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TheGuru
The Guru Named AITCH
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The HOLY GRAILS of SUPERMAN
Searching for SUPERMAN
Hunt for the Rarest and Scarcest
Research is fluid, ever changing. I am a second-generation TOY AND PREMIUM RING collector. I have collected, researched, and most of all, enjoyed them for over 30 years. And before me there was the first generation of just a handful of middle-aged men who developed the foundation of the hobby by providing all that was then known about Toy and Premium Rings.
The universe of Toy Rings narrows quickly. I believe the largest collector is in the Guiness Book of World Records with over 20,000 rings in his collection. While I admire the feat, that is a monumental effort, certainly not for everyone. My research has led me to believe that a world class collection of Toy Rings need not be more than 200-300 rings. I have primarily focused on rings from the 1930’s to the 1960’s that were creative and functional, and many that also depicted iconic people and characters. That era featured mostly metal rings. Plastic had not yet hit its stride. We also see the first use of glow-in-the-dark technology.
I found that values drop off fast beyond the 200-300 trophy rings I have identified. The top rings are the true rarities with low populations, and these great rings continue to fascinate and attract new collectors.
The Holy Grail’s of Toy Rings are the three 1940-41 era Superman rings, which were also the first. So many Superman associated Toy Rings have been made since the start that an accurate number would be quite a task to uncover. Ranges are from 500-1500 different rings to date.
The rookie rings, if you will, that were introduced with the creation of Superman. They are easy to name but explanations are necessary to understand their differences and place in the hierarchy. All three had extremely limited production and distribution runs. All three depicted the iconic classic image of Superman breaking chains around his chest.
The most talked about is the Superman Prize ring (approximately 25 still exist today). Offered around 1940 through club offers in the first comic books that depicted him. At the high of Toy Ring values in the 1990’s, the Prize ring brought $125,000.
(The Superman Prize ring offered through Action Comics - see images)
Then there was the GUM, Inc. compartment ring (approximately 15-20 still exist today) that was offered through the very popular Gum, Inc. trading cards, which were often believed to be the first Superman cards. They were not (more about that later). The ring is a beautiful brass ring with removable top. The top depicted Superman breaking chains stamped into the metal along with a capital “S” for Superman.At the price peak this ring was valued at $50,000.
(The Superman Gum, Inc. ring - see image)
The third ring in the triad Is the LEADER CANDY compartment ring (approximately 25-30 still exist today) that was obtained by sending in ten (10) Leader Candy coupons, which were part of the box that the candy came in. The box had perforated edges, which allowed the box to be disassembled by tearing along the edges of the box. Once you emptied out the candy you could tear along the perforated edges and have the coupon. Interestingly, the back of each candy box displayed a Superman collector card that also had to be cut or ripped away from the box once it was empty. Suffice it to say, most of the cards and coupons found today are ripped, hastily cut, torn, and generally in low grade condition. To be clear, the box top displayed the Superman image and candy product information. The back of that product top displayed one of the valuable redeemable coupons. Then, separately, the back of the box had a collector card. These are the true first Superman collector cards and the rarest and most desirable to find today, regardless of grade. Again, at the price peak this ring was also valued at $50,000.
(Two images of the Leader Candy ring. The top depicting the All-Seeing Eye and bottom showing the coupon and paper-like sticker of Superman - see images)
Today’s lesson is just about these rings, specifically the Gum and the Candy rings.
First, the two rings are essentially identical in construction and produced by the same manufacturer, Ostby & Barton of Rhode Island. We can determine that the first of the two rings offered was the Leader Candy ring (we will explain more as we move along), as well as through the Superman Defense Club Milk Program where it has been written that two milk bottle caps could be redeemed for a ring.
The Leader Candy ring depicted the All-Seeing Eye with lightning bolts protruding and a single letter initial. Under the top, once removed, there was a small paper-like image adhered to the underside of the top of Superman breaking chains. The ring could easily go unnoticed because there was no visible reference to it being a Superman promotion. And certainly, as time went on, it seems very likely that many of the small paper-like images were removed or ruined. A bit of water permeating the ring would take care of that.
