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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Card Show Top 20 - #15 Bogus Boog

This is another card from the Mystical Dollar Box from Dimension X. It's a 1969 Topps Deckle Edge insert of Boog Powell. Now, normally I'd only pick these up in a quarter box. Certainly not in a box stuffed full of craziness. This one caught my eye though - take a gander.


Looks like a typical Deckle Edge card. A little ragged looking perhaps. I already had a '69 DE card of Boog. Let's compare:


Hmmm... it's smaller, the autograph is black instead of blue, it's not as glossy, and the deckle on the edge is completely different. What gives? When I saw the odd deckle a long ago memory of an article in a baseball card magazine came to mind. I recognized that raggedy-ass deckle, but I could not for the life of me remember where it was from. On further examination I came to the conclusion that this might be a proof card. Check out the back:


There's nothing on the back at all . The cardboard is is completely different too. The paper is a little darker and a little rougher. So my thought process is this: Different deckle, different ink, blank back = possible proof.  Of course, Different paper, different size, different deckle = possible reprint or fake. So I was gambling that this was a rare proof card (with some of the other crazy crap I saw in that box it wasn't out of the realm of possibility) or a worthless phony. Either way, I would get a good story out of it. I took it home and did some detectiving.

I checked the SCD, and while there were proof sheets created for Deckle Edge cards in 1968 (some with black in autographs even) Boog wasn't one of the subjects. There was another rare proof set made in 1974, but that was a completely different size and there was again no Boog. I did some Googling, but found absolutely nothing besides a lot of auctions  trying to get me to buy Deckle Edge cards. I finally found a link to The Topps Archives blog. The Google link oddly did not have anything to do with Deckle Edge cards, but there was a link on the sidebar for the Deckle Edge tag. I clicked and searched and found this.


I never even thought about O-Pee-Chee. This Boog isn't bogus, it's Canadian. I am a border bigot. All the Canadian readers probably knew the second they saw the first image. "Eh, that's an O-Pee-Chee card ya dumb Yank." So now I got a '69 O-Pee-Chee insert and another baseball card detective case closed.  Not too shabby.

The Top 20 List:

#20 Reds' Heavy Artillery
#19 Blue MadDog
#18 Lil' Jimmy
#17 Real Fake '52
#16 First Topps
#15 Bogus Boog
#14 V103 Tree
#13 Sertoma Rico
#12 '55 Finishers
#11 Hey Shiny
#10 What the Dickens
#9 '60 Spahnnie
#8 Lonely '53
#7 Super Chief
#6 Original Frank
#5 Hoops Inspiration
#4 Rocket Robin
#3 Wizard Off Kilter
#2 Shenanigans Were Called
#1 The Holy Grail of Commons

3 comments:

night owl said...

My first thought was OPC even before you started mentioning proofs. I'm not even Canadian (altho, for all intents ...)

And, my luck, it would've been a worthless phony.

Captain Canuck said...

you could've just asked.... ;)

Chris Stufflestreet said...

Glad you found out what it was.

But, just in case, I was ready to give you your answer when I saw the photos.

But, then again...I'm kinda in the same boat as Night Owl when it comes to Canada. It was great when I was 19 and close enough to go bar hopping across the border (and as long as one person was sober while driving us back...no laws were broken).

Verification word..."spesses"...I'd hate to have to say that if I had a lisp.