Always Collectables

Football Cards

Notable Western Australian Aussie Rules Trading Cards

The catalyst for this article was a recent discussion I had with some avid card enthusiasts about the rarity and current collectability of Western Australian related Australian Rules football cards.  The more notable Western Australian football trading cards were issued by cigarette company Sniders & Abrahams, who produced two sets of Western Australian football cards in the early 1900’s, and by the sweet company Plaistowe & Co., which produced a series of eighty (80) black and white trading cards featuring Western Australian footballers in 1932.  Fair to say, cards from these three sets of pre-World War II trading cards are scarce to find and are highly valuable.  

Mobil also produced three series of forty (40) cards featuring WAFL players in 1964, 1965 and 1971 respectively.  In 1981 Ardmona brought out a series Western Australian Football League cards.  This series comprised boxed team sets of each of the eight (8) WAFL teams, each containing thirty-three (33) player cards and ancillary advertising cards.

The first series of Scanlens Australian Rules football cards were produced in 1963.  Cards from this inaugural series are considered by many to be the “Holy Grail” of post-World War football cards. Eighteen players featured in this set, with fifteen VFL players and three “interstate” players.  The three “interstate” players were Ron Evans (who transferred from Essendon to West Perth at the end of the 1962 VFL football season); Haydn Bunton Jnr (Swan Districts) and Len Fitzgerald (Sturt).

In 1966 Scanlens produced a series of 72 trading cards, featuring sixty (60) VFL players and twelve (12) WAFL players. The twelve (12) WAFL players represented in this card series are:

  • Graham Heal (Subiaco)
  • Brian Sarre (Subiaco)
  • John McIntosh (Claremont)
  • John Dethridge (Claremont)
  • Frank Copeman (Swan Districts)
  • Bob Johnson (East Fremantle)
  • Barry Cable (Perth)
  • Ray Lawrence (Perth),
  • Kevin Miller (South Fremantle)
  • Colin Hebbard (West Perth)
  • Kevin Murray (East Perth)
  • Mal Brown (East Perth)

In 1982, Scanlens produced two series of Australian Rules football cards.  A series of 180 cards featuring VFL players was produced for the Victorian market.  The VFL cards were produced with a red coloured border, and they were sold in red wrappers.  An additional series of cards featuring 76 Western Australian players (plus 8 checklist cards) was also produced for the Western Australian market.  The WAFL cards were produced with a blue border and the cards were sold in blue card wrappers. The back of the 1982 Scanlens WAFL cards, except the checklists, make up a jig-saw photo from the 1981 WAFL Grand Final.  

Interestingly, thirty-four (34) of the seventy-six (76) players featured in this dedicated set of WAFL cards produced by Scanlens, either prior to or after 1982, played games with clubs in the then VFL (Victorian Football League).  The thirty-four (34) players are listed as follows:

