a minute or two), imagining that I'd stepped back into the past.

I couldn't get as good an angle at the reverse side.

This one in Park Slope is obviously a lot more modern, but is probably 25 years or older. Probably not a true privilege sign, but painted on by the business, it's still pretty cool.

7-UP

This great sign is still visible under an awning in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

Here is the full sign.

This one in Chinatown is another one that was painted on, maybe 1980s or 1990s, but still has that retro look, and is fairly old in it's own right.

 

1981 Topps Rowland Office

The front: Office in the on-deck circle. It's not Montreal or New York, I am thinking either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

The back: Office's famous catch came in 1977, not 1975. Check out Night Owl's post about how Topps constantly referred to the catch on the back of Office's cards, as well as the comments on that post. Unfortunately the game was not televised, and there do not appear to be any photos of the catch. The New York Times writeup on the game does not even mention the catch.

The player: Office came up at the tail end of Hank Aaron's career and was often compared to him. However, his reckless style of play led to numerous injuries (including a back injury sustained in his legendary catch). His 29-game hitting streak in 1976 is one of the longest in Braves history. He spent parts of seven seasons in Atlanta, parts of three seasons in Montreal, and played in two games for the Yankees in 1983.

The man: Office seems to have lead a very low-profile life during and after his career. Anyone know where he is now?

My collection: I have 12 of his cards, from 1975 to 1982. I would be interested in trading for 1983 TCMA Columbus Clippers #27.

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Juan Marichal

 

I love seeing the real Sportflics effect here with Marichal's famous high leg kick. It looks better in person.

The player: Juan Marichal came up with the Giants in 1960 and pitched a one-hitter in his debut, heralding the rise of a new star pitcher in the National League. Marichal won 191 games in the 1960s, the most in the major leagues, winning 20 games six times in seven years from 1963 to 1969. He never won the Cy Young Award, as first Sandy Koufax and then Bob Gibson dominated the league at the same time Marichal was consistently winning games. Chronic back pain and other injuries limited his effectiveness as an elite pitcher after the age of 33, so he did not put up huge career numbers as well. Still, his career numbers of 243-142, 2.89 ERA and 2,303 strikeouts rank him as one of the best pitchers of his era.

The person: Marichal generally lived a life without incident, with the major exception of August 22, 1965. In an already-tense game with brushback pitchers, Marichal was batting against Sandy Koufax when catcher John Roseboro's return throw grazed Marichal's head. Marichal hit Roseboro twice with his bat, opening a bloody gash that needed 14 stitches to close. Marichal was suspended for eight games, hit with a record fine, and instantly became one of the most hated men in sports. Despite his pitching accomplishments, baseball writers did not elect Marichal in his first two years of Hall of Fame eligibility. It was only after Roseboro publicly forgave him that he was elected to the Hall. Roseboro and Marichal reportedly became good friends after that. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Roseboro was an announcer and the director of the A's Dominican Republic operations. From 1996 to 2000 he was that country's Minister of Sports and Physical Education. He still lives in the Dominican Republic, on a large farm where he remains active.

My collection: I have his base Topps cards from 1962, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1973 and 1974.

A Year of Topps Designs: 1962

1962 was an all-time great year for set design at Topps. The baseball and football sets were instant classic. The woodgrain baseball set is iconic, and personally I think the black bordered football set with the action-photo inset is even better.

The hockey set is also quite good, with an action picture behind the player.

In non-sport, Topps put out a set for the movie Mars Attacks. The set remains well-known to this day, maybe even more than the film.

That set was all-horizontal, as was a Civil War news set which capitalized on the increased interest in the war on its centennial. Both of these sets were some of the most graphically violent sets in the company's history.

The only other set put out in 1962 was "Casey and Kildare", featuring the two heartthrob TV doctors. Each card was a black-and-white photo of one of the doctors, with the actor's facsimile signature.

Trade with BobbyL

Got some cards in a TCDB trade with a user named BobbyL. Most of the cards completed or nearly completed sets for me. In a couple of cases I thought they completed sets but they didn't.

