Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes. Wizards of the Coast was founded by Peter Adkison in 1990 just outside Seattle, Washington.

Originally a role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s. Magic: The Gathering was originally called Manaclash. The game proved extremely popular at Gen Con in August 1993, selling out of its supply of 2.5 million cards, which had been scheduled to last until the end of the year.



WotC acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons by purchasing the failing company TSR and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game.

In January 1999, Wizards of the Coast began publishing the highly successful Pokémon Trading Card Game. The game sold nearly 400,000 copies in less than six weeks. There was such a high demand for Pokémon cards that some sports card series were discontinued in 1999 because so many printers were producing Pokémon cards.

Seeing the continued success of Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering, toy giant Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast in September 1999, for about US$325 million.

Wizards of the Coast also started a chain of retail gaming stores after the company's great success in 1999 with Pokémon, run under the names "Game Keeper" and "Wizards of the Coast". The stores were closed in the spring of 2004.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

In 1949 there were many post war shortages in England, including the rationing of sweets. In London four young men, all recently demobilized from their military service, Simon Anysz, Rudy Braun, and brothers Douglas and Tony Coakley decided to form a company with the aim of producing and selling chewing gum. The partners decided on the name A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd. Contrary.

In the early days, there were many difficulties, including fighting establishment who thought chewing gum was disgusting and not worth considering during these times of shortages. Since there was no sugar available without a license, one of the first ever-sugarless chewing gums were produced using an artificial sweetener so that the product did not require sweet rationing coupons.



A&BC remembered the popularity of the children's craze for cards from before the War and thought that cards would improve the sales of their gum. Their first bubble gum was produced and included cards of Film & TV Stars wrapped with a fake dollar bill, hence the name "Dollar Bubble Gum".

In 1952, Topps came to England and visited A&BC Chewing Gum. According to the recollection of the Coakley brothers he advised A&BC that they were getting nowhere and advised them to partner up with Topps. A&BC ignored this advice and declined the Topps offer. In 1959, Topps approached A&BC again and this time, the terms of the deal suited A&BC. The two companies negotiated a license for A&BC to produce Bazooka Bubble Gum and to reproduce some of Topps' card gum series, starting with Elvis Presley.



Over the next 15 years A&BC continued to produce their own series of cards, increasingly focusing on the popular football (soccer) cards, though they also produced the Topps U.S. series range of cards. Regardless of the source, all A&BC cards were printed in England.

A&BC Gum began with an 'All Sports' series in 1954, a set of 120 cards which included 36 footballers. They followed this in 1958 with a set of 92 footballer cards, and thus began a run of 16 unbroken years of football card production. During this 16 year period A&BC produced both English and Scottish sets.

In 1962/63 Douglas Coakley approached Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, and obtained the rights to produce cards of the Beatles. A set of 60 cards were first produced and issued. In the U.S., A&BC gave Topps the photographs and helped to negotiate the rights for Topps to produce these sets in America.



At the time the company folded it had 350 employees and they left behind six card/gum machines which could produce 200 packs per minute and wrap pieces of Bazooka per minute.

Topps Chewing Gum took over for A&BC in 1974. They produced their first set of football cards under the Topps Bazooka Limited name in 1975. They continued each year until 1981, after which they became occasional producers of football cards.

The A&BC cards were 8 cms long by 5.5 cms wide and really set the benchmark that all football cards would subsequently be judged against.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

Norman Saunders was a commercial artist who produced paintings for pulp magazines, paperbacks, adventure magazines, comic books, and trading cards. Born in Badger, Minnesota, Saunders' earliest art training was though a correspondence course.



Saunder's career was launched when his contributions to Captain Billy's Whiz Bang resulted in a job with Fawcett Publications, where he was employed from 1928 to 1934.



In 1958, Saunders obtained his first assignment from the Topps company which involved painting over photographs of baseball players who had been traded. This was done so that the players would appear to be wearing the jersey of their new team. Topps also employed Saunders to create artwork for many other cards.

Saunders was hired to paint scenes for one of the most successful non-sports card sets of all-time, Mars Attacks in 1962. Letters of protest poured in from parents, prompting Topps to issue the cards under a different company name.