(Reverse of Gum, Inc. ring top depicting stamp over - see image)
The mystery surrounding the ring is why are there different initial letters on different rings? The All-Seeing Eye is always present, but according to Hakes, one of the leading Premium authorities, they have documented 10 different letters (A, B, D, E, H, L, M, R, S and W), which they believe were the initials of the different milk dairies who participated in the Superman Defense Club Milk Program. I had thought it more believable that the initial letter was for the child sending in for a ring and ordering their initial on it. However, the Leader Candy coupons do not mention the option of having your initial on a ring, and no supporting information has yet arisen for the Superman Defense Club Milk Program; only that one could redeem two milk bottle caps for a ring.
Let’s jump to the differences in the rings. As I said, the top of the Gum, Inc. ring is stamped with the image of Superman breaking chains right into the metal. When we looked very closely at the Gum, Inc. ring top and turned it over, you can see how the image was struck into the metal, right over the All-Seeing Eye from the Leader Candy ring. This is the evidencethat the first ring offered was the Leader Candy ring because the Gum, Inc. stamped rings were done over the All-Seeing Eye, making it a second generation repurpose of the Leader Candy ring. It has been noted that the promotion did not go well and had a short life (months) so it is reasonable that there was left over ring stock from the Leader Candy promotion. And the use of left-over stock and the repurposing of it was done with other premiums during the 1930s.
It seems that the remaining stock of either or both Ostby & Barton and/or Leader Candy rings were sold to the Gum, Inc.company, where they retooled and struck the Superman image over the Candy ring’s All-Seeing Eye.
Wow!
So, now new questions arise. The Gum, Inc. ring, the one with the Superman image stamped into the top of the ring has ONLY been found with one letter; an “S”, which makes sense because it obviously stood for Superman. It is important to also note that the font for the “S” is the same font used for both the Leader Candy and Gum, Inc. rings.
We have no documentation about the Superman Defense Club Milk Program offerings yet to know whether an initial was an option offered to the buyer, and no backup to confirm whether the different initial letters were representative of the milk producers.
Conclusions!
Each of the Superman Prize rings and Gum, Inc. rings are identical in design, so it’s the condition of the ring that is the only variable in determining each ring’s value. However, the Leader Candy ring has some key differences from ring to ring. Most notable is that there are at least ten variations of the ringsolely because of the different letters atop the rings. Otherwise, the rings are identical. So, we now have 25-30 Leader Candy rings with ten different letters (obviously some duplicates). It seems logical that the most desirable of those rings would be the ring with the letter “S”, and there is only one of those known. The other letters have no context or meaning to us at this point.
The other consideration is whether the paper-like image on the underside of the ring top is still in place, and what condition it’s in. A ring without any image would have a considerably lower value. One with a partial or low-grade image would follow. Aring with full paper-like image is what is most desirable.
When accounting for the different ring variations, the status of the Leader Candy Superman ring may indeed now be raised and considered the rarest of the triad of Superman rings. There may only be one to three examples of each letter ring (only 10 letters) that exist. It seems fair to say that the “S” letter ring with full paper-like image would be unique and likely to be considered the most desirable to collectors, as well as the rarestand most valuable of them all.
NON-SPORTS Finds BUCK ROGERS - TARZAN of the APES
BUCK ROGERS and TARZAN OF THE APES
1936 (R28)
NON-SPORTS CARDS ARE HEATING UP
An Obscure Set below the radar
Collectors are forever looking for an edge. As markets mature it becomes increasingly difficult to find one. That seems especially true with Sports cards. Walk through the National and all you need is a checkbook. Most dealers offer the same notable cards over and over. Decades have passed that have allowed collectors and dealers to dip deep and discover most any treasure that had not yet been discovered. I have long professed that Sports cards dealers are getting bored and their edge has disappeared. Everyone knows what everyone else has.