Wayne BlackwellPlayed 112 games with Claremont and 110 games with Carlton. 
Warren RalphPlayed 123 games with Claremont and 21 games with Carlton. 
Graham MossPlayed 242 games with Claremont and 84 games with Essendon.  Winner of 1976 VFL Brownlow Medal and Australian Football Hall of Fame member. 
Steve MalaxosPlayed 140 games with Claremont, 9 games with Hawthorn and 21 games with West Coast (Captain 1990) 
Barry BeecroftPlayed 71 games with South Melbourne (1973-1977 & 1982) and 113 games with Claremont (1979-1981 & 1983-1985). 
Michael AitkenPlayed 107 games with Claremont and 1 game with Carlton. 
Allen DanielsPlayed 105 games with Claremont and 32 game with Footscray. 
Noel CarterPlayed 50 games with Richmond (VFL Premiership Player 1973) and 155 games with South Fremantle.  
Phil CronanPlayed 102 games with South Fremantle, 22 games with West Perth, 49 games with St. Kilda and 26 games with Footscray.  
Bruce MonteathPlayed 118 games with Richmond (1980 VFL Premiership Captain) 117 games with South Fremantle (1972-1974 & 1981-1983) and 28 games with Claremont (1984-1985). 
Phil NarklePlayed 178 games with Swan Districts, 48 games with St. Kilda and 18 games with West Coast. 
Mike RichardsonPlayed 144 games with Swan Districts, 60 games with Collingwood, 15 games Essendon, and 81 games Brisbane. 
Graham MelrosePlayed 114 games with East Fremantle, 111 games with North Melbourne, 71 games with Swan Districts. 
Murray RancePlayed 140 games with Swan Districts (1981-1985 & 1990-1992), 40 games with Footscray and 57 games with West Coast. 
Bill ValliPlayed 147 games with West Perth, 17 games with Collingwood, 1 game with Essendon and games with 37 games with Subiaco. 
Laurie KeenePlayed 141 games with Subiaco and 36 games with West Coast 
Tim GeppPlayed 84 games with Subiaco, 57 games with Richmond, 14 games with Footscray and 18 games with East Fremantle. 
Dean TurnerPlayed 143 games with East Perth, 54 games with Fitzroy and 56 games with West Coast. 
Michael Christian82 games with East Perth and 131 games with Collingwood (1990 AFL Premiership Player) 
John IronmongerPlayed 76 games with East Perth, 45 games with Fitzroy and 43 games with Sydney Swans. 
Rhett BaynesPlayed 78 games with Perth and 13 games with Carlton. 
Steve TurnerPlayed 108 games with Perth, 32 games with Melbourne and 12 games with St. Kilda. 
Bryan CousinsPlayed 240 games with Perth and 67 games with Geelong. 
Allan Montgomery Played 89 games with Perth (1979-1981 & 1986-1988) and 33 games with Carlton. 
Russell AllenPlayed 35 games with Essendon and 108 games with West Perth. 
Bill DuckworthPlayed 51 games with West Perth and 126 games with Essendon (1984 VFL Premiership Player and Norm Smith Medallist). 
Shane FitzsimmonsPlayed 63 games with Melbourne and 92 games with West Perth. 
Ray HoldenPlayed 102 games with West Perth (1979-1983 & 1987-1989), 3 games with Melbourne and 24 games with Perth (1985-1987). 
Andrew PurserPlayed 85 games with East Fremantle (1978-1982), 112 games with Footscray and 2 games with West Perth (1988). 
Rod Lester-SmithPlayed 97 games with East Fremantle (1978-1982), 70 games with Hawthorn and 39 games with Brisbane 
Shane EllisPlayed 204 games with East Fremantle and 10 games with West Coast. 
Jim SewellPlayed 141 games with East Fremantle and 76 games with Footscray. 
Ken JudgePlayed 120 games with East Fremantle, 72 games with Hawthorn (1983 VFL Premiership Player) and 17 games with Brisbane. Senior Coach Hawthorn 1996-1999 and West Coast 2000-2001. 
Jeff CassidyPlayed 50 games with Geelong and 70 games with East Fremantle. 

In terms of rarity, the Western Australian cards issued by Scanlens in 1982 are much harder to acquire in high grade than the Victorian cards issued in the same year.  The consensus among collectors is that there were significantly more cards issued in Victoria than Western Australia, given the difference in population numbers in those two states at the time.

Once a Collector Always a Collector

My name is Geoff Alway and I openly confess I have an “addiction”.    Yes, I am an unashamed, habitual collector.  At a recent social function, I was asked by a fellow whether I had any hobbies.  My initial response was “I am a collector of sorts”.  Not hard to guess what the next question was: “so what do you collect?”  That’s when it became a tad difficult to explain in simple terms, to someone I had only just met what my collecting obsessions were.  With impeccable timing, my wife interrupted with the comment “easier to ask what he doesn’t collect”.  A little bit disingenuous of her particularly when she says she doesn’t collect anything.   Mind you, she certainly rivals the Kardashians in terms of acquiring clothes, fashion and trendy techy things with daily on-line purchasing.  But that is another story. 

After a minute or two, I confessed to the inquisitive enquirer that I didn’t collect stamps and coins.  He replied, “My god, I have collected stamps and coins since I was a little boy”.  The evening became a wonderfully nostalgic discussion on our respective childhoods, what treasures we kept and of course, what got thrown out and what it would be worth today.

So now that I have had time to reflect on my life as an “addict”, I thought it might be useful to create a blog to share my experiences with others who might wish to understand the true meaning of the phrase “Once a Collector – Always a Collector”.  My intention is to approach this task in a passionate, interesting, eclectic, irreverent and disjointed fashion, the same approach I have taken since I started collecting all kinds of things as a very young boy and which I have continued to do all of my adult life. 

