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.
Auction's most costly vintage 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.
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1961 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values
The 1961 Topps baseball card set had 587 cards (#1-#598 with some missing numbers).
In addition to the missing cards, 2 cards were accidently numbered #463
(the Braves Team card was supposed to be card #426).
1961 Topps set was packed with special "subsets":
League Leaders (10 cards), World Series cards (10),
Highlights (11 cards), MVP's (16 cards), Checklists (7 cards plus several variations),
Team cards, Special Multi-Player cards, Managers,
Topps Rookie All-Star Trophies, & Sporting News All-Stars
Of note - 1961 Topps were the first cards bearing the very popular Topps Rookie All-Star Award Trophies.
"High Number" cards (#523-#589) are very scarce.
The least attractive aspect of the 1961 Topps baseball card set
were the capless players !!!
Baseball expansion led to the problem when
Los Angeles Angels were added,
the Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins
and the Washington Senators got a new franchise.
Because of these changes, tons of players were capless
and looked awful. picture you 50 year old grand-dad.
Life was obviously tougher back then.
More 1961 Topps card info:
Card #1 was All-American basketball player Dick Groat
Card #2 was Roger Maris, right before his record breaking 61 Home Run season
Mickey Mantle was on (6) 1961 Topps cards adding to the sets cost.
Topps released 3 other sets in 1961: Topps Dice Game, Topps Magic Rub-Offs & Topps Stamps.
Click for complete
1961 Topps baseball cards Checklist and Prices
Note: You may be on that page right now.
Click for complete
1961 Topps Autographed baseball cards Checklist and Prices
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1969-1970 Topps Basketball Cards
Checklist & Values
The 1969-1970 Topps Basketball set, (99) "Tall Boys" (a huge 2-1/2 x 4-11/16)
, sold in 10-card packs for 10 cents, was history making in card size
& players. WOW !!! Lew Alcindor's ROOKIE (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar),
John Havlicek, Dave Bing, Earl the Pearl Monroe,
Bill Bradley, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Elvin Hayes & more.
Brightly-colored "Rulers" were random inserts.
Delicate 2-1/2 x 9-7/8, printed on thin paper,
they featured a cartoon drawing and a ruler measuring
his height. Planned for 24, #5 Bill Russell was not issued.
Note: You may be on that page.
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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
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![1960 Topps #250 Stan Musial [#] (Cardinals) Baseball cards value](/jpgs/6/1960-250s.jpg)