1968 Topps Action Stickers #11 ABC Complete 3-panel strip w/Don Drysdale

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

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.

1974 Topps Stamps set had (240) 1x1-1/2 inch stamps, 10/team. Issued in 12-stamp panels in diff. combos of rows for 24 DIFFERENT panels in a complete 1974 Topps Stamps PANEL set.

NOTE: Your favorite may be on 2 different panels !!!
Set suffers from HORRIBLE centering and bad perforations. 1969/1974 Topps stamps are very similar except: 1974's oval vs 1969's banner.

1974 Topps Mini-Albums - seen - perhaps not released.

PACKED! Ryan, Aaron, Bench... With Pete Rose and seldom seen Winfield & Parker rookies.

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.

Are sports cards valuable ?

Like all collectibles, over time some sports cards go down in value, others go up and some can even become very valuable. Card values are based on many factors: player popularity, scarcity, condition & collector interest. A card can be scarce but without demand value may not be great.

Q: What are some ways to collect cards ? * Complete sets by year & issue
* Cards of your favorite player
* Cards of your favorite team "TEAM SETS"
* Rookie cards
* Hall-of-Famer cards
* I even had a girlfriend that collected Don Mossi (checkout his ears), players whose last name start with "Z", and the Brett brothers George & Ken (she had a crush on George).
* "TYPE COLLECTING" (everyone should at least do a little of this !)

"Type Collecting"
is collecting at least one of each different "type" of issue. On scarcer issues you can add a less expensive common while on others you can select your favorite player or team.

1968 Topps Action Stickers #11 ABC Complete 3-panel strip w/Don Drysdale

Vintage Baseball Wire Photos

UPI/AP Wirephotos

1974 Topps Stamps
Checklist & Values

Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs

1968 Topps Action Stickers #11 ABC Complete 3-panel strip w/Don Drysdale

Vintage Baseball Wire Photos

UPI/AP Wirephotos

1974 Topps Stamps Checklist & Values

Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs

1974 Topps Stamps
Checklist & Values