Random Card of the Day

Nice design, always have liked the Star sets.

Just to give a little insight: The "Star Co" design was on purpose. The owner wanted it to be 100% clear it was a Star Co card, from 100 feet away. The basic layout would morph slightly over time, but it was always distinctly "Star".

As for the information on the backs, it was provided by the team. I know there were some cards we went to press with no info on the back (and I think we put "No information received" on the back). Obviously, I don't know about today's MiLB cards (Grandstand, Multi-Ad, Choice, etc.), but it may still be the same. At least we had the "obtained" line which indicated the major league affiliate.

And DaClyde is 100% correct. :)

I do like Star Co. sets, and own a bunch, but they weren't the most exciting things to look at.  However, they did offer a change of scenery, with lots of photos we didn't see from the larger companies.

I can't imagine how much work it must have been to manage all the statistics and biographical information manually.  Did you have any of that computerized?  Even today, I'd love to know how Topps handles the stats.  I would think by now someone would have developed a method of linking the design elements with the bio and stats from a database.  But if that were the case, there wouldn't be all the statistical errors we still see in new sets each year.

Just a side note that Minor did play parts of  6 seasons in the Majors.      13-10 overall.

I didn't get into doing the typesetting until real late in the process, and by then we were out of the sports stuff and doing the Hooters and Miss USA stuff. I typeset (and screwed up) a large portion of the first Hooters set. We basically would create the layout, save as a template, and copy/paste/fill as needed. Most of the photos used were actually taken from slides, hence the proclivity to seeing "reversed negatives". That's actually a misnomenclature! They were reversed slides. And due to the small nature of them (and literally taping them into place), they would sometimes get flipped and it was REAL hard to see when that happened. There are a few Star cards where you can see a horizontal line near the top or bottom of the photo - it's clear tape. Well, I guess I can reveal - I was there from 1986 to 1993. Funny thing, when I started there, I knew of the cards, but like DaClyde, wasn't too impressed, and as a kid (I was only 16 when I started with them) I thought they were too expensive for what they were.

Another thing we made toward the end of my run there were:

www.ebay.com/itm/Wilt-Chamberlain-Sports-Porcelain-Figurine-Auto-Signed-With-COA-Lakers-229-500-/321649711214

And

www.ebay.com/itm/KEN-GRIFFEY-JR-AUTO-Sports-Porcelain-FIGURE-COA-/121590005214

I don't know if they made any others, but I have 1 of each of them. They are really gorgeous.

 I think due to the price, I didn't buy any Star Co. cards until the late '90s or maybe early '00s when I was getting back into collecting after about a 6 year departure.  By then, the prices had tanked and they could be had for a song.  I think I picked up my 1988 Dave Winfield set, with the autographed card, for around $8.  Kruk Cards used to sell a ton of the minor league boxes for a song, but those seem to be drying up.  Prices of the Star minor league boxes have nudged back up a little bit, but not the market values of any of the cards.  I think it was the 1989s that had really bad QC on the sizes.  Some of the cards were cut so large, I couldn't fit them into the plastic case I bought to hold the set.  Major variations in card sizes.  That was cleaned up in the following series, and the cards all line up nicely.

I think it was the 1989s that had really bad QC on the sizes.  Some of the cards were cut so large, I couldn't fit them into the plastic case I bought to hold the set.  Major variations in card sizes.  That was cleaned up in the following series, and the cards all line up nicely.

One word: Contractors. All printing was contracted out, and since the cards were put directly in the packs, we had no real QC. At least with the MLB single player and MiLB team sets, we saw EVERY card that went into the sets. The "wax" packs, not at all.