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.
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
Note: You may be on that page right now.
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1963 Bazooka ALL-TIME GREATS
In 1963, competitive pressures compelled Topps to add a bonus to it's 1963 Bazooka boxes.
These cards were inserted inside boxes of Bazooka bubblegum at 5 per box.
The 41-card set of Hall-of-Famers features black and white photos of the player
inside a gold plaque.
A short biography appears on the back, a first (and last) for Bazooka.
The 41 numbered cards measure 1 9/16" by 2 1/2".
Scarcer silver colored plaques also exist.
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1956 Topps Pins
Checklist & Values
WOW ! Few issues compare to the 1956 Topps Pins set. The colorful and
attractive 1-1/8" diameter pins were packaged with bubble gum
and featured a color photo of player on front with a pin clasp on back.
Many of the images for pins are the same as on the 1956 Topps cards.
If you collect 1956 Topps cards than YOU MUST add at least one of these
1956 Topps Pin to your collection.
Packed with stars (no Mickey Mantle), the 1956 Topps Pins set
also had a few scarcities such as Chuck Stobbs, Hector Lopez &
Chuck Diering.
In the end, collectors of the day preferred cards to pins and Topps cut back
the 1956 Topps Pin set from a planned 90 pins to just 60.
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History Of O-Pee-Chee
O-Pee-Chee (OPC) based in Ontario Canada, is mostly thought of as the
Canadian version of Topps but it actually pre-dates Topps by many years.
In 1933, OPC issued their first sports card set, the V304 Hockey cards and
is currently in the tens of thousands. Their first baseball set was
issued in 1937. It was similar to the 1934 Goudeys and Batter-Ups
and the top player was Joe Dimaggio.
O-Pee-Chee created baseball card sets similar to TOpps from 1965 into the
1990's. At first OPC sets were much smaller than Topps
and included just the first few series. Fronts & backs were nearly identical
but with a small "Printed in Canada" on the back and the card stock was
slightly different.
Baseball being much less popular in Canada, OPC print runs of their early
years were between 1% and 10% of Topps making them exceedingly scarce !!!
Starting in 1970, Canadian legislation demanded all items produced in Canada
carry both French & English so OPC baseball cards became bilingual with both
languages included.
Other OPC differences include:
1971, OPC even changed the back design to a much more
interesting back and also offered 14 different card photos not in the Topps set.
1972 OPC included a card of Gil Hodges mentioning his death that was
not a part of the Topps set.
1974 OPC did not include any "Washington Nationals" variations.
1977 the card format remained like Topps but almost 1/3 of the OPC set had
different poses/images than Topps.
In late 1970's, OPC card fronts appeared similar to Topps but sometimes
included traded information saying "Now with XXXX". They were able to do
this as the OPC cards were printed much later into the season.
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