Anyone else out there focus on cards from the early days of R&R? gum card sets like Elvis, Hit Stars & Spins & Needles as well as arcade cards, post cards and related packs, wrappers, etc?

http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/hitstars/go.html
http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/elvis/go.html
http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/spins/go.html
.
.
.

I've been building a couple of sets of the Spins and Needles for a while. The non-glossed card stock Fleer used for this set is prone to warp. I've handled a number of lots that have a mildew smell to them - this is a tuff set to collect by scans. I've found number 4 to be the most elusive for me.

Does anyone know what set this is or was it just a set of playing cards? Anyone have a checklist of what singers were in the set?

This set is the 52 card + 2 joker playing card set of R&R stars issued by Heather Publications of Denver, CO, probably in the mid to late 60s.

I have about 70 different Spins and Needles. They are glossy and stiff. Super-clean. No warping. Like the day they were made. Edges and corners so sharp you could shave with them.

I'm also curious about the Nu-Cards set of rock & roll: how many there are, how difficult to find, why there seems to be so little collector interest, etc. (For that last one, it may be due to Nu-Cards' relatively lower production values, although I love their Dinosaurs set...)

There are 64 post card size, blank back, B&W cards in this set. They were sold in cello packs of 3 cards to a package. Not that hard to find.

Besides baseball cards, my main collecting focus is music themed cards. I have been trying to collect every music related set issued in the US and Europe. I especially love the music sets from the 1960s and early 1970s that depict the British Invasion groups. This brought me to collecting sets issued in Europe since the US had very few music themed sets other then the Beatles, Elvis, Spin, Hit Stars etc.

Good luck with the collection.

David, do you have any scans of some of the British cards you've collected? I've collected a few sets, but it's nice to see what else is out there.

There were many US and foreign sets of cards featuring R&R stars of the 50s and 60s beyond the few well known sets.....Elvis, Fabian, Hit Stars and Spins & Needles. Most were obscure and not issued in any kind of quantity. (Dave, I'll send you a list by eMail). In addition, there were many other card sets issued in later years that featured stars from the early days of R&R. To add to the list of gum cards, there were also trade cards, cereal cards, candy cards, ice cream cards and arcade cards not to mention many postcards featuring R&R stars of the early days of rock. And my interest ONLY features material from the pre-Beatle era, as that was the music of my 'yute'. Any early rock music/non-sport card collecting fan interested in this area.... drop me an email.

I have accumulated around 100 different sets from the US and Europe. Here are some samples from the British sets that I have scanned.

The following is a snapshot of the various sets:

1962 Colorstars (10 cards in the set highlighted by Elvis)



1963 Mister Softee Top 20 (highlighted by Elvis and Sinatra)



1964

Beatles (numerous sets issued in 1964 - Color, B&W, Top Stars, etc.)



Rolling Stones





Mister Softee Top 10



1965

Mister Softee Top Ten






1966

Lord Neilson's Star Cards (features the first cards of The Who and Eric Burdon)



1967

Lord Neilson's Star Cards (first card for the Kinks)





Mister Softee's Star Cards



1968

Lord Neilson's Star Cards (first card for Hendrix)







Mister Softee's Star Cards



1969 Anglo Yellow Submarine






1969

Lord Neilson's Star Cards










Mister Softee's Pop Parade



1970

Lord Neilson's Star Discs (Led Zeppelin's first card - set also features first card for Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull)



1972

Mister Softee's Pop Discs




Tonibell Pop Star Cameos



1972 Hitmakers (US set)








1974 Bassett Pop Stars (highlighted by Elton John, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Michael Jackson)



1975

Mister Softee's Pop Star



Lyon's Maid Pop Star



Bassett

Yes!

Finished the Spins & Needles set in PSA 8 or better and currently working on 1957 Hit Stars, 1959 Nu-Card and I think its 1959 Kane in psa 8 o0r better.

David:
In your description of the cards which you posted, the first card of various singers was pointed out. Do these "first cards" compare to those in sports collecting (rookie cards), in terms of desireablity or cost?
Thank you for your post, I enjoyed it.
Gil

Jim, I didn't know you were over on the non-sport side too. I had some side email discussions going with Seth who posted, and I looked up the Disc Stars set by Kane Products Ltd. It's a 1960 issue as it contains card #16 of Buddy Holly and the Crickets and the last line says "Killed in air crash."

Lots of Doo-Wop groups from the 1950s:
Music Nostalgia Inc. Released in the 1980s
270 cards (6 45-card sets):

David M,

Yes--I really like the non-sports stuff. I have tried to be etteremore focused in my non-sports collecting> to date I have finished 5 sets with each card PSA 8 or better

1955 Barbers Tea
1956 US Presidents
1958 TV Westerns
1960 Spins and Needles
1962 ABC Colorstars

Ones in progress(I would appreciate help) are

1957 Hit Stars
1959 Nu Card
1962 Civil War News
1967 Who Am I?
1935 Gallaher Film Partners
1935 Gallaher Stars of the Screen and Stage
1934 Carreras
1939 C&T Bridgewater
1936 R&J Hill
1957 Isolation Booth

All my sets are up on the PSA Set Registry under Davalillo

Thank you.

Jim

Another interesting area for the more adventurous non sport card collector of older rock stars is Fan Club Cards. Almost every rock star had at least one fan club card. There were dozens of Elvis fan clubs and cards. Since these cards were issued at the time the star was cutting hit records, they're almost all old and original issue. Some are signed by the star. No such thing as a complete set with this kind of collection but fun to hunt down your favorites.

My favorite set of Rock & Roll Cards is 1968 Topps Fabulous Rock Records....16 picture records...all Motown....beautiful pictures plus you can listen to them