1958 Topps - TIGERS - Near Complete Team Set (26/29)

$290 break value if ExMt. w/Jim Bunning,Team card,Harvey Kuenn,Ray Boone... MISSING:#70 Kaline,245,271.

Grade	Mostly EX or better
Book Value	$ 290
Our Price	$ 129.95 Add to cart

1958 Topps - TIGERS - Near Complete Team Set (26/29) cards value

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.

1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1952 is often thought of as Topps 1st baseball card set, but it was not.
Topps issued several smaller baseball card sets prior to their huge 1952 set.
The buzz word at Topps back then was "BIGGER is BETTER" for their 1952 Topps set which Topps described as: "GIANT IN BOTH SIZE and NUMBER of CARDS" (407).
Key card in the 1952 Topps set is #311 MICKEY MANTLE. Often called Mickey Mantle's Rookie card - BUT IT IS NOT. That honor goes to his 1951 Bowman.
1952 Topps "High Numbers" (#311-#407), are very, very scarce with an interesting story:
This HUGE set was released in series, released weeks apart. By the last series, baseball was over and football starting.
??? Perhaps the set was too huge ???
Shops had cards left from earlier in the year so many orders were cancelled, thus the scarcity.
Adding interest is how Topps got rid of the now useless cards, including THOUSANDS of MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Ocean !!!

Click for complete 1952 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.

1954 Bowman Baseball
Cards Checklist & Values

Competition was raging between Topps and Bowman in 1953 and 1954 leading to problems with both companies sets. Bowman caused Topps to missing 6 cards in 1953 with Topps getting revenge by signing Ted Williams to an exclusive contract in 1954. Bowman then had to pull Ted Williams card #66 from their set shortly after they started printing, replacing it with Jimmy Piersall, who also was on card #210 making the 1954 Bowman Ted Williams #6 one of 50's scarcest cards.
Perhaps distracted by it's competition with Topps, the 1954 Bowman set was filled with errors and variations. Nearly 20% (40/224 cards) had some sort of variation, with some having more than 2.
The St. Louis Browns recent move to Baltimore also made things interesting. Bowman's artists had no idea what an Orioles jersey would look like - so they just madeone up.

TOP ROOKIES: Don Larsen, Harvey Kuenn, Frank Thomas
TOP STARS: Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto ... Ted Williams is not considered part of a complete set.
Click for complete 1954 Bowman Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.

Vintage Baseball Card Auction terminology

Register:With name, address & email so we can contact you after auctions with your winning bids.
2 Types of Bidding:
[YES] / [NO] auction bids - Click on YES button to make only the next bid.
[MAXBID] auction bids - Enter MAXIMUM you would bid on this item. If outbid, auction software makes the next bid if is not more than your auction [MAXBID].
Minimum or Start Bid:
More expensive auction items may have minimum or starting bids. Saves time rather than auction bids going up .25 at a time, taking many dozens of bids to reach even fractions of value.
Reserve Bid: "Reserve" auction bids come into play after an auction ends. If "Hammer" price is less than "Reserve" bid no sale. Not very auction bidder friendly.

Click for more info on my Weekly Vintage BASEBALL CARD AUCTIONS

How long have sports cards been around ? (part 1)

The first baseball trading cards date back to 1869. For many years, baseball cards were packaged in packs of tobacco as a way to increase sales the same way that today prizes are packaged in boxes of cereal. In the 1920's and 1930's, candy and gum companies started packaging baseball cards in their products as well.

Baseball card production was virtually halted in the early 1940's due to paper shortages created by World War II. The "Modern Era" of baseball cards began in 1948 when Bowman Gum Inc. offered one card and one piece of gum in a pack for a penny.

The first important football set was the Mayo set featuring college players in 1984. Other than the 1935 National Chicle set no other key football set was issued until 1948 when noth Bowman and Leaf produced sets.

1958 Topps - TIGERS - Near Complete Team Set (26/29)

1952 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1954 Bowman Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

Vintage Baseball Card Auction terminology

1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1954 Bowman Baseball
Cards Checklist & Values