1978 Hostess # 83 Nolan Ryan (Angels)
Grade |
EX/MINT |
Book Value |
$ 40 |
Our Price |
$ 27.50
Add to cart
|
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.
The buzz word at Topps back then 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, released weeks apart. By the last
series, baseball was over and football starting.
??? Perhaps the set was too huge ???
Shops had cards left from earlier in the year so many orders
were cancelled, thus the scarcity.
Adding interest is how Topps got rid of the now useless cards, including
THOUSANDS of MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Ocean !!!
Click for complete
1952 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
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1965 Philadelphia Football

1965 was the 2nd year for Philadelphia Gum creating football cards.
Once again, their set had (198) cards, (14) from each team, featuring the rookie cards of
Hall-of-Famers Paul Warfield, Mel Renfro, Dick LeBeau, Carl Eller, Paul Krause and Charley Taylor.
1965 Philadelphia cards came in a variety of packages: nickel wax packs, ten-cent cello packs and 29-cent rack packs.
Making this set a bit special was that for the first time in football card history, the NFL logo appeared on the front
of a card. The logo was Philadelphia Gum Company's way of sticking it to Topps as Philadelphia had the exclusive
to produce NFL cards while Topps was left to printing cards of the then 'lesser' AFL teams and players.
Click for complete
1965 Philadelphia Football cards
Note: You may be on that page right now.
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1968 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values
(2) of the top rookies are from this set:
Hall-of-Famers Nolan Ryan & Johnny Bench !!!
Some slightly more difficult bot no scarce high numbers or short prints
in this set so once you have the Ryan and Bench it's kind of fun to
complete.
Click for complete
1968 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.
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Tobacco Cards
Starting approximately in 1886, sportscards, mostly baseball cards, were often
included with tobacco products, for promotional purposes and also because the
card reinforced the packaging and protected cigarettes from damage. These sports
cards are referred to as tobacco cards in the baseball card hobby. Over the next
few years many different companies produced baseball cards. Tobacco cards soon
started to disappear as the American Tobacco Company tried to develop a monopoly
by buying out other companies.
They were reintroduced in the 1900s, as American Tobacco came under pressure from
antitrust action and Turkish competition. The most famous and most expensive,
baseball card is the rare T206 Honus Wagner. The card exists in very limited
quantities compared to others of its type because Wagner forced the card to be
removed from printing. It is widely (and incorrectly) believed that Wagner did
so because he refused to promote tobacco, but the true explanation lies in a
dispute over compensation.
Soon other companies also began producing baseball and football cards. Sports magazines
such as The Sporting News were early entries to the market. Candy manufacturers
soon joined the fray and reflected a shift toward a younger target audience for cards.
Caramel companies were particularly active and baseball cards were one of the first
prizes to be included in Cracker Jacks. World War I soon suppressed baseball card
production.