His Wacky Packages cards were even more commercially successful. He also produced a number of less well known trading-card series, including: Ugly Stickers, Nutty Initials, Your Own Name and Civil War News.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

DeWayne Buice was born in 1957 in Lynwood, California. Buice was a Major League Baseball relief pitcher who played two seasons for the California Angels and part of a season for the Toronto Blue Jays. He was awarded Pitcher of the Year and Rolaids Relief Man in 1987. Buice is one of only six pitchers in the Angels' history to strike out at least 100 batters in a season without starting a game. He played in his final game on June 27, 1989 but continued to make appearances in the minor leagues into the 2000s but only for teams in which he had an ownership stake. Buice finished with a career record of 9 wins, 11 losses, 20 saves, 157 strikeouts and a 4.23 earned run average over a 2½-year MLB career. Buice is currently a co-owner of the Reno Astros.



More importantly to collectors, Buice was one of the original managing partners of the Upper Deck trading cards company and he held that position from 1988 to 2000. Buice was in downtown California one evening in November 1987 looking for a Chinese restaurant. He went into a baseball card shop called "The Upper Deck" and asked the person working there whether they knew of the restaurant. Buice and owner Bill Hemrick struck up a friendship which led to Buice having an autograph signing at the store. Within weeks, Buice had become one of Hemrick's business partners.



Bill Hemrick and Paul Sumner were starting a card company called Upper Deck but the players union was not planning on accepting another card company for another three years. Buice was told that if he could help secure Upper Deck a license, he would receive a 12 percent stake in the company. Buice became a key figure in getting MLBPA officials to agree to a meeting. By the end of the 1988 season, Henrick and Summer received the license and were making baseball cards. Although the future partnership was not always peaceful, Buice remains a key figure behind one of the hobby's giants.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

John Allen and Lewis Ginter of Richmond, Virginia formed a tobacco manufacturing firm called Allen and Ginter in 1875. They created and marketed the first cigarette cards for collecting and trading. The cards in the series include notables such as Charles Comiskey, Cap Anson, Jack Glasscock, and Buffalo Bill.



The company offered a prize for the invention of a machine able to roll cigarettes. Until this point in time, they had been hand-rolled. The grand prize was won by James Bonsack with his 1880/81 invention. The machine was not reliable and all but one of the large tobacco manufacturers declined to buy the machine. The machine was eventually bought by James Buchanan Duke in 1885 and used it to great success.

Allen & Ginter baseball cards first debuted in 1887 and quickly became the most popularly collected cards of the time. They honoured champions from around the world, including boxers, wrestlers, and baseball players.

By 1890, Duke had consolidated his four major competitors, including Allen & Ginter, and formed the American Tobacco Company. The "Allen & Ginter Company" ceased to exist, but Lewis Ginter remained on the board of the American Tobacco Company.

The original Allen & Ginter Baseball Cards featured not only the top baseball players, but some of the top names in culture outside of baseball. Topps brought the name and style of card back to collectors in 2006. The 2006 Allen & Ginter set featured athletes such as Mike Tyson and Danica Patrick. Topps also used historical figures from hundreds of years ago in the product.



Continuing the tradition, 2010 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball will feature new inserts, including Scribes and Seafarers, Gods and Monsters, and Cabinet cards which feature full-sized complete relic swatches.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

Bowman Gum was a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of bubble gum and trading cards in the period surrounding World War II.

During the 1930s, Bowman Gum issued the first chewing gum cards, which included a war series.

Bowman Gum was originally known as Gum, Inc. and it produced a series of cards known as the "Play Ball" sets each year from 1939 to 1941. Production halted after the United States entered the war.



The company did not return to making baseball, football, and other sports-related trading cards until 1948, now under the Bowman name.

In 1948 Bowman Gum issued its first baseball issue. While not being well designed, these small black-and-white cards started the baseball card industry as we know it. Bowman sold their cards with a stick of bubble gum.



Also in 1948, Bowman Gum produced a series of 72 cards devoted entirely to basketball. It was the only hoops set Bowman made and the only nationally distributed basketball set until Topps debuted one about a decade later. The Bowman set contains a card of legendary George Mikan.

The 1951 Bowman issue is an extremely attractive issue and includes rookie cards of baseball Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.

For a few years, Bowman was the leading producer of baseball cards but was overtaken by Topps. After a period in which Topps and Bowman fought to sign players to exclusive contracts for their cards, Topps bought out Bowman in 1956.

The Bowman brand was resurrected by Topps in the late 1980s.

In recent years, the Bowman company has become known as the top brand in baseball for rookie cards.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

The Goudey Gum Company was an American chewing gum company started in 1919. The company was founded by Enos Gordon Goudey of Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Enos Goudey sold the company in 1932 but he retained an interest as a consultant. On his retirement in 1933, William Wrigley Jr. dubbed him the "penny gum king of America".