Non-Sports cards, on the other hand, have been getting their long-deserved attention, as Key cards from many different sets have been fetching huge values. There are so many Non-Sports sets that it would be a challenging task to try to even begin a list. As usual, begin with topics that interest you. In Non-Sports, no matter how obscure, there is likely a set for it.
Among the most popular topics are the usual standards, Adventurers, Superheroes, Presidents, Politics, History and everything else.
Today I am focusing on a set that is easily overlooked. It is titled 1936 Cartoon Adventures. I have passed by the set many times believing that if the set contained any notable cards, the notable names would have been on the set. I was wrong.
This set is really four different sets that make up a 48-card set. Among the four sets is a 24-card BUCK ROGERS subset, and an 8-card TARZAN OF THE APES subset. Certainly, doable by the numbers.
The complete set is broken down like this:
1. TAILSPIN TOMMY 8-Card subset.
2. TARZAN OF THE APES 8-Card subset.
3. BRONCHO BILL 8-Card subset.
4. BUCK ROGERS 24-card subset.
Without stepping too deep into the weeds, the idea of popular interest must be mentioned. Who the heck is TAILSPIN TOMMY and BRONCHO BILL? This is so important to the collecting hobby so listen up.
There were many household names from comics, radio and TV that are no longer part of the public memory. Many were great characters and stories, but they did not carry on. And the people who collected them and/or still do, are older. They collected them because they were memories of theirs. However, when these people pass there are really few left who will collect them. The market will shrink and likely eventually die except for a bookmark somewhere that acknowledges that they existed.
The people and characters that continue to flourish and stay popular are the brands and franchises that continue to be perpetuated by continued TV shows, movies, comic books, comic strips, and history. Think SUPERMAN, BATMAN, MARVEL, PRESIDENTS, HISTORICAL EVENTS. These are examples of themes that play repeatedly.
A new SUPERMAN movie is set to be released this July 11. Get it? A new generation of young people will again be exposed to Superman, which continues to make him live. And then those young people who become fans begin to collect, and then they begin to look for the earliest collectibles of that character. Pretty simple really!
So, here we are!
BUCK ROGERS and TARZAN OF THE APES, two of the greatest explorers and adventurers. Great stories. These characters are still alive. Many TV shows and movies have been made to continue their popularity. Maybe not recently, but the brands are alive and well, and one day another movie will emerge.
These cards are among the earliest depictions of both characters. I believe the 1932 set featuring Johnny Weissmuller was the first Tarzan, but they were photo images. This set features tremendous comic art from 1936. The Buck Rogers adventures first appeared in newspapers in 1929. The art is fine, and the colors are bold.
Although these sets, in my opinion, are sleepers, their populations are very low as well. It seems that between both PSA and SGC there is maybe an average of 15 of each of the cards that have been graded in total. Most graded cards are mid-tier in grades 3 to 5 with an odd 7 or 8 here and there. I have periodically searched, and raw cards can be found that look very nice, but they just don’t grade well. The images and colors are so attractive that one tends to overlook the technical issues they have. However, most of these cards have the usual round corners, missing paper, stains, creases, etc. But, as always, they do show up. Just got to keep looking.
The characters are legendary, the sets are great, the art is great and the populations of an average of 15 per card are amazing. If I were a betting man, I would believe that these sets have great upside as Non-Sports continue to thrive.
1790's CONDER TOKENS
Conder tokens, also known as 18th-century provincial tokens, were a form of privately minted token coinage struck and used during the latter part of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century (1790s-1805) in England, Anglesey and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
The driving force behind the need for token coinage was the shortage of small denomination coins for everyday transactions. However, the demand was fueled by other factors such as the Industrial Revolution, population growth, and the preponderance of counterfeit circulating coins. Because the government made little effort to ameliorate this shortage, private business owners and merchants took matters into their own hands, and the first tokens of this type were issued in 1787 to pay workers at the Parys Mine Company. By 1795, millions of tokens of a few thousand varying designs had been struck and were in common use throughout Great Britain.
