1996 Upper Deck - TICKET to STARDOM - Complete Insert Set (20)

Awesome Die-Cut brushed gold foil set ! Jeter,Griffey,A.Rod,Ripken,Piazza... eBay asking $349 for set. Jeter sold $75
Grade
NM/MINT
Book Value
n/a
Our Price
$ 49.95
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1996 Upper Deck - TICKET to STARDOM - Complete Insert Set (20) cards value
Baseball
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.

Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs


Team signed baseballs were the thing well before single-signed balls exploded on the market.
What is a "Team Signed Baseball" ???
Simple answer: A ball with XXX signatures of a certain team for a certain year. What is difficult is the XXX. Baseball tons of roster moves make it nearly impossible to "Get Them All".

Generally, team signed baseballs from early 1900's had 10 to 15 signatures, the 1940's that jumped to 18 to 25. Joyce Sports Research Collection (Notre Dame) says "signatures must include only members of a specific team from a specific year, and there must be some approximation of completeness."

Not concrete but to me a "team ball" MUST have ALL the team's STARS (unless a rookie or in season trade) and in today's market at least 20, preferably more, and the manager.

Determining Age of Team Signed Balls
"Official" league balls have stamped signatures of current league presidents on the "sweet spot". Starting 1934/1935 balls were produced by Spalding (NL) and Reach (AL). Rawlings took over in 1977/78. Have a possible team roster at hand, ESPN & baseball-reference.com have great sites), decipher a few signatures then solve the puzzle.

Team Signed Baseballs Values
Pricing team signed baseballs is difficult due to subjectivity and factors involved suce as: Signatures placement, quality, strength, number of autographs, stars, age, team significance, and eye appeal considering fading, whiteness, scuffs, shellacking, staining, overall wear...

Team autographed baseballs on official league balls get higher values. They are "official", made better, preserve better and even help in dating especially with balls signed at "Reunion" baseball card shows which brought together great teams of the past.

Facsimile Autographed Balls
1960's/1970's machine-printed "autographed" team baseballs were sold at stadium gift shops for around $1.95. Easy to identify as all signatures were uniform in ink, color, size and look. "Facsimile" signatures are also often found on baseball cards.

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Baseball

1958 Topps Football Cards
Checklist & Values


1958 for football cards will be remembered as the rookie season for MVP and future Hall-of-Famer Cleveland's great Jim Brown !!! The only other major rookie card in the 1958 Topps football card set is that of Sonny Jurgenson. Team cards were brought back by popular demand after not being included in the 1957 Topps release.

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Baseball

1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man TOBACCO
Checklist & Values


Tobacco cards were instrumental in the start of the baseball card industry but were pretty much unheard of since 1920. That is until RED MAN TOBACCO got in the game issuing baseball cards in 1952, 1953, 1954 & 1955.

For just 20 cents you got a pouch of Red Man tobacco and one awesome 3-1/2 x 4 inch baseball card with it's tab (3-1/2 x 3-5/8 without). Exchange FIFTY tabs and you got one free big league style felt baseball cap of your favorite team. This made cards with tabs much, much harder to find and values 2 to 10 times higher.

25 players from each league were selected by "Sporting News" editor J.G. Taylor Spink. A Player's artwork with different backgrounds was used year after year. If a player changed teams, new team name & logo were painted over the old one. To determine the year, just subtract 1 from the expiration date on back of the card. The 1954 set had four variations.

Click for complete 1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man Tobacco cards checklist & prices
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Baseball
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.

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