Goudey was the first American company to issue baseball cards with each stick of gum. Cards had mainly been available with cigarettes and candy for many years.



Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are prominently featured in the Goudey cards of the 1930s. They were colorful cards with hand drawn portraits of the players. Hall of Famers depicted on the Goudey cards from 1933 to 1941 include Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Dizzy Dean, Mel Ott, Joe Dimaggio, and Hank Greenberg.

In 1933, Goudey produced a 240 card set, also called "Big League Chewing Gum". These cards were the first baseball cards featuring bubble gum in each pack. The 1933 Goudey set is considered one of the "Big Three" classic baseball card sets, along with the T206 and 1952 Topps sets.

One of the rarest baseball cards is card #106 from the 1933 Goudey set. It was not originally issued with the set. Collectors that sent letters to the Goudey Gum Company complaining about the lack of a #106 card received it in the mail. In 1934, Goudey issued card #106 for the 1933 set with retired player Nap Lajoie. It is known as one of the "Big Three" baseball cards along with the Honus Wagner and Eddie Plank cards from the T206 set.

In 1938, Goudey produced a 48 card set, also known as the "Heads-Up" set. The cards were numbered from 241 to 288, making it look as if Goudey was trying to extend the 1933 Goudey set. The first 24 cards in the set depicts pictures of players heads attached to a cartoonish body in baseball action.



Similar cards as the 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets were also released in Canada by World Wide Gum Co., of Quebec. They are sometimes known as Canadian Goudey sets. The 1933 World Wide Gum set was released with two different backs, one with both French and English, and the other with only English.

Most of the Goudey unreleased cards, printing plates, and company archives were thrown away in the 1960s, although some were sold to collectors.

Goudey baseball card sets
1933 Goudey R319
1933 Sports Kings R338
1933 World Wide Gum V353
1934 Goudey R320
1934 Goudey Premiums R390-1
1934 World Wide Gum V354
1935 Goudey 4-in-1 R321
1935 Goudey Premiums R390-2
1936 Goudey Wide Pens R314
1936 Goudey R322
1936 World Wide Gum V355
1938 Goudey "Heads-Up" R323
1939 Goudey Premiums R303
1939 World Wide Gum V351
1941 Goudey R324

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

The Leaf Candy Company was a major American producer of candy and trading cards. The company was originally founded by Sol S. Leaf in Chicago, Illinois.

Mr. Leaf started various candy companies beginning in the 1920’s and they were merged into Leaf Brands in 1947. The company headquarters were later moved to Illinois before Leaf Brands was eventually sold to Hershey.

Leaf Confectionery Company introduced Rainblo Bubble Gum in 1940. Rainblo gum balls were the first gumballs with a hollow center and the first that had coloring and flavoring throughout the gum, rather than just on the surface of the gumball.

In 1948 Leaf issued its first set of baseball cards, considered one the of the first sets of "modern" baseball cards.



In 1949 Leaf Brands reintroduced malted milk balls as Whoppers which are still popular to this day.

In 1983 Leaf acquired Jolly Rancher. Also in 1983, Leaf Candy Company in Illinois was purchased by Huhtamäki Oyj of Finland. He acquired the Donruss trading card division of General Mills at about the same time and merged it into Leaf.

In the 1990s Leaf had become one of the world's top ten confectionery companies. By 1993 Leaf was the fourth largest candy producer in North America.

Pinnacle Brands acquired the rights to produce trading cards under the Leaf and Donruss imprints from Huhtamäki Oyj. In 1998 Pinnacle/Donruss filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Donruss company itself is shut down and only the name lives on.



Playoff acquired the rights to produce trading cards under the Leaf and Donruss imprints from Pinnacle in a bankruptcy auction.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

Parkhurst Hockey Cards were manufactured by Parkhurst Products, a Canadian manufacturer of sports cards, based in Toronto, Ontario. Their cards were primarily for hockey but also featured Canadian wrestlers.

Although Parkhurst was a popular brand in Canada, it only had the rights to produce cards of the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. Oddly enough, in some years, Parkhurst only had the rights to produce cards featuring players from Montreal and Toronto and the sets could consist of fewer than 70 cards.

Parkhurst produced rookie cards for such infamous players as Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, Terry Sawchuk, and Jean Beliveau.



