1953 Topps #177 Jim Dyck [#f] (St. Louis Browns)

Select a different Sport or Vintage Baseball Cards set
or Find:
Enter words, partial words or phrases
1959 Topps displays vintage 1959 Topps Baseball sports cards.
Bowman Mickey Mantle displays all Bowman Mickey Mantle sports cards.

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.

The history of vintage baseball card auctions is long and colorful.

T-206 Honus Wagner tobacco cards have sold for upto $2.8 million in auction. The "Holy Grail of Sports Cards", it's extreme-high auction value can mostly be attributed to great PR and "auction fever". It's not close to being the rarest baseball card and Honus Wagner is not Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle. Yes, the T-206 set is beautiful & special but because of the # of cards and scarcities, few collector's try to complete, which should keep auction competition down compared to say 1933 Goudey or 1952 Topps baseball card issues.
BUT IT DOES NOT...

There's a story Wagner banned his card because he was anti-tobacco but there are other stories about financial considerations.

You surely have heard of PSA and may even know that this card was the FIRST they ever graded. But did you know that dealer (B.l. .ast.o name encoded) admitted tampering with the card, perhaps having it trimmed down to size, before PSA graded it so highly for the auction.

Baseball card collecting terms (part B)

Bazooka Bazooka Bubble Gum put baseball cards on the back of their boxes from 1959 thru 1971. Complete boxes and panels can get extremely costly. Most kids back then could not afford complete boxes of bubble gum at one making Bazooka cards quite scarce. I actually don't recall ever obtaining a Bazooka card directly from a box as a kid. Do you ???

Black Sox Scandal Name given to the the most famous scandal in baseball history after the 1919 Chicago White Sox versus the Cincinatti Reds World Series when 8 White Sox players were accused of throwing the series. Details have remained somewhat unclear. The players were acquitted of criminal charges but 8 players still received a lifetime ban from professional baseball including the All-Time great "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

Blank-Back a card in which nothing is printed on the back. These cards are usually not in packs and are either "PROOF ISSUES" or were removed from the factory in some way.

Blanket a term used for collectibles in the 1910's made of fabric .

Border is the part of the card that surrounds the photo or image.

Bowman was a card manufacturer in the 1940's and 1950's that was bought out by Topps. In 1989 Topps started issuing cards using the Bowman brand.

Break a term used to indicate the opening of a set, pack, box or case.

Break Value is the total book value of each card added up individually. The break value of a set is usually way, way more than the value of the complete set.

1953 Topps #177 Jim Dyck [#f] (St. Louis Browns)

1961 Nu-Card Baseball Scoops

Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs

Auction's most costly vintage baseball cards