1954-55 Parkhurst Lucky Premiun gift list?

[zackmak]

According to https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/, they have this to say about the insert/parallels that were in the 1954-55 Parkhurst set:

Lucky Premium

New for 1954-55 Parkhurst was the Lucky Premium promotion. As kids opened packs and flipped over their cards, they would have found backs without biographies or statistics. Instead of all this key information, there was instead an off where they could send in the card and either cash or a money order to get a great item. For $4.75, you could get a pair of leather hockey gloves, or $1.50 would get you a miniature camera which boasted the ability to take 16 photos, timed exposure, and a 50 mm lens.

There was also a third offer for a gift list featuring other items. It had a spot on it for a postage stamp, much like a postcard, and kids filled in their mailing address to see what else they could potentially buy from the folks at Parkhurst.

All told, 57 different Lucky Premium cards have been discovered over the years. The number seems a bit odd when considering that the regular set’s production sheet likely had a total of 100 cards on it. A total of 20 players feature the Lucky Premium catalog offer on the back while 18 have the offer for gloves, and 19 of them showed off the camera.


Does anyone who collects Parkhurst have a copy of this gift list/catalog that was mailed to the collector? Or know where there is a scan of it online?

 

[zackmak]

Got in touch recently with vintage hockey card collector 'extraordinaire', Bobby Burrell, who wrote the book 'Vintage Hockey Collector', and he said he did look for it to put it into his book, but he has never come across a physical copy, or even a scan, of this catalogue. He put out his book in 2006, with an updated version in 2015, so there were many years to re-research 'unfound/unconfirmed' items for the updated copy.

That's not to say Parkhurst never fulfilled the mail-back, nor does it mean these catalogues don't exist any more, of course. Like a lot of vintage things, coming across a specific item - especially limited-run promotions such as this (in Canada's smaller population, no less, vs. if Parkhurst series were distributed across all of North America and thus more chances of redemption) that also relied on the customer's initiative to mail their card back - you would need A LOT of things to line up so it can be viewed in front of your very own eyes.

I'm sure the catalogue is in someone's collection - one copy could have been displayed at a show but you had to be there by pure chance to see it on that day, in that specific location in the country the expo is being held in, etc. etc.; or, the owner(s) never bothered to post it online...but if they did, having it easily pop up in your search results, having the inquiring fan look for it with proper, thorough searching tools at the times the photo was actually existing online to even do the search, etc. etc. It's like all these 1/1 cards....unless someone posts a pic of them, how do we even know they exist, even if Upper Deck stated it exists in their checklist. Even further, I understand Upper Deck has inserts they don't even announcee...good luck making a checklist and price guide, then LOL.

I'm sure Bobby Burrell - who I have no doubt put his A-game into making this book as complete as possible and researched to no ends - ran into these challenges that had 'luck' in the driver's seat, and there was nothing he could do about it, except report his findings.

So that puts an end to my search. Disappointing, but it is what it is. Unsolved mysteries add intriguing fun to collecting, for sure.

 

[creasecollector]

I never knew these existed, thank you for posting this. Always interesting to learn about new backs on cards, especially for the vintage stuff.

Yeah, a lot of the catelogs were probably not mailed in and/or destroyed after the fact. Sad, but it makes the stuff that does survive from that era much more meaningful.

Edit: for more nerding out, here's another version of the Luck Premium Card backs (bottom right).

The "Miniature Camera Back" parallel:

 

[zackmak]

I never knew these existed, thank you for posting this. Always interesting to learn about new backs on cards, especially for the vintage stuff.

Yeah, a lot of the catelogs were probably not mailed in and/or destroyed after the fact. Sad, but it makes the stuff that does survive from that era much more meaningful.

Edit: for more nerding out, here's another version of the Luck Premium Card backs (bottom right).

The "Miniature Camera Back" parallel:

Yes, I always get a kick from finding new things about the cards I thought I already knew everything about.

To complete the set, here is the third and final backing with the gloves.