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Not Just Castoffs

Our blogs are usually about sports card collections that we are able to purchase. The stories behind these collections are what we enjoying sharing and often times, the stories are more intriguing than the cards themselves.

Many people collected sports cards, but non-sports cards were also readily available competing for shelf space at the local pharmacy, candy store or Five and Dime.  These cards often became after thoughts as children were more interested in athletes than television, movies or cartoon characters. In the 1930's and 1940's, non-sports sets featured Mickey Mouse, Superman, The Lone Ranger and a wide range of war related cards including Horrors of War, Uncle Sam and War Gum.  Even more sets were produced in the 1950's and began featuring television programs and music stars and included Zorro, The Three Stooges, Elvis Presley and T.V. Westerns.  The 1960's may have been the hey-day of non-sports cards with multiple manufacturers producing sets for almost every occasion.

These non-sports cards should not be considered castoffs, although back in the day, it seems that many did toss them aside.  Many of them have quite a bit of value!

The Castaways

Luckily, we recently were able to purchase large collection of non-sports cards from a gentleman that enjoyed non-sport because he watched a lot of television and many of these cards featured his favorite shows, so there's a focus on cards from his youth.  We'll be sharing this large non-sport collection with you in more detail over the coming blogs.  This blog will feature a complete 1965 Topps Gilligan's Island Set and it won't take a three hour tour to get through it . . . we hope.

A Tough Set in High Grade

The Gilligan's Island set is one of the tougher sets from the era to be found in high grade.  As demonstrated with the PSA chart, top condition cards are virtually impossible to obtain from third party grading. 

There are several theories for this, but probably the most logical, in our opinion, is because of the wear and tear inflicted upon the cards because of the two flip movies featured on the reverse of the cards.

The 1965 Topps Gilligan's Island Set remains one of the era's most popular entertainment trading card sets. The combination of a memorable show with identifiable characters has added to the continued demand for this set that set consists of 55 standard-sized, 2-1/2" by 3-1/2" cards.

The card fronts are schemed entirely in black and white with the images coming from show stills and promotional images. Most come with bubble quotes that are highlighted by bad and corny jokes. A Gilligan's Island logo rests in a corner of the card.

The top and bottom of the card backs have a different set of images. One is framed in a red film strip, the other in a black film strip. The premise is that collectors can make a pair of animated flip movies with the cards when a complete set was assembled in numerical order.

More to Come

As we continue to scour through this vast collection, we'll be singling out and bringing you more and more blogs about some of the great non-sport sets included in this collection.  We're not going to spoil the anticipation, but let's suffice it to say that there are plenty of great cards that we'll be sharing and we're really looking forward to writing the blogs to help reminisce about some of these classic releases.

To paraphrase the classic final verse of the Gilligan's Island Theme Song: 

Read us here each week our friends,
All the collections that we log,
And share with us from the 459
Here on Just Collect's Blog!

Schedule an Appointment to Meet Just Collect at a Show Near You

Just Collect travels to several shows on a regular basis. In the New York area, we often attend the White Plains Show at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY. If you're in the New England area, you can make an appointment to meet with one of our specialists when we're in the area for the Shriner's Show at the Aleppo Auditorium in Wilmington, MA. We also visit the Metro-DC area when we attend the CSA Show in Chantilly, VA. If you're in the South Jersey or Delaware area, you can also schedule appointments while we're in the Philadelphia area when we do The Philly Show in Valley Forge, PA.

We set up at The National Sports Collectors Convention every year and this year, it will be at the IX Center in Cleveland, OH and it has been in Chicago, Atlantic City and Baltimore in recent years. Additionally, we travel to the Sports Card and Memorabilia Expo in Mississauga, Ontario for those of you in the Toronto area that want to meet with us in Canada.

We would love to meet with you and schedule a private appointment to assess and value your collection while we are in your area, so please check out our show and travel schedule to see when Just Collect will be in your area!

Our Buying Philosophy

We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the past decade. Although we are known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage basketball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, also!

Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and soul into building their collection. So when you're ready to sell, Just Collect understands the feelings that you're going through and we will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.

Won't They Be Worth More if I Grade Them Myself

We discuss all of the selling options with everyone that we meet with. In most cases, selling the collection on their own will put the most money on the bottom line, but it will also take an large commitment of time and energy and one that most are not ready or able to undertake. Another misconception is that grading the collection will return more money. When I hear people say, "You're just going to grade them and get ten times the money," I almost cringe. Grading a collection can be a money losing proposition, especially if you don't know what you're doing. And most times, we grade very few, if any cards, from average collections that we buy.

We value a collection based upon the condition and the value. If a card is worth $100 in a PSA 7 NM, we're going to value it at $100 whether it is ungraded or graded. You can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars grading your cards, but we're still valuing them the same and paying the same regardless of how much you've invested in grading them.

We Are Always Buying

Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss your collection and get our industry leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace.

Don't hesitate to check out our Google Reviews left by many of the great people that have considered selling collections to Just Collect.

The "1965 Topps Gilligan's Island Non-Sport Set Collection" Video: