Conference school::sports_memorabilia

ATTN: CFL fans (I know at least two of you are)


I've just spoken with JOGO;

The 1991 CFL JOGO cards are printed and currently in New York for cutting. They 
are now expected in the Stores for retail sale around the end of Sept.

They are working through a distributor this year;

Sports Connections,
5050 Dufferin st.,
Downsview, Ont.
M3H 5T5
phone 416-665-5800


I don't have retail pricing yet, but they are packaged;

10 cards per wax pack

36 packs per box

20 boxes per case  (=7,200 cards per case)

They will also be available in sets. (don't know how many to a set but likely 
around 220).

I have wholesale pricing on a case-
 
       $398.00 plus tax = $465.00 CDN (6.5 cents per  card)
                  (aprox. $400. U.S.) (5.5 per card)

Prices exclude freight.

If there was enough interest, I might be able to get a case wholesale through a 
dealer freind.

Otherwise I think I can buy a few sets direct from JOGO.

Anyone interested should contact me offline at- POLAR::FERGUSONR  

Don't forget the R on the end of Ferguson, my wife is getting tired of getting 
my mail.

Regards,

R.M.F.

    

The following price guide is extracted from Beckets June 1991.

I've included only the major/well known series (which are almost impossible to 
find anyway). I have excluded the more obscure stuff.

PARKHURST

52 CFL (1-19)                   12.00
52 CFL (20-100)                 16.00
52 CFL #42 ETCHEVERRY           60.00
56 CFL COMMON                   16.00
56 CFL #5 JACKIE PARKER         35.00

POST CEREAL

62 POST SET (137)              900.00
62 POST COMMON                   4.00
62 POST #136 NUB BEAMER         35.00
63 POST SET CFL (160)          450.00
63 POST COMMON                   2.00
63 POST # 59 BERNIE FALONEY     12.00


TOPPS

58 CFL SET (88)                300.00
58 COMMON                        3.00
58 CFL #28 C. GILCHRIST         10.00
58 CFL #40 KENNY PLOEN           7.00
59 CFL SET (88)                250.00
59 CFL COMMON                    3.50
59 CFL #3 LEO LEWIS              5.00
59 CFL $56 RUSS JACKSON          7.50
60 CFL SET (88)                250.00
60 CFL COMMON                    2.50
60 CFL #25 JOE KAPP             15.00
60 CFL #51 RON ATCHISON          4.00
61 CFL SET (132)               500.00
61 CFL COMMON                    3.50
61 CFL #47 B. FALONEY           10.00
61 CFL #122 HERB GRAY            5.00
62 CFL SET (169)               225.00
62 CFL COMMON                    1.00
62 CFL #10 WILL. FLEMING         2.50
62 CFL #67 GARNEY HENLEY         2.50
63 CFL SET (88)                150.00
63 CFL COMMON                    1.25
63 CFL #70 DICK SHATTO           2.50
64 CFL SET (88)                150.00
64 CFL COMMON                    1.25
65 CFL SET (132)               150.00
65 CFL COMMON                     .90


OPC
68 OPC SET (132)               600.00
68 OPC COMMON                    4.50
68 OPC #120 JIM YOUNG            6.00
68 OPC POSTER INSERTS (16)     200.00
70 OPC SET (115)               150.00
70 OPC COMMON                    1.00
70 OPC #98 TERRY EVANSHEN        2.00
70 OPC PUSH-OUTS (16)           75.00
71 OPC SET (132)               100.00
71 OPC COMMON                     .50
71 OPC #13 JOE THEISMAN         30.00
71 OPC POST INSERTS (16)        45.00
72 OPC SET                      90.00
72 OPC COMMON                     .50
72 OPC #9 TONY GABRIEL           2.00
72 OPC #27 JOE THEISMAN         30.00
72 OPC #53 WAYNE HARRIS          2.00
72 OPC TRIO STICKERS (24)      125.00

JOGO                         

81CFL  (50B&W)            45.00    
82CFL  OTTAWA (24 COLOR)   6.00
82CFL  OTTAWA (16 B&W)    14.00
84CFL  OTTAWA 17-22       24.00
82 CFL QB'S (9)            6.00
83HOF SERIES A (25)SET     6.00
83HOF SERIES B (25)SET     6.00
83CFL 110 SET            450.00
84CFL (1-110)1ST.SERIES   40.00
84CFL (111-160) 2ND.SER   40.00
85CFL 110 SET             75.00
86CFL (1-110) 1SR.SERIES  36.00
86CFL (111-169) 2ND.SER   24.00
87CFL (110)SET            50.00
88CFL (110)SET            40.00
88CFL LEAGUE (106)       100.00
89CFL (1-110) 1ST.SERIES  22.00
89CFL (111-160) 2ND. SER  12.00
90CFL (1-110)             ??. ($20.-35.)
90CFL (111-220)           ??. ($20.-35.)
91CFL  -------DUE OUT LATE SEPT 1991--------


REGARDS,

R.M.F.

    
    SAD NEWS FOR CFL CARD COLLECTORS....
    
    Jogo will not have the Rocket in the 1991 set/wax packs set for
    distribution later this month.
    
    According to a local newspaper (column on sports cards), JOGO lost it's
    lawsuit for the right to use him. This leaves  AW Sports as
    the only licensed company that will put out a CFL card with
    the Rocket.
    
    As a result of this, JOGO has apparently reduced it's production run to
    3,000 cases of cards (wax packs) and 1,700 cases of sets.
    
    Same source says the set is still 220 cards.
    
    
    This should burst any hopes of seeing a huge increase in interest in
    JOGO.....
    
    
    Regards,
    
    R.M.F.  

    I have been trying to find CDN football cards for years.  You can't get
    a Tom Clemens down here cause he never played in the NFL, nor did Tony
    Rice so far, or Norb Roy....
    
    I'll trade a Luke Skywalker girlfriend for a Bronko Nagurski anyday.
    
    Dick

John (et all),


It is my understanding that the situation is as follows; 

JOGO's contract is with the CFL owner's league itself.

The reason that Rocket can't be in the set is that McNall-Gretzky-Candy have a 
personal services contract with Ishmail. That is, all rights and income  from 
endorsements, special appearances,etc. go to McNall-Gretzky-Candy rather than 
the Rocket.

(Rocket's contract has some sort of escalation clauses in it that provides a 
percentage of this residual income to him).

Presumably this contract was somehow blessed by the owner's assocation thereby 
forfeiting their right to license a card on the Rocket.


**********

To correct a previous statement-

I believe Classic's Rocket card is an NFL draft pick type card.

The only (licensed) CFL Rocket card will be the AW Sports card.

***********

Regards,

R.M.F.

    
    PROFESSOR
    
    I Just found some of my football cards and i'm assuming their from
    1970,71,and 72 all OPC, (they have no dates on them).  could
    you answer a few questions for me.
    
    1. Is the 1971 Joe Theisman card # 13 his rookie card (I heard on
    a TV talk show his rookie card was valued at around $200.00
    is this possible.) 
    
    2. In your previous notes you have -71 opc post inserts (16)-is
    that the pro-action cards.
     
    thanks in advance for your help
    
    In the card that got away catagory- I remember having a Carl
    Wheathers card he play for the B.C. lions later he became
    Apollo Creed in the Rockie movies. 
    
    FRANK 
    
    
    card 
      

    
    FRANK,
    
    RE.08
    
    If you don't have that many bring them in to work some time (since were
    both in the same building) or if you have a lot,then note the card
    number and player's name for some of the more well known players from
    each set. I can bounce these off the price guides to identify what year
    they're from.
    
