The card of the week is not really a card but a proof of a card. It is a 1982 Donruss Mookie Wilson. We call these blues in the print industry. This is the front-only from the Wilson card cut to size. It would have been used by the printer to confirm to Donruss that what they wanted to appear on the front of the card did, in fact, appear.
Each card in the set would have had a blues proof. I actually also picked up a Pat Zachry blues proof from this set too.
The envelope it came in is equally neat-o. Its from E. Strauss at 116 Nassau Street, in New York City. 1982 is also the year I graduated from Hofstra with an English Degree and got a job at Simon & Schuster in the book manufacturing department. So, starting in July of that year, I began spending dozens of hours going through blues proofs searching for broken type and dust spots (mark that dust spec with ablack grease pencil!)
E. Strauss would have shot these photos with a camera the size of a Corolla and then vacuum sealed them for proofing and lithographic printing.
By 1982, a lot of the New York City printing was moving out to where salaries were a bit more beneficial to the press owners. States like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Tennessee were all seeing the migration of the business benefit them. Modern technology like faxes, overnight UPS or FedEx services were allowing things to happen at faster and faster rates.
So here is a young Mookie on this proof coming into NYC at a time when the people who were manufacturing this card were beginning to move out. Such is the ebb and flow of commerce.
Very neat story and piece, Jim!
Nice Mookie! Contact me if you’re the owner and are interested in selling.