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NON-SPORTS CARDS
NON-SPORTS CARDS

A Tale of Two Collections

at Auction

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher, in an exclusive interview with Alex Winter of Hake’s Auctions

n November, Hake’s Auctions held a non-sports
card auction featuring the collections of two
Ilong-time, serious collectors of this genre of
ephemera – Roxanne Toser and John Grossman.
For those unfamiliar with the terminology, this
category is defined by its name: “non-sports
cards.” That includes, says Alex Winter, president
of Hake’s Auctions, “any card, or card adjacent
item, in which the subject matter is not related to
any sport, is a non-sport card. That can be comic
characters, TV shows and movies, animals, flags,
and so much more. The themes and subjects that
have been covered in non-sport issues are vastly
broad and varied. That allows collectors to hone in Strange True Stories The Bat Man
on a very specific theme or run wild and collect
any and everything non-sports.”
At left: Wolverine Strange True Stories Wrapper

Meet the Collectors

Roxanne Toser has been a well-known figure in the non-sport card sorts of collectibles; stamps, coins, bubblegum cards, first-day covers,
community since the mid-1970s when she and her husband Marlin dolls, wooden puzzles, board games, mechanical toys, seashells, rocks,
began attending sports card shows and purchased non-sport cards from fossils, minerals, you name it! Grossman would join his mother on her
various sports card dealers (as at that time, no non-sport card shows weekly grocery store trips, where he purchased boxes of 5¢ packs of
existed). In 1984, Toser was the first dealer asked to exhibit at the bubblegum cards with the money he earned from mowing lawns. Once
Philly Non-Sports Card Show. In 2007, the Toser family took over home, he would open the packs, shove as much of the gum as he could
running the show, putting on shows twice a year at The Greater into his mouth, and begin sorting and storing these newfound
Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. treasures. Over the years, his collection expanded to include baseball
In 1990, Roxanne extended her interest in the non-sport card cards, Church and Dwight soda cards, Good Luck foil Airplanes,
community by founding Non-Sport Update magazine, a quarterly Buitoni Figurettes cards, and many other grocery items long forgotten.
publication that provided articles about upcoming trading card He also began attending card shows and within a few years, began
products, and vintage series, and price guides. Non-Sport Update was setting up at them and meeting new, wonderful people. As time went
sold to Beckett Collectibles in 2015. During her decades-long careers as on, Grossman found himself carrying around other dealers’ want lists,
a card dealer and collector, Roxanne and Marlin accumulated an a perk they reciprocated for him. The thrill of finding “that last card”
extensive and varied sports and non-sports-themed family collection. A for a friend combined with the opportunity to learn from many of the
number of these items came to auction at Hake’s November auction. giants of the non-sports hobby was a winning combination.
John Grossman grew up in a family of collectors, surrounded by all Collectible items in food and cereal were especially attractive to
Grossman as they offered such an incredible diversity of content. As
time went on, he decided to focus on Burdick F issues based on The
American Card Catalog (Jeffrey Burdick compiled The Standard Guide
on All Collected Cards and Their Values for American trading cards
produced before 1951) since it seemed so few people knew about them
and there was always more to learn. Today, John is an acknowledged
contributor to The Sport Americana Price Guides To Non-Sports Cards
by Christopher Benjamin (published by Edgewater Book Company).
Items from his collection were also featured at Hake’s November auction.

What’s Selling at Auction?

Hake’s has been offering non-sport cards at auction longer than any
other auction house so we talked with Winter to learn more about the
outcome of their November auction and what it says about collector
interest and the state-of-the-market for this form of ephemera:

Superman Gum Card Set

28 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles