This near-set sold by Heritage Auctions in Aug 2023 consisted of cards from Al Papa's personal colle

1950 Scott's Potato Chips Minneapolis Lakers

The scarce 1950 Scott's Potato Chips Minneapolis Lakers is arguably the greatest regional basketball set ever released. The Lakers won the 1949-50 NBA championship and the Potato Products Corporation, a regional Upper Midwest brand based in East Grand Forks, MN, honored this accomplishment by including one card in its boxes of potato chips and cheese potatoes. Each card contains the Scott’s logo on the card front.

The 13-card set marks one of the first cards with facsimile autographs and cartoon imagery. It contains 6 hall of famers including George Mikan in the same pose as his 1948 Bowman rookie card. Other HOFers in the set are Jim Pollard, Slater Martin, Vern Mikkelsen and coach John Kundla. The set also contains the first card of Bud Grant, a NFL hall of fame coach for the Minnesota Vikings. In total, there are thirteen 2-inch by 4 1/8-inch cards in the set (although there is also a Minnesota season pass card with similar artwork). The cartoon image on the season pass was drawn by the same artist, Alfred "Al" Papas, and around the same time. The autographs are facsimile and represent one of the first instances of this feature being used on a basketball card.

As explained below, pops are very low for these cards. There are only a total of 140 PSA-graded cards in the registry as of July 2026.

Why Is This Set So Scarce?

Like most vintage basketball, many of these cards were not valued highly back in the day, not stored safely and often thrown out.

However, this set is particularly scarce for another, unique reason. As the back of the cards state, collectors 15 or younger could present 5 cards plus .25 cents tax/service fee to get a free ticket to one of 4 Lakers games. They could also send in a complete 13-card set to get an autographed team photograph. Photo at bottom of page. The cards handed at the 4 games were ripped in half at the auditorium so they couldn't be re-used. Presumably, the ones sent in for the team photograph were likewise destroyed.

Further, a reliable source adds that the Bob Doll and Arnie Ferrin cards (and possibly others) were short-printed to make it more challenging to complete the set.

About The Artist - Al Papas

Al Papas was one of the notable sports cartoonists of the golden age of newspaper sports art. His work appeared in the Minneapolis Star and The Sporting News, and his cartoons stood out because they blended sharp caricature with real sports commentary. In an era when sports pages relied heavily on illustration, Papas’ drawings of players, managers, and owners were not just entertaining. They were a compact and effective form of journalism. Papas had a comic strip for years called Lance Lawson and drew the artwork for Hubert Humphrey’s campaign for Governor. Papas was raised in International Falls, Minnesota, played football at the University of Minnesota, and started drawing professionally in 1931. While Papas got paid for the artwork, he also was given some sets of his Scott's cards which his passed down to this 4 children.

Al Papas was known as “Axe” during his high-school football career and starred as a freshman at the University of Minnesota. A broken leg against Iowa ended his playing career and prevented him from participating in Minnesota’s 1934 national championship season.

His son, Al Papas Jr., later carried on the family’s artistic tradition and wrote Gophers Illustrated: The Incredible Complete History of Minnesota Football. This article sets forth more info about the set and the Papas family history.

Al Papas' Personal Collection

Al Papas got paid for creating the set's artwork but he also was given sets of his cards, Al treasured his cards and passed them down to his four children. Al Papas’ son Bob kept his inherited cards in an ordinary No. 10 envelope and a safety-deposit box for roughly 30 years. A total of 29 cards from Al Papas' collection have survived.

On August 19, 2023, the family sold one of its inherited sets in Heritage Auctions’ August 2023 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction. The set contained 12 of the 13 cards (missing the Arnie Ferrin) and sold for $63,000.

It remains today the No. 1-ranked Scott's set on the PSA Set Registry, with a set rating of 7.23 and no card graded below PSA 5. The George Mikan card was graded PSA 7, the highest-graded example.

The family expressed emotional difficulty about selling the cards, describing the auction as feeling like they were selling part of their family history, rather than merely disposing of collectibles.

In July 2026, the family sold privately 17 cards from Al Papas' personal collection to the undesigned. To preserve the provenance of these cards, these cards will display "From The Al Papas Collection" stickers (see above) once they are graded. The sticker has a QR code that leads to a page on our website (coming soon) authenticating the provenance by affidavit of Jennifer Papas, Al's grand daughter.

The backs of the cards explain that children under 15 who presented 5 of the cards along with .25 cents could attend a game for free, and those with a complete set could also get a team photo.

Arnie Ferrin card. One of the toughest to find in the set based on PSA pops.

1950/51 Minneapolis Lakers season ticket was drawn by Al Papas, the same artist who drew the regional set. Given the condition of the pass (well preserved. un-punched and blank back, I believe that this is a proof (or work-in-progress) item. That is, this particular example was not actually distributed to a season ticket holder.

This example of games 1-11 for the 1950/51 season pass has a blank back further indicating to me that item was a proof (or work-in-progress item).

This item from the 1952/53 season shows that multiple passes were given to season ticket holders as each one only covered entry to 11 games. The team printed the other passes in different colors and I believe 3 (or 4 passes) were given for each season.