    1. Joe Thiesman- June,91 Becket's lists his 1971 OPC #13 at $30. and
    his 72 OPC #27 at $15.  However, I just picked up a 71 Thiesman in EX
    condition for 50.cents and passed on a 1972 for $40. Becket's doesn't
    clarify which is his rookie. However, Later this week, Charlton Press
    is supposed to be putting out a CFL card price guide. Between the
    Rocket, JOGO loosing out on the Rocket and the new Charlton price guide
    I would think prices would probably go up dramatically this fall.
    
    2. Can't help you on that one.
    
    
    RE: "APOLLO CREED" aprox what years did he play.
    
    
    R.M.F.
    
    P.S. Frank-got any 61,63,64,65 Topps CFL ??
    
     
    

Based upon several factors I won't be doing a group buy from JOGO on the 1991 
CFL cards-boxes or sets.

1. There wasn't enough interest-only about 3 people altogether expressed 
   interest.

2. Due to an exclusive agreement with Sports Connections in Toronto, Ont., JOGO
   themselves are not allowed to retail any stock.


Haven't seen any hard retail pricing yet but from conversations with various 
dealers, it is likely that they'd be marginally cheaper in the U.S. anyway.

Regards,

R.M.F.

P.S. It will definitely be a 220 card set with a 110 set update proposed for 
later in the season.

Just an update on the CFL card scene (in Ottawa, anyway);

Have seen early displays of JOGO's (220 card) set in one shop. He's taking 
orders at $19.95 CDN for a set (plus the taxes of 16.91%) 

Doesn't have any for immediate sale though. Expects to have stock in 
aprox. 2 wks.

At another dealers, I saw wax boxes of AW Sports CFL (36 packs of 9 each) 
for $65.00 plus tax. Individual cello packs for $1.99 plus tax.

Bought three cello packs....

In one cello pack of 9 cards, I got 3 copies of one card and 2 copies of 
another. (While I'm new to the hobby, I suspect you'd have to work hard
to get worse collation than that.)

There are aprox. 7 Rocket cards in the set, with the one where he's standing
in full uniform with helmet in hand being the valuable one. This shop had one 
in their display case for $40. (CDN). Saw another one at a small dealer in
the local weekend flea market for $50. !!!!

The 110 card set is supposed to sell for aprox. $20. to $25. CDN.... Gonna be 
interesting to see what happens.....

With the set only totalling 110 cards and 7 or more being the Rocket, several 
for Moon and Theisman and coaches, doesn't leave many for the rest of the 
league as it exists today.

Regards,

R.M.F. 

    
    I just purchased a couple of AW CFL sets, including the Rocket subset,
    for about $23 each including taxes.  I think that they are pretty
    good and it will be interesting to see what happens to them if the
    Rocket does eventually play for the Raiders.
    
    I also plan to purchase 1 or 2 of the French AW CFL sets.  Only 1500
    cases were made for the french set so they will be hard to find in the
    future.
    
    MJW.

    
    RE : 300.12
    
    I meant that I bought two complete AW sets for $23 each.  Not both
    for $23.00..
    
    My apologies.
    
    MJW.

                             SEASON WRAP UP

Well, the Cdn football season wrapped up about three weeks ago, with Toronto 
representing the eastern conference in the Grey Cup championship.

Calgary represented the west.

Toronto won.

While the year started dismally for the league, it ended in vastly better shape.

During the season;

Ottawa Roughriders almost went under financially until late in the season when a 
father & son real estate developing team from Detroit bought them.

Course Toronto had McNall-Candy-Gretzky in control (many say they control the 
league not just the team) and saw good performances from the Rocket, Matt 
Dunnigan and Pinball Clemons.

B.C. was expected to make it to the Grey Cup with Flutie's fantastic playing 
throughout the season aided by great playing by Jon Volpe, Ray Alexander and a 
few good plays by his brother - Darin.

Calgary was bought up by a local millionaire apparently ending their financial 
woes.

Now the only team known to have financial trouble is the Hamilton Tiger Cats 
which recently went up for sale.

