The 1953 Glendale Meats baseball card set is considered one of the true oddball sets in the hobby. Produced by the Glendale Sausage Company of Glendale, California as a local promotion, the cards featured current Major League players but lacked the distribution and quality of Topps and Bowman sets of the time. These factors which made them obscure when issued over 65 years ago are part of what give the cards their appeal and value today among dedicated collectors.
While production numbers are not definitively known, collectors estimate only around 500-1000 sets were produced in 1953, giving the set extremely low pop (population/availability) compared to the mainstream Topps and Bowman releases of the era which had print runs in the millions. The scarcity is a key driver of the cards’ value today. As a regional minor league promotion rather than a national release, the cards never reached the widespread distribution that Topps enjoyed. Many were simply given away at the Glendale Sausage shop or discarded after their promotional purpose was served. This history of obscurity and one-off production for local purposes only adds to the allure for specialized collectors.
Condition is also a major factor in the value of these vintage oddball cards due to the low initial print run and lack of premium production standards compared to the big brands. While the fronts feature black-and-white player photos and team logos akin to contemporary Topps and Bowman releases, the cards utilize a thinner stock paper and have no gum! The backs are blank rather than including any statistics or biographical information about the players. Simply put, the cards were not made with the same attention to longevity and preservation as the national ’53 sets. As a result, finding examples in high grades of Very Fine or better is extremely difficult and drives values up accordingly.
In terms of player selection and composition of the set, the 53 Glendale Meats cards generally feature recognizable stars and regulars from both the American and National Leagues of the period. Top players in the set include legends like Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, and Roy Campanella. The absence of any true “common” types from the set increases desirability. The checklist contains 67 known players, all randomly inserted into wax packs without any series, numbering, or categorization. The lack of organization has made fully assembling a master set a greater challenge over the decades.
So in summary – the intersecting factors of extreme scarcity due to one-off local production in the 1950s, lack of organization, and fragile construction putting high-grade survivors out of reach, all contribute to the 1953 Glendale Meats cards being a true oddball treasure for dedicated vintage collectors. While common examples can still be acquired for a few hundred dollars, mint condition examples of the stars push values into the thousands. A PSA-graded Gem Mint 10 Willie Mays just sold at auction in 2021 for over $12,000, demonstrating how condition, stars, and scarcity can converge to create value many times greater than the junk wax era. While unorganized and low-pop in comparison to the sports card giant brands, the charming quirkiness and survival challengers of these 1950s oddballs make them a valued niche within the collecting world.