Christmas Time Is Here Again - Vintage Sears Wishbook Catalog Style

Once again its time to put together my wish list after going through the Christmas catalogs. I haven't been going through the catalogs that came in the mail though, I've been putting together my wishlist after reading WishbookWeb's treasure trove of vintage Christmas catalogs:


One of my most popular posts was the post I did right after Christmas last year featuring a number of NFL (and a few MLB) items from Sears Wishbooks and JC Penny's catalogs from the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's which I found on WishbookWeb.

Lets see what goodies I'd like to find under the tree this year:

I could use a jersey or two:






Of course the jerseys are much better when you've got the matching pants and the helmet:

Since its getting cold, a sweatshirt would be great:


Speaking of cold weather, I could use a jacket and a cap and some gloves:




or maybe a vest:

and definitely a parka for those really cold days:


Some new pajamas with a matching robe would be nice:

I'm not really big on sweaters, but if it had my favorite team I would probably wear one:



Of course if I could look as good as Sweetness in Da' Bears sweater, I'd wear one all the time:


I could use some new shirts for work:


as well as a new pair of jeans:


Since my gym clothes are pretty worn, I'd like to get some new workout clothes:




Some new socks and shoes would be good:



I might as well get some boots too:


The house could use a little redecorating. Perhaps a new bedspread and a nice door mat:


and some new lamps:


and a new trash can:


Come to think of it, I need a new bike:


as well as a new sleeping bag or two:


Since I need to be better about bringing my lunch to work, an NFL Lunchbox might just do the trick:


And finally, it would be fun to have the "Beyond Thunderdome" version of electric football under the tree:


If there is still room in Santa's sleigh, I would like a baseball jersey and some basketball gear as well:


What amazes me in looking at these old catalogs is how NFL Properties saturated the market with their "brand", and put their logo on just about anything a kid (or an adult) could need.

The NFL was (and still is) heads and shoulders above the other leagues in marketing their product. The MLB and NBA pictures above are the only 2 pages I found in my searches, compared with a ton of NFL items.

If you have some spare time and want to take a trip back in time, I highly recommend taking a look at WishbookWeb. Just make sure you've got some time as once you start going through the old catalogs you'll find it hard to pull yourself away.

NFL Properties / Sunbeam / Schwebel Bread Cloth Patches

In addition to the 1972 - 1976 Fleer NFL Football Cloth Patches, there was another set of cloth patches issued in 1975 which looked almost identical to the Fleer patches, but were smaller in size, and only had one patch per sticker instead of 2.


The patches have a 1972 NFL Properties copyright, just like the Fleer patches did from 1972 through 1975. Because there is nothing else identifying who issued the patches, these are often referred to as the NFL Properties set, and sometimes as the 1972 NFL Properties set given the copyright. These are believed to have been released with Sunbeam and Schwebel Bread products, so you will occasionally see these referred to as Schwebel or Sunbeam patches.

Even though these have a 1972 copyright, we can determine that they are actually from 1975 because of the Giants patch:


1975 was the only season the Giants used this design, so this allows us to place the year of issue as 1975. Its also interesting to note that the stickers have TMs, which the Fleer stickers also started carrying in 1975.

The patches measure 1 1/2 x 1 3/4, and there are a helmet and a logo patch for each team. Here is the complete set of helmet and logo patches for all 26 teams:









There is a Sunbeam Helmet Stickers Saver Book for the helmet patches:

The book is from 1975, given that for some of the teams in the album it mentions their 1974 season (and in the case of the Giants shows their 1975 helmet):



There was also a separate album for the emblem / logo stickers:


It also is from 1975 as it also features the 1975 Giants "NY" logo on the space where you are supposed to attach the sticker.

One interesting thing to note is that in the pictures of uncut sheets I have seen, the helmets and logos are not together on the same sheet. If you take a look at this shot, you can see that the entire sheet is logos:


It looks like the helmet and logo stickers must have been issued separately since there are different albums for both, and the one uncut sheet that has surfaced only has logos and no helmets.

If anyone remembers getting these back in 1975, please let me know as I'd be interested to hear what you remember about where they came from.

Speaking of uncut sheets, if you are interested in an uncut panel of all 26 team logos, please visit Steve who runs the excellent The Dallas Cowboys Complete Football Card Guide site.

Steve doesn't have the entire sheet available as pictured above, but he does have a portion of the sheet that has all 26 teams together like this:


Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to see what Steve has available.

Steve helped me complete my set of the logo patches (which seem to be harder to find than the helmet patches) as well as a 26 team logo panel (suitable for framing!) - Thanks Steve!

He does have a few single patches as well as the 26 team panel if you are interested.

We're not finshed with the Sunbeam Football issues yet, so stay tuned for 2 other Sunbeam sets.