Mets Card of the Week: 1970 Cleon Jones

1970 TRANSOGRAM CLEON JONES

I picked up three 1970 New York Mets Transogram cards last week. Along with the pictured Cleon Jones card, the lot also included a Jerry Koosman and a Tom Seaver from the same issue.

These Transogram cards were printed on the back of the cardboard boxes the corresponding Transogram figures came in. The quality of the figures was none too special. They were roughly equivalent to what you might expect to find on the top of a baseball-themed birthday cake. The statues did reflect differences in skin colors to reflect the ethnicity of the players. They were sole in single packs as well as in packs of three.

Transogram manufactured these for two years. The first year, they produced a sixty-figure set featuring the 1969 “All-Stars” which included Ron Swoboda (#44), Koosman (#46), and Seaver (#48). The card numbers didn’t appear on the card but on the flap of the cardboard box.

Transogram came back for a second season in 1970 with two sets. Again, they issued a thirty-figure “All-Star” set which Jones (#3), Seaver (#12), and Koosman (#15). But Transogram also capitalized on the Miracle Mets phenomenon by issuing a fifteen-figure “World Champion New York Mets” set. These were sold in five groups of three figures each. The groups were:

1) Ed Kranepool, Al Weis, Seaver
2) Ken Boswell, Koosman, Jerry Grote
3) Art Shamsky, Gary Gentry, Tommie Agee
4) Nolan Ryan, Tug McGraw, Jones
5) Swoboda, Bud Harrelson, Donn Clendenon

Not surprisingly, a Near-Mint Ryan Transogram card is the highest valued card, one earlier today being auctioned off at a mere $475.00. If you were lucky enough to possess the three-figure set which included the Ryan figure in the box with the cellophane in Near-Mint condition, you might be looking at an item valued at three-four times Ryan’s single card value. Comparatively speaking, you might be looking at paying between $30.00 and $60.00 for a Near-Mint Seaver card.

See this Sports Collector’s Digest article for more information about the Transogram company.