It was an exciting season;

Flutie well deserved the award for most outstanding player and is fully expected 
to sign again with B.C. for next season.

Rocket was well received, played quite well but wasn't what one would call 
OUTSTANDING.

Pinball Clemons and Gizmo Williams had good seasons.

RE: CFL cards

A W Sports - the 110 set with 7 or 8 of them being Rockets and many others on 
past players seems to be selling modestly but not HOT. The higher cost, lower 
card count and allegiance to the JOGO set seems to have had a big effect on it.

The promo card used in all the advertising started out between $40 and $50 but 
has now settled down to $10 to $20.

All the various Rocket cards in the set are usually marked at $3 to $6 each but  
I suspect they are changing hands at around $2.

Commons are generally offered at 25 to 50 cents and move at 10 to 25 cents.

Cello packs list ar $1.49 to $1.69   Wax(cello) boxes list at $49. to $69. 
Factory sets at $20.

As discussed earlier - collation in the cello packs is pitiful.

JOGO has done very well.

Cello packs go for 99 cents.    Cello boxes at $20. to $25. 
Factory sets at $20 to $25.

Commons sell for 10 cents.

Only a few dealers are actually trying to get "book" price on the stars. This 
seems to be changing as time goes on. 

Remember that this is the first year for cello packs of JOGO. In all previous 
years, JOGO put out sets or team sets only.

Recently, I've started to see people breaking earlier sets and selling them off 
as singles.

While dealers/vendors are trying to push up prices on both JOGO and A W Sports, 
the market is still somewhat soft. I am usually able to clean out a dealer's 
stock of singles (usually including stars) in bluk at an average of aprox. $.02 
each.

There is a market developing for earlier CFL cards - 1958 to 1972. Prices are 
generally tied to "book" which is fairly steep. However, the market is sort of 
"underground". That is, cards are not generally diplayed, you gotta ask for them 
and then few dealers actually have any.

"Book" - Charlton Press (CDN) put out a soft cover book in October which listed 
darned near every CFL card made from 1958 to 1991 Excluding the 1991 A W Sports.
The book is good in that it is close to being complete and gives pictures of 
each issue to help in identification of what year a card is.

Pricing sucks- formulated based upon input from about 6 sources and the prices 
are steep. 

Dealers, etc. are trying to tie pricing to the book and of course this is 
driving prices high on the older stuff. 

One good thing to come from the book is increased awareness and interest in CFL 
card issues. (I just wish the interest had held off till I could scoop up 
everything I wanted 8-)  )

R.M.F.
 




Generally speaking prices are about double what Beckett's listed in their June 
or July issue which included CFL issues. This is due largely to a Cdn pricing 
publication that came out in October which most dealers are trying to enforce.

                  -1992 CFL CARD and GAME SEASON-

The CFL pre-season has already started. Each team has aprox. four exhibition 
games in June prior to the beginning of regular season around July 9th.

For the first time in 30 yrs, tonight (6/25/92) a CFl game (exhibition) will be 
played on U.S. soil-

Toronto Argonauts - 1991 Grey Cup Champions 
                    (with the Rocket and Pinball Clemons)
                    (without their star QB from last year- Matt. Dunnigan)

VS

Calgary Stampeders - 1991 Grey Cup losers?
                     (with their newly signed QB - Doug Flutie)
                     (with my cousin - OL - Larry Clarkson)

The game is being broadcasted on TSN at 10:30 P.M. EST.

Should be well covered in the U.S. papers as 400 media folks are expected to 
attend the game.

The intent of the game being played there is to showcase it to U.S. fans, 
particularly those in the Portland area as it is fully expected that a CFL team 
will be created there by next season.


NOTE:

1. You all should try to catch this game. Cdn football is great. Not better than 
than NFL and not lesser than NFL. It's just a different game.