Collecting Conder tokens has been popular since shortly after they were first manufactured, resulting in the availability today of many high-grade examples for collectors. The demarcation of what is or is not considered a Conder token is somewhat unclear; however, most collectors consider Conder tokens to include those indexed originally by James Conder or later by Dalton & Hamer.
Is this about coins? I don’t collect coins.
I will save for another day my take on the boredom of today’s collectibles dealers. I travel to quite a few different types of collectibles shows throughout each year and talk to both dealers and collectors at length. Boy, if you want to get into some heated talks, come with me.
In short, I have found a show like the National, one the largest sports card and memorabilia shows in the country, to be filled to the brim with sports cards that have been marketed and played out for decades. I think the dealers have become bored. Walking the convention floors seem more like an exchange these days. Afterall, all it takes is a checkbook to pick up several Michael Jordan 1986 Fleer rookie cards. There are 25,000 of them and more than 300 in PSA 10. And $500,000 to boot. Table after table, it seemed like just a reel of the same cards. However, to my eye, the sands began to shift a few short years ago. A few years ago, it was rare to see many non-sports cards at the show, and now non-sports are fully interlaced within the sports cards, and some dealers are strictly non-sports. It began slowly, but it is solid now. I have noticed a few dealers, exclusive non-sports, with high-grade cards, having their tables swamped the entire show with both spectators and buyers. Many buying their first non-sports.
It is the same story with coins, and along the same timeline.
Walk the FUN Coin Shows and you will see the same inventories over and over. Considering these shows are normally 1500 dealer tables, that’s a lot.
A few years ago, it would have been rare to find a civil war token, a Robbins Medal, a Conder token. If a dealer had any of these, they were relegated to the back of his table in a box. However, nowadays, dealers have really expanded. They still carry predominantly U.S. coinage, but World coins, ancient coins, tokens and medals, have gotten traction. Collectors are asking, what are those? And the clubs, the publications and the Internet have all the information available about them.
And now, back to Conder Tokens.
There is a difference between Conder tokens and just about any other coin. Think about any coin. They are pretty much the same. A bust portrait of a leader, a family crest, a country logo, an event. Nothing controversial.
The universe of about 5,000 Conder tokens contains many controversial pieces. Many.
This was the 1790s. Great Britain and France were in-the-midst of revolutionary atmospheres. France’s king and his cabinet had their heads cut-off and put on spikes outside the government buildings for people to see. Guess who had a hand in the support of the French revolutionaries. Thomas Paine, a founding father of the American revolution. The governments of France and Britain did not care for him. He was a feared man. He wanted equal rights, land ownership, and freedom for all.
Although Great Britain wasn’t overthrown, the British government tried and jailed many revolutionaries, including Paine. I believe that Ben Franklin had, at one point, traveled to Great Britain to free him and bring him back to the U.S.
What these privately minted, and at times anonymously minted tokens displayed were the feelings of the people during the time. Free speech would land you in jail. So these clever little tokens would air many frustrations, while also providing a means of small change so commerce could operate smoothly.
5,000 tokens are too much for me to consider collecting. There are numerous topics that fit back into the boring category, like landscapes, city names, churches and other historic buildings. I’m not saying they are not nice, just not for me.
A subgroup collection of Political tokens and others of odd and different topics would number less than 200. Very doable.
The Kicker
1790’s copper coins and tokens from the U.S. in higher grades today can cost you in the tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
While Conder tokens from the 1790’s can be found in mint state and spectacular conditions and normally range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. And the kicker you ask, is that the population for these gems is ridiculously low. Sometimes only 3 to 5 coins have been graded. Are you kidding me? What's the old saying, "like shooting fish in a barrel".
(NGC) Numismatic Guaranty Corp and (PCGS) Professional Coin Grading Service grade these, and I recommend that most collectors buy tokens that they have graded. The assigned grades are always debatable, but they are good at saving you from problem coins that have been cleaned heavily, environmentally degraded or played with to deceive. And guarantee that they are authentic. It takes the guess work out of the game so I can concentrate on the token. I don’t want to become a grading expert.
Here are a few Political Conder tokens to whet your appetite.
