NFL Action '72 - An Update

By Jeffrey J. Miller

A couple of weeks ago, I realized it has been nearly two full years since I published my story about the Sunoco football stamp promotion from the early 1970s called NFL Action ’72. At the time, I had just ordered a sealed copy of the deluxe collector book and—after poring over its magnificently illustrated pages—decided to relive a childhood memory and fill a whole new book from scratch. 

Original Article July 3, 2022: 

(nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com)

I still had my original books, but they were pretty ratty, and only one was complete. By the way, I never owned a deluxe copy when I was younger, so filling one now adds a new wrinkle to the proceedings. As mentioned in my original article, as a long-time vinyl record collector I was well aware of how much sealed copies of vintage albums depreciate after removing the shrink wrap, so I decided to order a second copy to keep sealed while using the first copy in my endeavor to collect all 624 player stamps. 

Two copies of the deluxe NFL Action '72
collector books - one sealed, one open.

(Now, I realize there are plenty of fans/collectors who have complete books, and I am sure there are many who have gone back and put together a complete collection as the I am trying to do here. This is not to diminish anyone else’s journey. In fact, if you, gentle reader, have revisited your childhood pursuit and completed a full set later in life, please share your story in the comment section below.  Every collector has experienced some type of difficulty or humorous moment in her or his individual pursuit, so please feel free to share any such anecdotes with the rest of us!)

I committed myself to filling this one neatly, with stamps cleanly separated from each other and placed squarely into the book with no yellowing tape or wrinkling glue. As anyone who collected these stamps back in the day can attest, one of the biggest problems facing the collector was exactly how to adhere the stamps in the book. Some used scotch tape, which stained the pages and the stamps with a horrible yellow residue. Some used glued, which left wrinkles or waves in the stamps and often made them impossible to remove if trading or replacing an attached stamp. I have even seen some examples in which collectors attached the stamps using grey duct tape, staples and any other number of ill-advised methods. To that end, I ordered special two-sided archival tape—guaranteed not to yellow—to use to fasten the stamps in their rightful places within the book.

Diving headlong into my new endeavor, I ordered 20 unopened stamp packets from an eBay seller and was nearly as giddy as I was back in 1972 when my Dad brought home new packets after filling the tank at the local Sunoco station. Those new stamps were separated and placed neatly into the book, which only provided a fraction of the total number of stamps I would be compelled to acquire in order to attain a full set. So the process was repeated a few more times—and it was not cheap.  Even buying them in lots of 10 or 20 packets at a time resulted in a per-packet cost of $3-$4, and the farther along one gets in his or her individual journey, the more often one of the packets purchased will be one he or she already has!

The Denver Broncos' pages, as of June 2024. 

Like most childhood endeavors, distractions come along that make one lose sight or even set aside what we thought was going to be a laser-focused pursuit. Having a job, a wife, a house, a son in college, writing a book and other diversions eventually superseded the stamp collection and at some point it just stopped, unceremoniously and unintentionally. I looked at the book a few times over the ensuing couple of years but for some reason did not go back to it, until a couple of weeks ago.  Realizing I had neglected the pursuit for too long and seeing that I had written in my original article that I would periodically report on my progress, I decided to re-ignite the flame. I saw I was at about the halfway point of the collection and went on eBay to see if there were any good deals. If anything, the prices have increased in the two years since beginning this journey, but I nevertheless ordered eight sealed packets from a seller, just to get myself restarted.

The fresh packets arrived this week and, being careful not to let my adrenaline rush get the better of me, I opened them as gingerly as I could so as not to tear or wrinkle the booty inside.  Unfortunately, of the eight packets received, only three contained stamps I needed.  Despite the fact that this trove yielded only 24 new stamps, I felt pretty good about getting to place these new pieces into the book. Ah ... very satisfying! And, hey, I can at least say I was able to complete the Dolphins' defense!

Now that I have sufficiently whetted my appetite once again, it's game on! Time to order more ... and see this thing through to a glorious end. 

An unexpected bonus for me in this endeavor was learning more about the 82-stamp supplement released later that fall featuring players who had been recently acquired by each team. These stamps were available by mail-order only, so not many were produced. Each team had anywhere from two to five “new players” in the supplement, and there was a checklist to tell the collector exactly which player the “new player” was supposed to replace.  

For example, one of the “new players” included in the supplement for the Buffalo Bills was defensive tackle Mike McBath.  The checklist indicates that McBath’s stamp was intended to replace Jim Dunaway's.  

The stamps in the supplement are extremely rare (only two were found on eBay) and command high prices among collectors. A copy of the McBath stamp was listed recently on eBay for $50 … yikes!  (However, since McBath never had a stock card issued by Topps or any other company, this was the only collectible on which his fans could get their hands.)

Mike McBath's "new player"

stamp replaces Jim Dunaway's. 

I will continue to chronicle my journey toward completing the full 624 stamp collection (although I will not be pursuing the 82-stamp supplement!).  It's been a great deal of fun so far, and hopefully it will not take too long to report that I have finally reached my goal.