After disappearing in the 1960s, the brand was resuscitated in 1991 by Dr. Brian H. Price who tried unsuccessfully to acquire an NHL license. As a last resort to bring the historic brand back, he licensed Parhurst to Pro Set Inc., a Dallas based hockey card manufacturer. When Pro Set, Inc. entered Chapter Eleven bakruptcy protection prior to the 1992–93 season, Price took his Parkhurst tradename to Upper Deck.

In 1994–95, a Parkhurst Special Edition set was released that was originally distributed solely in European markets although a large amount made its way to North America.

Parkhurst was the only company to create a card that features an image of Wayne Gretzky in the Kings "playing card" jersey. The card is actually a Kevin Stevens card but on the back is a picture of Kevin Stevens and Wayne Gretzky wearing the Los Angeles Kings' third jersey.



For the 50th anniversary of the initial set, the Parkhurst brand was relaunched by Dr Price's new venture In The Game Trading Cards. The set originally appeared as an insert in various 2000–01 products before being re-introduced a year later as a stand-alone set.

In 2005, Upper Deck re-acquired the Parkhurst name and issued another Parkhurst set.



Parkhurst returned in the 2006–07 season, with a shift in focus to retired players. The set included a wide variety of autographs and was a massive hit among collectors.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

Pro Set was a Dallas-based sports card company founded by Ludwell Denny. Denny acquired a card license after making and selling other NFL memorabilia in previous years. His licensing agreement with NFL Properties gave Pro Set the distinction of being "The Official NFL Card," which they held through 1991.



At its peak, Pro Set had a 44,000-square-foot headquarters and 225 employees. For several years, Pro Set flooded the market with their product. In 1994 they folded due to Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Pro Set was famous for errors and variations. The most sought after variation from 1990 Pro Set is the Fred Marion of the New England Patriots card. The card is controversial because the card features San Francisco 49ers John Taylor in the background and the belt from Taylor's pants came undone. The positioning of the belt gives the appearance that his private area is exposed but it is just a shadow and the belt.

After disappearing in the 1960s, the Parkhurst hockey card brand was resuscitated in 1991 by Dr. Brian Price (currently behind In The Game) and licensed to Pro Set. Pro Set promoted Parkhurst as a premium brand of cards.



Pro Set offered cards in various languages. In 1991, Pro Set featured football cards in Spanish, hockey cards in French, and soccer cards in the "King's English."

In 1992, Pro Set created a 100 card set based on the Guinness Book of World Records. They also created sets for PGA Golf.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

The first hockey cards were included in cigarette packages from 1910 to 1913. After 1918, only one more cigarette set was issued. This set was relased during the 1924-25 season by Champ's Cigarettes.

During the 1920s, some hockey cards were printed by food and candy companies, such as Paulin's Candy, Maple Crispette, Holland Creameries and La Patrie. This practice continues today as many food manufacturers have produced hockey cards such as Kraft Foods.



Until 1941, O-Pee-Chee printed hockey cards but stopped production for World War II.



Food issues returned during the 1951-52 season with sets issued by Shirriff Desserts, York Peanut Butter and Post Cereal.

Parkhurst Products began printing cards in 1951, followed by Topps Chewing Gum in 1954-1955.

One of the most famous sets in hockey card history was created by O-Pee-Chee in 1979-80 which included the infamous Wayne Gretzky rookie card. After many years of white borders on the cards, the blue border from this set is rumoured to be due to an abundance of colour being available after the production of Old Vienna beer packaging from Carling O'Keefe.



After many years of only Topps and O-Pee-Chee, the expolosion of the sports card market in 1990-91 saw new producers named Pro-Set, Score, Upper Deck, and Bowman.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

The first baseball cards appeared in Japan in the late 19th century and used traditional Japanese pen and ink illustrations.



Nippon Professional Baseball cards are currently widely available in Japanese toy stores, convenience stores, sports stores, and are included in certain types of potato chips.

In 1987 and 1988, Topps issued two series of American baseball cards featuring cards from Major League Baseball teams in the United Kingdom. The cards contained explanations of baseball terms but given the unfamiliarity of baseball in the U.K., the issues were not successful.



Topps issued baseball card sets in Venezuela from 1959 to 1977 using the Spanish language and the sets included winter league players.

In Cuba, baseball card sets were issued in the early 1900s. Baseball cards are still issued in post-revolution Cuba



Several sets of Mexican League baseball cards have been issued in the past few years as well.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

World Junior Hockey Championship Fun Facts

The first official tournament was held in 1977.

Canada has won the gold medal five times in a row twice (1993-1997 and 2005-2009).

