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.
1958 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values
In 1958 Topps started a continuing feature with their first "All-Star" subset.
A part of the All-Star subset, the Mickey Mantle 1958 All-Star card is famous
for being in the back pocket of famous sportscaster Bob Costas.
Click for complete
1958 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.
|
1993 Topps Finest Refractors Checklist & Values
Topps went all in in 1993 with their most premium baseball card set to date,
the famous 1993 Topps Finest set with RARE parallel issue REFRACTORS.
With only 199 cards, 7 per team, the 'Finest' set only had room for
the 'Finest' players !
Rare REFRACTORS were randomly placed in some packs.
REFRACTORS looked exactly like regular cards unless you knew where
AND how to look. Tilting a REFRACTOR in sunshine released a rainbow of
colors, "refracting light" Topps scientists liked to say.
Current info is only 241 REFRACTORS were issued of each card making
this parallel issue one of the scarcest. Collecting a complete set is made
even more difficult by the hoarding of certain cards by collectors AND even
major league baseball players !
Click for complete
1993 Topps Finest Refractors checklist, values & prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.
|
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
Note: You may be on that page.
|
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
|