In general terms I am an avid collector of:

OLD AUSSIE RULES FOOTBALL & CRICKET CARDS:

  • SCANLEN’S GUM CARDS – FOOTBALL CRICKET, SOCCER AND NON SPORT CARDS
  • VINTAGE CIGARETTE CARDS
  • CEREAL & TRADE GIVE-AWAY CARDS PRODUCED BY KORNIES, COLES, ARGUS, MOBIL, ATLANTIC, TWISTIES & KELLOGG’S

SPORTING MEMORABILLIA, EPHEMERA & COLLECTABLES:

  • VFL, AFL & VFA FOOTBALL
  • CRICKET
  • HORSE RACING
  • OLYMPICS

MODEL CARS, TOYS, MUSIC MEMORABILLIA, EPHEMERA

  • MATCHBOX, DINKY, CORGI, MODELS OF YESTERYEAR TOY CARS
  • ELVIS PRESLEY, BEATLES DOLLS
  • VINTAGE TIN TOYS
  • PHOTO’S, MAGAZINES, PROGRAMS, BADGES, AUTOGRAPHS, POSTERS AND OTHER RARE AND INTERESTING SOUVENIRS

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

I was born in Ballarat and I am proud to say that no child on earth could have had a more loving upbringing or better childhood.  On reflection, I guess it would have been 1964, when as a very young boy the collecting bug really got me.  I started collecting the little Walt Disney give-away comics (24 in the series), which were given away with petrol at Mobil service stations.  The same year, my father started giving me the Mobil VFL football cards (starting in 1964 and ending in 1971) which he received with his weekly tank of petrol. 

In those early years of the 1960’s I can also vividly recall collecting Tarax lemonade caps, which on the inside featured faces of leading VFL footballers.  My grandmother, who minded me before and after school, would each week buy me comics from the local milk bar/newsagent.  I simply learnt to read, following the exploits of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge through those comic books. I also recall my mother giving gave me the colourful Teddy Bear magazines (printed in England) each fortnight.   By the time I was ten, I already had accumulated a solid collection of Australian published Walt Disney comics and also a range of Gold Key and Dell U.S. published comics, with those beautiful glossy covers featuring comic stories related to the latest popular TV shows and movies.  The Three Stooges, Top Cat, The Man from UNCLE, Star Trek, Bonanza, My Favourite Martian, and any comics featuring the Warner Bros. or Hanna Barbera cartoon characters were favourites.  It was later that I focused my energies on collecting golden and silver age U.S. printed Marvel and D.C. superhero comic books, as well as the highly sought after and now elusive black and white Phantom comic books published in Australia by Frew Publications in Sydney. 

As a young boy, like the majority of my peers, I was an Aussie Rules devotee and I collected those wonderful Scanlens Aussie Rules footy cards, trading with other kids at primary school and with my friends.   In those days there was no such thing as protective card sleeves or card holders, which are the norm these days to protect trading cards.  It was school pants pockets and rubber bands way back then.   That is why those 1960’s footy cards are often hard to find in fine condition. The first Scanlens footy cards I can remember collecting were the second series of 33 cards, printed in 1964. My passion for collecting footy cards really ramped up when Scanlens brought out their 1966 series of cards with twelve elusive die cut cards.

I loved the Beatles, and when they toured Australia in 1964, my father gifted me the obligatory plastic Beatle wig and I also started collecting Beatle cards and magazines and other souvenirs.  I even collected stamp sheets featuring the fab four (so on reflection I slightly misled the person whom I referred to earlier who asked me about my hobbies).  I was brought up surrounded by a family of avid horse racing enthusiasts. My grandfather used to give me all of the used race-day programs he acquired from his days as a bookies clerk at the Ballarat races (Dowling Forest) and from the Burrumbeet New Year’s Day race meeting.   Does anyone recall that a horse called Girrawanna won the 1967 Burrumbeet Cup?  It was the first race meeting I attended, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

I also painstakingly put together a range of scrapbooks featuring footy, horseracing, and magazine and newspaper cuttings of The Beatles and The Monkees.   I also started collecting Turf Monthly and Racetrack magazines, in the mid 1960’s. I still have my old annual J.J. Miller’s Sporting Annuals (aka Miller’s Guides) which have for almost a century been published each year once the weights for the Melbourne Cup are announced each year.  In my family the Miller’s Guide was fondly referred to as the Punter’s Bible.  I did devote a lot of my time to those obligatory “religious” studies!!

In the coming weeks, I will focus my blogging on particular collecting themes and hopefully provide you with some insight into the fun, trials and tribulations, wins and losses I have experienced from a true collector’s point of view.

If you would like to visit my website, please go to:

www.alwayscollectables.com.au

And remember, despite what some people may say, “every-one does collect something”.

To quote the late, great American radio announcer John Doremus (yes, they actually named a racehorse after him called Doriemus which ironically went on to win the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double in 1995):

Our time is up till we meet again for with another chapter of the passing parade

This is Geoff Alway thank you so much and goodbye for now

Geoff Alway