The E-mail Bag

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[Web editor note: I received this note from a friendly 72 year old collector in California. He recalls collecting vintage cards in his youth. I told him I was going to the March 2003 Philly Card show, and he shared some of his collecting memories.]

Dear Kurt,

Have fun at the Philly show. I used to shop there with my mother when I was a kid and we lived close to Camden. That was more than 60 years ago! I actually collected Horror Of War cards myself. The chewing gum was lousy but the cards were fun.

Occasionally we would tape one of the cards so it stuck partly into the spokes of your bike. Then when you rode it sounded like you had a motor. You'd probably be surprised how many of the cards were destroyed that way. It was a very common practice. My ex-partner (bysiness) lived here in San Diego as a kid and I lived in New Jersey. When we've talked about our childhood days it seems we did exactly the same things. He collected HOW cards too and "motorized" his bike.

Do you you have in your collection one of the cards that we kids coveted the most? The one that says on the back "You're LUCKY! you get a package of cards FREE" Many card dealers seem to think the message on the back is a stigma or defect.

I have no statistics to back me up, but I believe these UNCLAIMED "lucky cards" are among the rarrest of all Horror Of War cards. When the cards were brought in to redeem, the store clerk would write something on the back to cancel their redemption value. I, and all of the other kids in my town, always went for the free pack. I couldn't imagine not doing it!

Each gum package contained one card. the gum was a flat rectangle..same size as the card. The gum was an ugly color, had a terrible sickening sweet smell, and a lousy taste......but what the heck. We were kids and you can be sure we chewed it anyway. I'm pretty sure it was one cent a pack. I think the "free" packs contained five cards. I'm not sure on that one. I don't know if there were packs of just cards for sale at the time. There were whole sets of cards sold.

-Cliff

[Thanks Cliff. It is believed that HOW cards were first sold at 1 cent per pack of one card and stick of gum. Soon, it was 5 cents for five cards. When Bowman started selling the high number series, they eventually offered complete sets of the earlier cards (1-240) for just $1!]

Just saw your [Wrapper article] web site and I'm impressed again! Also saw your article about Bowman cowboy cards. One thing of interest to me on your site was the mention of the "bands" on the "Scoops" cards. I have a bunch of them and never could figure out how those marks got on them. They certainly came that way when new.....printing error of some sort, I guess. I didn't know it was common.

[The Scoops cards with hints of black lines running across the front are rather common. Here's why: Topps issued the series a couple of times. The first time, it had two wide black bands covering most the art. Kids were supposed to scrape it off to see the image, like they were developing a picture. When they were done, they often didn't get ALL the black removed, and it would leave those lines on the image. They later reissued the series without any black on the front at all. Those of course, look pristine. Occasionally, you'll run across one that has the complete black bands still intact. I hear those are practically impossible to remove the bands and save the image after all these years. But why bother? It would be kinda cool to have a "before and after" specimen anyway!]

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