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.
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1977 Topps Cloth Stickers
Checklist & Values
As 1977 baseball season was winding down, Topps wanted to sell more cards
and released the "1977 Topps Cloth Stickers" test issue.
The 1977 Topps Cloth Stickers set came in at (73) total cards: (55)
cloth stickers and (18) checklist/puzzle cards that
formed large photos of the 1976 AL & NL All-Star teams.
2 Stickers and 1 checklist/puzzle card were in each .15 cent pack
with 36/packs in a box.
Nearly all fronts are same as the regular issue
- with a few different like Nolan Ryan.
LEFT: Regular issue;
CENTER: Cloth Sticker;
RIGHT: O-Pee-Chee (from Canada).
The 2-1/2" x 3" stickers had highlights & instructions on back.
The backing was easily removed and kids could stick them everywhere !
TEACHERS LOVED THEM !!!
Packed with Hall-of-Famers (19 of 55) plus Pete Rose and Mark Fidrych.
In addition, stickers & puzzle pieces came with one '*' or two '**'
asterisks on back.
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1963 Topps Peel-Offs (stickers)
Checklist & Values
Another interesting 1960's Topps Test issue !
Topps inserted these Peel-Offs (stickers) also called Stick-Ons in several
series of 1963 Topps baseball cards. The Peel-Offs inserts
were not mentioned or advertised on wax pack wrappers.
The 1963 Topps Peel-Offs set contained 46 1-1/4" x 2-3/4" stickers
and was packed with HALL-OF-FAMERS. The Peel-Offs come in 2 variations,
with instructions on the back or the scarcer blank-back.
TOP STARS: Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax,
Stan Musial, Al Kaline, Carl Yastrzemski, Ernie Banks & MORE !!!
Click for complete
1963 Topps Baseball Peel-Offs Stickers checklist and prices
Note: You may be on that page right now.
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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.
Topps buzz word 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 weeks apart. By the last (6th)
series, baseball season was over and football starting.
Candy shops had plenty of baseball cards from earlier series
so most cancelled their orders for the last series creating the scarcity.
Adding interest is how Topps disposed of the now un-needed cards including
THOUSANDS of 1952 Topps MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Atlantic
Ocean like most of New York's trash in those days.
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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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