1952 Wheaties ChampionsIn 1952 Wheaties issued this set of cards on the back of their boxes. The 2" x 2-3/4" cards needed to be hand cut from the back of the boxes making high quality samples almost impossible to find. The set featured 30 different champions from a variety of sports in both "Portrait" and "In-Action" poses for a total of 60 different cards. 10 of the 30 athletes are baseball players with football, basketball, golf, bowling, diving and other sports also included.Top players in the set are Ted Williams, Stan Musial, George Mikan, Ben Hogan and Otto Graham. |
Topps Vault & Proofs
Auctioneer Guernsey's went thru Topps offices gathering over 3,000
items for the auction. Topps spokesman reported auction sales of
OVER $1.5 million !!! Additional sales were made from a mail-only
auction. Collector Keith Olbermann, at the auction, described it
as an archaeological dig.
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Topps Vault, Proofs & Blank-Backs
Topps archive material continued to accumulate after the auction
ending up with another treasure of over 250,000 transparencies,
uncut sheets, color separations, art, photos, slides, proof sheets
& wrappers, canceled checks, contracts and one-of-a-kind
items to sell.
Note: You may be on that page right now. |
1985 Leaf BaseballIn 1985 Donruss created a special version of its baseball cards (1985 Leaf) in an attempt to enter the Canadian baseball card market. Except for the addition of a colorful green leaf, the card fronts were virtually identical to Donruss cards. The most interesting difference occurred on the back where the Leaf cards featured text in both French and English !At only 264 cards, the Leaf set was much smaller than Donruss with it's 660 cards. But ... because of it's smaller set size the Leaf set has a much higher percentage of star cards. There was also a special two-card "Canadian Greats" subset with paintings of Dave Stieb and Tim Raines. Top rookies are: Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett, Orel Hershiser, Dwight Gooden and Mark Lamgston. |
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.