1963 Topps #303 Earl Francis (Pirates)

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1959 Topps displays vintage 1959 Topps Baseball sports cards.
Bowman Mickey Mantle displays all Bowman Mickey Mantle sports 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.

Official authentic vintage UPI/AP Wirephotos/Laserphotos are very limited, normally only 1 sent to subscribing newspapers. Photos were black & white printed on electro-static printers, usually sent in 3 stages, Cyan, Magenta & Yellow, then combined into a color photograph. Photos are work products and VG to NEAR MINT. As a bonus, some have editor's blue-line cropping marks.

Scarce, interesting and snapshots of history, wire photos of major subjects and moments make for great collectibles. Wirephotos and laserphotos are no longer transmitted in this manner (stopping around the early 90's). Images are now transmitted from computer to computer with no need for hardcopies.
old UPI wirephotos old AP wirephotos Wirephotos images taken with low res camera so images do not do then justice. The wirephotos are nicer than in the image. Most wirephotos from San Diego Union Tribune archives and make nice additions to your collection.

Gateway Stamp Company has provided collectors over 1 MILLION authenticated certified autographs over the last 30+ years. Though a "stamp company", Gateway went down a new creative road combining art, color photographs, historical events & autographs with their full-color silk cachet envelopes.

WHAT IS A SILK CACHET ?
A "cachet" is a design on an envelope marking an event. "Silk" refers to the delicate material the art and photography are printed on after which it's signed by the player and then post-marked by the Post Office IN THE EVENT'S CITY !!!

WHY POSTMARKS?
A postmark is a great way to mark historical events and the rules governing postmarks GUARANTEES that NO Gateway issue can EVER be re-issued protecting their value !!!

Baseball card collecting terms (part D-F)

Die-Cut A special card that differs from a basic card by "Die-Cutting", cutting away portions of the card to create a special design. Most are serially numbered & limited.

Error Card Baseball card history is filled with error cards, many of them very interesting. Hank Aaron is on 2 of my favorite error cards. Aaron's 1956 Topps card action photo shows Aaron sliding home but it is actually Willie Mays not Aaron. Topps again goofed on Aaron's 1957 "reversed negative" card showing Aaron batting left-handed.

"Error Cards" are usually found early in print runs and often corrected. When this correction happens a VARIATION is created. Some variations are extremely interesting and very expensive while others are totally boring and you wonder why they were even made.

Extended Set Also frequently called Update Set or Traded Set.
They are sets issued after the original release to update the regular set with new and traded players.

Facsimile Autograph is an autograph printed on a card to show what the player's actual signature looks like. They are not "real" autographs.

Factory Set are complete sets usually in special boxes produced by the manufacturer. "Hand-Collated Sets" are sets collectors have put together card by card from packs.

1963 Topps #303 Earl Francis (Pirates)

Auction's most costly vintage baseball cards

Vintage Baseball Wire Photos

UPI/AP Wirephotos

Autographed Gateway Cachets