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Until now, there has been no place where all of my custom cards could be found in checklist form. It is my intention to update this posting as new cards are created. Similar checklists for my baseball and football custom cards will also be posted.
Custom card availability. Unless noted, all of my custom cards are available to collectors for $12.50 each, postpaid for one or two cards; $9.95 each for three or more (mix/match). To order, email me at scbcguy@yahoo.com for directions on paying via check/money order, or to my PayPal account.
Civil War News
89 Grays Wiped Out
90 Victory Parade
91 Death at 1,000 Yard
(NOTE: My Civil War News cards are
note available for sale.)
Flags of the World
81 Islamic State
82 Iran
83 Scotland
84 Wales
85 England
86 Northern Ireland
87 Alaska
88 Hawaii
89 Vatican
Hit Stars
89 Johnny Cash
Rails & Sails
201 Chicago & Northwestern Diesel
202 Queen Anne's Revenge
203 U.S.S. Monitor
204 C.S.S. Virginia
205 Orange Blossom Special
206 City of New Orleans
207 City of Miami
208 Bamboo Grove Lounge Car
209 Hiawatha Skytop Lounge Car
210 R.M.S. Titanic (sailing right)
210 R.M.S. Titanic (sailing left)
210 R.M.S. Titanic (night)
211 Alton Railroad Abraham Lincoln
212 Gulf Coast Rebel (GMO RR)
213 U.S.S.Indianapolis
Spins and Needles
81 The Quarreymen
82 Marty Robbins
83 Roy Orbison
TV Westerns
72 Maverick -- James Garner
74 Maverick -- Gentleman Gambler
75 Maverick -- Well-Dressed Strangers
77 Rawhide -- Clint Eastwood
78 Rawhide -- Strategy Session
83 Rifleman -- Lucas' Rifle
86 Wyatt Earp -- Hugh O'Brian
87 Wyatt Earp -- A Legend is Born
88 Wyatt Earp -- Buntline Special
91 Wyatt Earp -- Taming Tombstone
92 Bat Masterson -- Gene Barry
93 Bat Masterson -- County Sheriff Bat
97 Cheyenne -- Clint Walker
98 Cheyenne -- Lonely Man, Cheyenne
World on Wheels
181 Buick Centurian (front view)
181 Buick Centurian (back view)
182 Dodge La Femme
183 Volkswagen Microbus
184 London Black Taxi
185 Schwinn Whizzer
186 Vincent Black Shadow
187 Minerva Town Car
188 Airstream Wanderer
189 Chrysler Town and Country
190 American Moto-Scoot
Most of the 80 subjects in Fleer's original 1960 "Spins and Needles" bubblegum card set were drawn from the world of what was then collectively known as pop music.
Today many of the artists on those cards are better known as belonging to the genres of Rhythm & Blues, Folk, Rockabilly, Doo-Wop and even Rock and Roll.
There weren't many Country and Western singers in the Spins set, so I've added a custom card for a long-time favorite of mine, Marty Robbins.
Roy Orbison was more closely related to the original Spins subjects but his career had not really taken off by the time Fleer released the set.
Purists may note that the backs of my new custom Spins cards reflect 1961 dating, rather than 1960. Consider it a Second Series, if you will. If I had adhered to the strict 1960 timeline, there would have been precious little to say about Robbins and Orbison.
You can find all you need to know about Marty Robbins and Roy Orbison, and even hear much of their music, on various internet sites, so I'll just share the images of my cards.
You can order these card. Unless noted, all of my custom cards are available to collectors for $12.50 each, postpaid, for one or two cards; $9.95 each for three or more (mix/match). Complete checklists of all my custom baseball, football and non-sports custom cards were published on this blog in late May. To order, email me at scbcguy@yahoo.com for directions on paying via check/money order, or to my PayPal account.
I don't know about the kids in your neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s, but where I grew up the guys on the block were distinctly divided into card collectors and non-collectors.
There weren't any fence sitters as I recall; you either collected bubblegum cards or you didn't.
Until the late 1960s, I always counted Denny Smith among the non-collectors.
Denny was a year and a half older than I, a classmate of my older brother. If you can conjure up images of Fonzie from Happy Days, you've got Denny. In the vernacular he was a greaser. He was a little guy with slicked-back hair and a short-man's complex. He had the reputation as a prodigious fighter, though the only time I actually saw him in a fistfight, he lost to a jock.
Denny was a car guy as opposed to a card guy. In the years just before he got drafted and went off to Korea, he had a white 1959 Buick; Le Sabre, as I recall. When he returned from the Army he bought a brand new purple 1969 Dodger Charger 440.
I never knew Denny to be a card collector in our younger days, so I was surprised in the late 1960s to see a small stack of 1960 Fleer Spins and Needles cards on the closet shelf in his room. As far as I know, they were the only cards he ever had.
I also had a few Spins and Needles cards as a kid. I probably never bought more than a pack or two. I was the type of card collector that would buy a pack of anything new I saw on the candy store shelves. I really wasn't into music before my mid-teen years, so I guess the subject matter of the Spins and Needles cards didn't hold any special appeal for me.
By the time I got back into card collecting in the late 1970s, the Spins and Needles cards were more up my alley. Some of the recording artists from the set were now being played on the oldies stations that I preferred (still do). I don't recall now whether I built or bought a set, but for some years I had the complete set of Spins and Needles.
As part of my new-found interest in creating custom cards in the formats of some of my childhood favorite non-sports sets, I've added a modern take on Spin and Needles by creating this card of The Quarrymen.
You might not recognize the name, but you should recognize the faces. The Quarrymen was the group co-founded by John Lennon, who was later joined by Paul McCartney and George Harrison (and a rotating cast of musicians). They were the Beatles in the years before Pete Best and Ringo Starr.
The official web site of the current iteration of The Quarrymen -- http://www.originalquarrymen.co.uk -- will tell you everything about the group's history and provided the details necessary for me to write up the card back.
In the back of my mind I've a notion that other Spins and Needles customs could be forthcoming, such as Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Ricky Nelson and Roy Orbison, in keeping with the 1960 issue date of the original cards. Some would even fit into additions to the 1957 Topps Hit Stars issue. They're not high on my priority list, though.
