FREE Free Baseball Cards (10) NM/MINT
Vintage Hall-of-Famers
 click for details 		Free Baseball Cards FREE

USE BACK ARROW TO RETURN TO PRIOR PAGE

1961 Topps #490 Jim Bunning [#] (Tigers)


Book   = $ *BOOK*
Price = $ 11.95
EX/EX+

1961 Topps #490 Jim Bunning [#] (Tigers) Baseball cards value
Price = $ 11.95
         

pointer Vintage Baseball cards
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.
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.
Baseball

Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs


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.

Click for our current Autographed/Signed Team Baseball inventory
Note: You may be on that page now.
Baseball

1968 Baseball Marbles
by Creative Creations


1968 Baseball Marble These 'Marbles' were issued in 'blister packs' of 20 marbles. The 'Marble' was a ¾”-diameter clear plastic orb containing a paper insert with the player's portrait on the front a facsimile autograph on the back.
The blister packs themselves are collectible. They measure 9-3/4” x 10-1/2”, with the marbles positioned on front; the pack’s back features a baseball design awash in approximately 60 player's facsimile signatures. 1968 Baseball Marbles The package mentions 24 series of 20 marbles per but only 120 different marbles were created.

1968 Baseball Marble One of the more interesting collectibles from the late 1960's, they are sought after by both Team and Player collectors.

For another similar interesting issue see the 1970 Chemtoy SuperBalls.
Baseball

1985 Leaf Baseball

In 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.


Baseball
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