1978-79 Topps Basketball # 63 Norm Nixon ROOKIE AUTOGRAPHED

Grade	NM/MINT to EX/MINT
Book Value	n/a
Our Price	$ 24.95 Add to cart

1978-79 Topps Basketball # 63 Norm Nixon ROOKIE AUTOGRAPHED Basketball cards value

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.

1960 Leaf Baseball Cards

The 1960 Leaf baseball card set featured 144 regular-sized high-gloss photo quality cards. Back then Topps had a monopoly on baseball cards packaged with gum or candy so Leaf packaged their cards with marbles. The marbles were from Sports Novelties Inc. and the cards, called 1960 Leaf, bear copyrights by Sports Novelties Inc.
Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda and Jim Bunning were the top stars in the set. The set came in two series, with the second series high numbers (#73-#144) produced in very limited quantities.

Scarcest card in the set is the corrected version of Jim 'Mudcat' Grant (#25). The more common error variation pictured Brooks Lawrence on the front with Jim Grant's info on back.
To promote this set, Leaf also produced (8) very scarce Big-Head PROOF variations.

There were also (3) different variations of the back of Hal Smith's card #58. Leaf also produced (8) very scarce and extremely expensive, Big-Head PROOF variations to promote their set.

Click for complete 1960 Leaf Baseball Cards
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1968 Baseball Marbles, Creative Creations

These clear plastic 3/4" marbles contained paper inserts with the player's portrait on front and facsimile autograph on back.
Issued in collectible blister packs with 20 marbles. The blister packs measure 9-3/4" x 10-1/2". The marbles were sealed on front; the pack�s back featured a design with around 60 facsimile signatures. The package mentioned 24 series of 20 marbles each (480 total) but only 120 different marbles were actually created.

One of the more interesting collectibles from the late 1960's, they are still sought after by both team & player collectors.

For another interesting issue:
Click to view - 1970 Chemtoy SuperBalls

1971 O-Pee-Chee Baseball

Also referred to as OPC or Topps Canada, most vintage OPC sets were near replicas of the Topps cards from that year. Exactly same in design they usually only differed with the addition of French to the backs and some fronts.
To the benefit of collector's OPC made several changes in their 1971 set. The most obvious and useful was a complete redesign of the card backs and the addition of another player photo ! Additionly, over 20 cards were changed including the inclusion of what could be considered the first "Traded" cards. Another difference: Topps cards #202 and #289 were changed to allow the addition of 2 more Expos to the set.
The 1971 OPC set is legendary for its short print run, estimated at perhaps just 5% of Topps� Production. This issue is considered quite elusive, even in Canada.
TOP ROOKIE: Steve Garvey
TOP STARS: Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Pete Rose, Ted Williams, Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Don Baylor/Dusty Baker RC & MORE !!!

Click for complete 1971 OPC/O-Pee-Chee Baseball checklist and prices
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How long have sports cards been around ? (part 1)

The first baseball trading cards date back to 1869. For many years, baseball cards were packaged in packs of tobacco as a way to increase sales the same way that today prizes are packaged in boxes of cereal. In the 1920's and 1930's, candy and gum companies started packaging baseball cards in their products as well.

Baseball card production was virtually halted in the early 1940's due to paper shortages created by World War II. The "Modern Era" of baseball cards began in 1948 when Bowman Gum Inc. offered one card and one piece of gum in a pack for a penny.

The first important football set was the Mayo set featuring college players in 1984. Other than the 1935 National Chicle set no other key football set was issued until 1948 when noth Bowman and Leaf produced sets.