1968 Topps #394 Tommie Aaron (Braves)

Book = $ *BOOK*
Price = $ 11.95
NM/MINT to MINT

Price = $ 11.95

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.
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.

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

1963 Bazooka ALL-TIME GREATS
In 1963, competitive pressures compelled Topps to add a bonus to it's 1963 Bazooka boxes. These cards were inserted inside boxes of Bazooka bubblegum at 5 per box. The 41-card set of Hall-of-Famers features black and white photos of the player inside a gold plaque. A short biography appears on the back, a first (and last) for Bazooka. The 41 numbered cards measure 1 9/16" by 2 1/2". Scarcer silver colored plaques also exist.

1956 Topps Pins
Checklist & Values

WOW ! Few issues compare to the 1956 Topps Pins set. The colorful and attractive 1-1/8" diameter pins were packaged with bubble gum and featured a color photo of player on front with a pin clasp on back. Many of the images for pins are the same as on the 1956 Topps cards. If you collect 1956 Topps cards than YOU MUST add at least one of these 1956 Topps Pin to your collection.
Packed with stars (no Mickey Mantle), the 1956 Topps Pins set also had a few scarcities such as Chuck Stobbs, Hector Lopez & Chuck Diering.
In the end, collectors of the day preferred cards to pins and Topps cut back the 1956 Topps Pin set from a planned 90 pins to just 60.
Click for complete 1956 Topps Baseball Pins checklist, values & prices

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.

1968 Topps #394 Tommie Aaron (Braves)

1952 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1963 Bazooka ALL-TIME GREATS

1956 Topps Pins Checklist & Values

1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1956 Topps Pins
Checklist & Values