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.
1974 Topps DECKLE EDGE Checklist & Values
This scarce 72-card test issue set was released with very limited
East Coast distribution making them quite scarce.
Officially simply called "Topps Baseball Photos", their serrated or "DECKLED"
edge gave them the name they go by today.
The 2 7/8" x 5" inch cards were sold in 2 card packs with gum or 3 card
packs without for 5 cents.
Click to enlarge Complete Proof Sheet on left
Fronts are similar to b&w Exhibit Postcards from the 50's
with photos and facsimile autographs.
The backs make this very scarce test issue more interesting !
They feature handwritten script of player's name, team, position & date
and location of the photograph as well as a mock newspaper article.
This was Topps 2nd "Deckle Edge" issue, their first being the smaller
and more common 1969 Topps Deckle Edge inserts in 1969 Topps packs.
Variations of 1974 Topps Deckle Edge exist,
making this issue more fun and challenging to collect.
Backs can be found in gray or a much scarcer white.
Also, more limited proof versions with non-scalloped edges exist and
can be found with and without card numbers.
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1969 Topps Deckle Edge checklist and prices
Click for complete
1974 Topps Deckle Edge checklist and prices
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1993 Topps Inaugural Colorado Rockies Set
In 1993 Topps produced a limited number of special factory sets to honor the
Colorado Rockies first season. A special gold foil Rockies logo was added
to each card.
The initial print run of 5,000 ran out quickly so the Rockies had 5,000 more
sets made. Cards were only available as factory sets so singles and team sets
are a bit tougher to find.
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1993 Topps Inaugural Rockies checklist & prices
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1955 Topps All-American Football Checklist & Values
In 1955, college football was much more popular than the NFL. Topps response
was the 100 card 1955 Topps All-American Football card set. Topps first major
football issue featured the greatest college players from first half of the 20th century.
The 1955 Topps All-American football card set was issued in 1-card penny
packs, 9-card nickel packs and 22-card cello packs with tons of rookies
& stars including rookie card of former Supreme Court Justice Whizzer White.
TOP ROOKIES: The Four Horseman, Whizzer White, Fats Henry, Doc Blanchard,
Don Hutson, Amos Stagg, Tom Harmon, Ernie Nevers ...
TOP STARS: Knute Rockne, Jim Thorpe, Sammy Baugh, Red Grange, Otto Graham ...
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1955 Topps All-American Football cards checklist, values and prices.
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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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