Below are short bits & pieces on sportscard & baseball trading card collecting.
Please wander around the website for more info, prices, values & images
on vintage baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sport and non-sports cards.
1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values
1952 is often thought of as Topps 1st baseball card set, but it was not.
Topps issued several smaller baseball card sets prior to their huge 1952 set.
Topps buzz word was "BIGGER is BETTER" for their 1952 Topps set which
Topps described as: "GIANT IN BOTH SIZE and NUMBER of CARDS" (407).
Key card in the 1952 Topps set is #311 MICKEY MANTLE.
Often called Mickey Mantle's Rookie card - BUT IT IS NOT. That honor
goes to his 1951 Bowman.
1952 Topps "High Numbers" (#311-#407), are very, very scarce with an
interesting story:
This HUGE set was released in series weeks apart. By the last (6th)
series, baseball season was over and football starting.
Candy shops had plenty of baseball cards from earlier series
so most cancelled their orders for the last series creating the scarcity.
Adding interest is how Topps disposed of the now un-needed cards including
THOUSANDS of 1952 Topps MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Atlantic
Ocean like most of New York's trash in those days.
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1968 Topps Action All-Star Stickers
Checklist & Values
1968 was an awesome year for Topps test & oddball issues with
Game cards, Player Posters, 3-D cards, Plaks, Discs, Punchouts
and these "Baseball Action Stickers" also called "Action All-Stars
Stickers".
"Baseball Action Stickers" were STAR-PACKED 3-panel sticker strips,
some with facsimile autographs. There were (16) different strips in the
set but only 12 are totally different. #13 thru #16 re-used panels from
#1 thru #12.
Strips were perforated, folded at joints and put in packs.
Boxes had 12 packs (10 cents each) with 1 sticker per pack. Sets could be
made back then for $1.60. Today, the Mantle panel goes for around $2,000.
Collectors often collect just individual panels as complete strips are
so scarce, fragile & EXPENSIVE.
Single panels themselves are quite scarce - in 20+ years PSA has graded
just over 200 TOTAL compared to over 1,000 1952 Mantles !!!
PROOF sheet below is missing the facsimile autographs.
Another interesting issue:
1960 Pirates Tag-Ons Baseball Stickers
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Hartland Baseball Statues & Figurines
Hartland produced it's first baseball statue back in the early 60's.
SCD calls the 1960's Mickey Mantle Hartland Statue the single most
popular plastic sports statue ever produced !
In 1988 Hartland released 25th Anniversary Editions, nearly
identical to the original.
Hartland later joined with Krause Publications, to create the SCD Authentic
series - the original 18 in different poses.
Hartland Figurines are amazingly beautiful and exquisitely detailed
with painted pinstripes and wood grained bats.
Note: You may be on that page right now.
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Baseball card collecting terms (part G)
Grade/Condition Centering, corner wear, photo clarity, edges,
creases, print flaws ... all combine to determine a card's condition or grade.
Along with rarity/scarcity it is the major factor in a card's value.
Graded Card As values increased the condition of cards and the
determination of fakes and alterations became increasingly more important.
Various companies became "graders" of your cards. For a fee they would grade
your card (usually on a 1 to 10 scale) and then placed in a sealed plastic
holder with labelling of the vital information.
From past experiences, most people are NOT HAPPY with the grades they receive.
To keep values up, graders can be extremely picky. Things you don't see,
they do so don't be surprized when the NEAR MINT card you send in ends up
with an EX or EX/MINT grade.
There are TOO many grading companies - if you do, do choose carefully.
PSA / SGC / GAI / BGS are some of the many companies.
It is good to know that getting a card graded by a company that people
do not recognize or respect will usually just cost you time and money
and not help you in any way.
© 1995-2019 "InterNet's Baseball Card Store" / Joseph Juhasz ... All Rights Reserved
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