One of the most infamous incidents in tournament history occurred in 1987 in Czechoslovakia where a massive brawl took place between Canada and the Soviet Union



Russia has won the most WJHC medals with 28 in total.

The United States of America and Sweden have won the tournament once each.

Gabriel Bourque and Mike Cammalleri share the Canadian team record for most points in one game with seven.

Upper Deck previously created a WJHC subset through-out most of the 1990's but now only players who have appeared in an NHL game can appear on officially licensed hockey cards. In The Game produces hockey cards of many WJHC players within their Heroes and Prospects sets.

2009-10 In The Game Heroes and Prospects which contains many of the players featured at the tournament will be available in late January from Canada Card World.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

Donald and Russell Weiner founded the Donruss company in 1954 by combining their first names to create the company name.



In the early days of the Donruss company, it mainly produced entertainment-themed trading card sets. Titles like "Saturday Night Fever", "Elvis Presley", "Kiss", and "Dallas" were some of its most popular.

A court ruling in 1981 barred both Fleer and Donruss from using gum in their products. Fleer switched to team logo stickers in 1982 and Donruss decided to include jigsaw puzzle pieces with a pack of cards instead of gum.

The first baseball product produced by Donruss for 1981 was full of errors and printed on flimsy card stock. There were no factory sets and cards were shipped to dealers in 100 count lots which then had to be collated by hand.

1982 Donruss baseball saw the introduction of the fan favourite Diamond Kings subset by noted sports artist Dick Perez.



In the late summer of 2005, Major League Baseball chose to only renew their licenses with Topps and Upper Deck, thereby sealing the fate of Donruss and its baseball card line.

In 2009, Panini Spa. of Italy purchased Donruss.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

The Fleer Corporation was founded by Frank Fleer in 1885 and was the first company to successfully manufacture bubblegum. Fleer originally developed a bubblegum called Blibber-Blubber in 1906 but it was never marketed to the public. In 1928, Fleer improved the Blibber-Blubber formula to produce the first commercially successful bubblegum, Dubble Bubble.



Fleer produced two benchmark sets in the 1980s. In 1984, Fleer was the only card manufacturer to release a Roger Clemens card in their 1984 Fleer Baseball Update Set. The update set also included the first card of future Hall Of Famer Kirby Puckett.

In 1986 Fleer helped to resurrect the basketball card industry with their 1986-87 Fleer Basketball set which included rookie cards of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. This set is considered by many as the "1952 Topps of basketball."

In late May 2005, Fleer suspended its trading card operations. Upper Deck won the Fleer name, along with their die-cast toy business, at a price of $6.1 million. Oddly enough, just one year earlier, Upper Deck tendered an offer of $25 million which was rejected by Fleer.

Since 1992, Fleer has been owned by the Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. and now Upper Deck.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

O-Pee-Chee has been a name long associated with hockey cards in Canada.

The company's name was taken from Opechee, the robin's name in the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem "The Song of Hiawatha."



After the Second World War, O-Pee-Chee entered into a trading card deal with Topps, a leading American maker of trading cards. The deal involved a license to print and distribute Topps products in Canada. This arrangement began in 1965 with baseball cards. The O-Pee-Chee logo was simply placed over the Topps logo and the cards were marked as "Printed in Canada" on the back. In 1968, the license was extended to hockey although in later years, the O-Pee-Chee hockey sets were larger than their Topps counterparts in the U.S.A.

In 1970, due to new federal legislation in Canada, O-Pee-Chee added French-language text to the backs of its cards.

The O-Pee-Chee brand is now a property of Upper Deck. The 2009-10 hobby version of OPC hockey can be purchased at CCW by visiting Canada Card World.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

In 1989, Upper Deck sold-out of its baseball cards midway through their inaugural year and then pre-sold its entire 1990 baseball stock before the year began.

Although common practice today, the 1990 Upper Deck sets included the industry's first randomly-inserted autographed and numbered cards.



With its 1996 UD Basketball, Upper Deck was the first to insert swatches of game-used material into sports cards.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

Did you know?

During a spring cleaning event in the 1960's, Topp's Brooklyn headquarters hired a garbage boat. Loaded with 300 to 500 cases of 1952 high-series cards, the tugboat pulled from the New Jersey shore and dumped them into the Atlantic Ocean. The cards included Mickey Mantle's first Topps card, the most valuable baseball card in the modern era. No one knew at the time but in today's market, a pack of 1952 Topps baseball cards would sell in the $5,000 range.



Now isn't that just a little worse than your mother tossing out your old cards from the closet.