1994 Donruss: completed

1995 Fleer: completed

1994 Score: completed

1995 Score: thought it was completed, turns out I need three more: 420 (Salmon), 602, 603 (checklists)

2016 Topps: thought it was completed, turns out I need two more: 167 (Ellsbury), 263 (Joc Pederson). So somehow there's a Yankee common from this set that's never landed my way. Turns out I already had the Maybin too.

1991 Ultra: completed

1994 Ultra: completed

1995 Ultra: need one more, 331 (A-Rod)

Got a few other cards from various sets as well, that were on my wantlist for various reasons:

 

Street trades going strong

I'm not in the city very much anymore, but I do try to pull off a street trade when I am in. This week I met up with Al at this table and a lot of cards changed hands.

This one was on Al's table but he was fine with me taking it; I guess it had been there a while with no takers. This 1958 card is one of the oldest and nicest cards I've gotten in one of these trades.

Everything else came from his boxes, like this minor league Frank Thomas card. It looks like a Broder but it was actually an insert card from a Best set.

I got catfished by this card, and I don't mean Jim Hunter. It was in a toploader and I thought it was some Expos oddball; it was actually three paper-thin baseball-card style business cards for this guy's financial services business. Apparently, Resner actually was a minor league coach for the Expos, and he also made a film of the last Giants game at the Polo Grounds that is quite well known. Still, I can't really consider this a legit baseball card.

Al has lots of these silver pack cards. Well, one of those is a shiny Bowman card, but same idea, shiny modern cards. Turns out I already had the Bregman.

Picked out some Yankees. Turns out I already had Teixeira and Wang too. Green sparkly Cervelli makes up for those mistakes.

Picked out a bunch of superstars figuring I'd need them, and I was right for all. Wally Backman isn't a superstar but I don't have many '88 Leaf cards.

Because I have wantlists for these sets on my blog, I could check these on my phone and confirm I needed them. Eloy Jimenez rookie card was a big deal when it came out; he's only 25 and had a pretty good season, so there's still a chance he could be a star.

From the eBay dime box

I've gotten a few more cheap singles from eBay recently.

This one wasn't actually a dime, ended up being thirty cents. I put $0.25 bids on any vintage cards I need; this one went up but not all the way to $0.30, so I bid again and didn't get beat. Al McBean is forgotten today, but he was the Pirates relief ace for much of the 1960s.

Balancing out McBean, this vintage card was somehow only a nickel. Two-time batting champion Tommy Davis was coming off an excellent season with the Mets, but appears to still be in Dodgers gear here.

Not vintage, but four nice shiny cards. All but Mikolas are numbered too (Narvaez 13/191, Jansen 10/38, Snell 7/85). Not bad for a dime each. I know it's not fashionable to praise Panini cards but these all look real nice to me.

 

Time Travel Football

Here are my latest Diamond Jesters Time Travel Trade pickups. All football this time.

The nicest one is this Alvin Harper card, with a photo by Walter Iooss. Unlike similar baseball cards, there is no story from the photographer, just a writeup of the player, but it's still a great card. Even though it's a Cowboy.

The rest are all from a 1993 Score insert set. There are no player names on the front which is an odd choice. Best card here is a Cowboy too, old Giants-killer Emmitt Smith.

 

Trade with alexewolf

Did another smaller TCDB trade recently, with alexewolf.

Most of the cards I got came from the 2021 Topps set. Some highlights include Brewers dabbing and Blue Jays using sanitizer.

There were also two cards from long before anyone would have imagined seeing either of those things on a baseball card.

Trade with Mark Zentkovich

Mark Zentkovich (mzentko on TCDB) isn't a blogger, but he's a frequent commenter. He reached out to me regarding a trade and we ended up with a nice little swap. This brings my needs for 2014 Topps under 50, and all but one are from series 2. Three big stars here, and one guy whose big league career lasted 28 games.