Buzz 12 in 12: Busting 1961 Nu-Card Football Stars (Hour 4)

Do you like Buzz Breaks? Today's your day then as we launch 12 in 12 -- a series of a dozen breaks of wax boxes and wax packs in a dozen hours. We'll post one every hour all day long ... this is Hour 4.

The pack: 1961 Nu-Card college football stars 
The cost: Will vary ... when found -- get new football boxes here

What's inside this one? Keep reading ...

Cards per pack: 7 (six standard cards, one two-pennant card -- all in gallery below)
Base set completion: 
6 of 80 (8 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Base cards – Ernie Davis, Bobby Plummer, Bobby Dodd, Ed Pine, Don Purcell, Andy Timura

Inserts: 1
Pennant (1) – University of Massachusetts, Colgate University

Autographs/Memorabilia: Not for a few decades

What's Buzz-worthy: I picked up two cards I wanted from this release long ago and hadn't really looked for packs before, but I was beyond surprised to find this for $39. I immediately knew it would appear here. Why? It's the oldest pack I've ever busted. Beyond that, I should have looked more closely at this particular pack before opening it as the best card in the product was on top of the pack and essentially visible through the 57-year-old thin paper packet, which is actually not waxed, meaning there are no stained cards. That card is of 1961 Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis and it pre-dates his Topps Rookie Card by a year as he was the No. 1 pick in the 1962 NFL Draft. (He died from leukemia in 1963 without ever playing in an NFL game and those were the only two cards made in that time -- he doesn't have a massive amount of cards since, either.) One oddity with this release? The set starts with card No. 101. Notable players here include Roman Gabriel, John Hadl and Billy Neighbors and a number of guys who are well-known to fans of their schools like Pat Trammell, who opted for medical school over the NFL after a dominating career at Alabama. These aren't the cleanest printed and cut cards, but I think I'll slab up my Davis -- look for it in a Making The Grade post in a few months -- because I pulled it. Everything here seems to be relatively available, though elite-graded copies could surprise you. How plentiful might these be? Well, they're much cheaper than anything from the major leagues from the timeframe and I've seen wax boxes from reliable dealers for less than $900 -- and that's not the norm for stuff from back in 1961. That probably won't get you a pack in other products. Thankfully with this huge pull, I won't need to rip another. And I'll be hard-pressed to open a pack older than this one on the cheap.

Product Grade: B+
Pack Grade: A+
Fun Grade: A-

What's next? Be back in an hour ...

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