2. I would greatly apreciate it if any U.S. noters from the mid-western or N.W. 
states would cut out any coverage the game gets in their local papers friday and 
Saturday and mail the clippings to me at the address below (YES, I"M SERIOUS!);

    Robert M. FERGUSON
    397 Thomas Street,
    Carleton Place,
    Ontario, Canada.
     K7C 3Z3



CARDS-

The 1992 A W Sports CFL set has been expanded to 180 (from 110) cards and is to 
include several special cards showcasing previous, memorable Grey Cups. If 
memory serves, 2,000 autographed Flutie cards are to be randomly inserted. 
Samples are pictured in last week's (6/20/92) SCD along with details as to the 
special cards and set characteristics.

From the photos, again the cards are "almost nice". Last year they were a good 
looking card with just a little too much decoration on them.

This year, the fronts would have been cleaner if they hadn't blown it with a big 
damn Maple Leaf splashed across the top. (It's like a Canadian trying to design 
a card specifically for a U.S. market and going a little overboard).

Hopefully they will avoid (IMHO) their two biggest shortcomings last year;

- 8 or 9 different cards on one superstar each with a different but boring pose.

- special historical/non-current superstars in current non-CFL-uniform 
  wardrobes.  

With 8 or 9 cards dedicated to one guy and another five or six of past legends 
but using current photos in street clothes and one of Bruce McNall (like who 
cares) that left only 95 cards or so to cover the league vs JOGO with 220 cards 
of players and coaches.

1992 JOGO - Haven't seen any samples yet but reputed to be 250 cards.
Hopefully they will avoid the (1991) black backs which tend to chip on the 
edges. One big problem last year, made worse this year is that both the Rocket 
and Flutie are under exclusive contract to A W Sports, thereby excluding JOGO 
from printing them.

While neither set sold as well in 1991 as they expected, there was a lot of 
resistance to the A W Sports set due to;

- the way JOGO got screwed out of the Rocket.

- the high price 9 cards @ $1.69 vs JOGO at 10 @ $.99

- the candy stripe like overkill on the front.

- excessive qty of boring cards.

JOGO suffered largely because of the lack of the Rocket and the fact that the 
league still doesn't sell itself well enough.


Live from CFL Central--  8-)

R.M.F.

    
    Flutie has a nice autograph, and was very accomodating, both as a
    Bear, and a Patriot through the mail.
    
    -rjk

    He was also very accommodating this past Jan. (as a [then] B.C. Lion
    8-)
    
    He personalized one to each of my two sons, one to my grandmother (yes, she
    collects CFL cards too), one to my nephew, and one copy of his USFL
    rookie card without any personalization. And he returned the $10 I
    included to donate to the charity of his choice.
    
    I sent the cards care of his Dad.
    
    About a month later, I also received a signed 5 X 7 B.C. lions promo
    photo of Darrin Flutie from his Dad.
    
    8-)  8-)  8-)
    
    R.M.F.

    MISC CFL UPDATES;
    
    1. Watched the exhibition game at Portland between the winner (ARGO's)
    and loser (CALGARY) of last year's Grey Cup on TSN. Final score 20 to 1
    for Flutie (I mean Calgary).
    
    All in all a fairly boring game. Toronto lost their star QB (Matt
    Dunnigan) to WPG this spring and were using their lats year's #2 -
    Ricky Foggie. Poor Ricky could do no right. 
    
    2. misc-
    
    -Exhibition season is now over
    -regular season begins this Wednesday 7/08/92
    -Hamilton Tigers Cats will likely be sold to a local group of
    businessmen and politicians.
    
    3. 1992 JOGO CFL cards
    
    While the cards aren't out yet, a few promo's are. While the cards are
    extremely similar to last year's, they are great looking. silver-grey
    front border and rear background. Basic sytling of the cards is largely
    unchanged from last year, except for minor logo and print style &
    placement on the fronts.
    If you liked lasat year's, you'll love this year's. If you didn't like
    last year's - what the $%%^& is wrong with you?  [  8-) ]
    
    later,
    
    from CFL CENTRAL....
    
    R.M.F.