1962 Topps #103 Don Blasingame (Reds)

Neat little oddball set with interesting fronts & backs with a very unusual mix of players.     Cards issued as promotional lead-in for "Cardboard Dreams" a new soon to be issued sportscard magazine. The cards were given out at Southern California and a couple of larger regional baseball card shows in random 1-card packs.
Shortly before magazine's 1st issue, MLB began several lawsuits against similar magazines. Soon after, plans for the magazine were dropped leaving just the small run of promotional cards (said to be 5,000) and some scarce proofs.

      SERIES 1                   SERIES 2
  #1 Willie Mays            # 9 Mickey Mantle                
  #2 Nolan Ryan             #10 Nolan Ryan & Sandy Koufax   
  #3 Tony Gwynn             #11 Frank Thomas & David Justice
  #4 Wayne Gretzky          #12 Brett Hull                  
  #5 Jose Canseco/Madonna   #13 Ted Williams & Joe DiMaggio 
  #6 Ken Griffey Jr         #14 Barry Sanders               
  #7 Bo Jackson             #15 Dan Marino                  
  #8 Michael Jordan         #16 Magic Johnson & Larry Bird  

  Promo/Prototype #1: Nolan Ryan / Wayne Gretzky / Bo Jackson / Jose Canseco & Madonna
  Promo/Prototype #2: Mickey Mantle / Nolan Ryan & Sandy Koufax 
                      Ted Williams & Joe DiMaggio / David Justice & Frank Thomas

The 1976 Crane football disc set contains 30 cards, actually 3 3/8" diameter discs, including one of only two 1976 issues containing the rookie card of an unknown rookie named Walter Payton. His only other 1976 issue, his 1976 Topps card, sells for over $200 !!!

The set is filled with other stars and Hall-of-Famers including:
Terry Bradshaw,Roger Staubach,Alan Page,Ed Marinaro (more famous as a star actor in the Hill Street Blues TV series ...

A recently discovered version that was inserted into selected packages of Crane potato chips have been found. Franco Harris can only be found in this "product inserted" version of the discs. None of the second version of the discs are considered part of the complete set due to their scarcity.

TOP CARDS: WALTER PAYTON ROOKIE, Franco Harris SHORT PRINT, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach ...

Gateway Stamp Company has provided collectors over 1 MILLION authenticated certified autographs over the last 30+ years. Though a "stamp company", Gateway rarely dealt in stamps, going down a new creative road becoming one of the world's unique secrets in autograph collecting. They combined the best in art, color photographs, historical events and autographs with their full-color silk cachet envelopes. Gateway's first client was Cardinals Hall of Famer Lou Brock and hundreds followed.

WHAT ARE FULL-COLOR SILK CACHETS?
A "cachet" is a design on an envelope marking an event. "Full-color silk" refers to the delicate material into which the art and photography are printed. After the silk artwork is applied it's signed by the player and then officially post-marked by the U.S. Post Office IN THE CITY OF THE EVENT !!!

WHY POSTMARKS?
The key to EVERY Gateway cachet is the postmark. A postmark is a great way to mark historical events. The rules governing the granting of postmarks GUARANTEE that NO Gateway issue can EVER be re-issued protecting the value of the autographed cachets !!!