1978 O-Pee-Chee/OPC #185 Willie McCovey

Neat oddball set with a very unusual mix of players. A promotional lead-in for "Cardboard Dreams" a soon to be sportscard magazine. Promo cards were given out at a few regional baseball card shows mostly in So. Cal.
MLB filed lawsuits against similar magazines and the magazine was cancelled before 1st issue leaving just a small run of promo cards (limited to 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  

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

1968 was an awesome year for Topps test & oddball issues with Game cards, Player Posters, 3-D cards, Plaks, Discs, Punchouts and these "Baseball Action Stickers" also called "Action All-Stars Stickers".

"Baseball Action Stickers" were STAR-PACKED 3-panel sticker strips, some with facsimile autographs. There were (16) different strips in the set but only 12 are totally different. #13 thru #16 re-used panels from #1 thru #12.

Strips were perforated, folded at joints and put in packs. Boxes had 12 packs (10 cents each) with 1 sticker per pack. Sets could be made back then for $1.60. Today, the Mantle panel goes for around $2,000.

Collectors often collect just individual panels as complete strips are so scarce, fragile & EXPENSIVE. Single panels themselves are quite scarce - in 20+ years PSA has graded just over 200 TOTAL compared to over 1,000 1952 Mantles !!!

PROOF sheet below is missing the facsimile autographs.

The history of vintage baseball card auctions is long and colorful.

T-206 Honus Wagner tobacco cards have sold for upto $2.8 million in auction. The "Holy Grail of Sports Cards", it's extreme-high auction value can mostly be attributed to great PR and "auction fever". It's not close to being the rarest baseball card and Honus Wagner is not Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle. Yes, the T-206 set is beautiful & special but because of the # of cards and scarcities, few collector's try to complete, which should keep auction competition down compared to say 1933 Goudey or 1952 Topps baseball card issues.
BUT IT DOES NOT...

There's a story Wagner banned his card because he was anti-tobacco but there are other stories about financial considerations.

You surely have heard of PSA and may even know that this card was the FIRST they ever graded. But did you know that dealer (B.l. .ast.o name encoded) admitted tampering with the card, perhaps having it trimmed down to size, before PSA graded it so highly for the auction.