There are about 30 varieties of Thomas Paine tokens, with him and/or of him and two other revolutionaries, hanging from a gibbet. Legends usually read “The End of Pain”. Notice they dropped the “e” from the end of his name so as not to get in trouble. Another legend reads “The Wrongs of Man”, referring to Paine’s book “The rights of Man”.
Another favorite variety are Dogs and Cats. The Dogs read “Much Gratitude Brings Servitude”, meaning that you will pay dearly for what you are given. The Cats read “I Among Slaves Enjoy my Freedom”, referring from the inability to train a cat. They are free and do what they want. There are many die-pairings of Dogs and Cats, but among the rarest and most favorite is this one which pair both on one token.
Then there are a several historic figures that are more than interesting, like Lady Godiva riding nude on horseback, Adam & Eve in the garden, several mythical figures, a bit of racism, and a world of animals.
1948 TED WILLIAMS
TED WILLIAMS Never Looked so Good!
Very few of even the die-hard experts have seen this one.
1948, mid-way through the legendary 19-year career of baseball superstar Ted Williams, Nabisco cereal decided that Ted Williams could help them to increase the sales of their cereals.
So, the backs of the Nabisco Shredded Wheat cereal boxes began to display the Ted Williams “Baseball Action” ring. Just send in the coupon from the box along with one box top and .15 cents, and you will be in the game.
This ring gets multiple votes from me. It is one of the most intricate, good looking and coolest rings from within the Toy Premium Ring genre. It does something! It brought a baseball legend to life right on your finger. You don’t just look at it.
That said, it is also one of the most fragile of all the Toy Premium rings and very few (probably less than 50) have survived its nearly 80-year journey to today. Of those 50 I am going to speculate that maybe a dozen or so are intact, working and still in high-grade.
The ring is a gold-colored metal with an anti-tarnish finish. Secured to the ring base with a rivet that pivoted was a plastic batter to resemble Ted. At the base of Ted was a tab, and when you gently used your thumb to pull it back then let it go, Ted would swing his bat in true World Series form, hitting the ball that was held in the air by a thin wire. The side of the ring featured a design of crossed bats and ball in raised relief below an engraved Ted Wiliams autograph.
The problem with the ring was too many things could go wrong. The small plastic “Ted” figure was easily snapped off the base as soon as a kid sat down if he/she had it in their pocket. And the action was accomplished using a spring. We all know how that goes. You can never fix a spring that has sprung. So often the spring is missing, twisted, or over stretched and the mechanism no longer works. Also, the thin wire that held the ball was often mercilessly bent, and the ball was easily lost. Lastly, the gold-colored luster on the base easily wore off, from the dirt and sweat of being held.
Problems aside, if you can find one, it will surely become a favorite within your baseball collection. It has all the bells and whistles.
The 1995 Overstreet Toy Ring Price Guide has near mint examples at $900. Hard to say what today brings. I have seen both higher and lower. The main point is if you see one, GET IT!
So, You Want to be a SUPERMAN
As shown in a previous post, the Supermen of America Member Prize ring is the rarest and most desirable of all Superman rarities. And with only about 15-20 of them known to still exist, I am asked what the next Best would be. Well, you have come to the right place my friends.
As we progress through the hierarchy of Superman artifacts, it all begins at the beginning. Don't look so confused.
Take a breath and feast your eyes on this one.
Here is the 1941 SUPERMAN GUM RING. Five gum wrappers and .20 cents got you one of these. A substantial goldish brassy metal with a removable top to expose the secret chamber. The iconic image original image of SUPERMAN breaking chains around his chest and the letter "S" for SUPERMAN is the feature atop this ring that will let everyone know who you are. And you can't be a SUPERMAN if you don't have one of these. It just can't happen.
The Overstreet Toy Ring Price Guide valued a near mint example of the SUPERMEN of AMERICA - MEMBER Contest prize ring at $120,000 in 1995, and this ring came in second at $50,000.
The only problem today is there are approximately just 9 examples of this ring known to exist. And this one is a Beauty.
Enjoy the view!