1952 Bowman Small FB #139 Jerry Shipkey (Steelers)

No only did the 1954 Topps issue feature the rookie cards of some of the greatest baseball players of all-time, it also was the 1st appearance of Ted Williams on a Topps card. Topps was so proud of this they made Ted the FIRST (#1) and LAST (#250) card in the set.

1954 Topps was released in three different series, (#1-50), a tougher mid-series (#51-75), and finally (#76-250). Of note for fans of variations, first series cards were issued in Canada with gray backs.

ROOKIE cards of future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Al Kaline & Ernie Banks along with cards of SuperStars Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Jackie Robinson and tons more !!!

The 792 card 1991 Topps Desert Shield Baseball card set was issued by Topps for the soldiers serving in the Gulf War. The Desert Shield set is a variation of Topps regular 1991 baseball card with each card having a special gold-foiled 'Desert Shield' stamp added to the front. Many of the cards, scooped up by military personnel stateside, never made it overseas. The equivalent of approx 6,500 sets of cards were made. Cards are still sought after and fairly scarce with complete sets nearly impossible to find. Be aware of counterfeits. Fakes can easily be determined by comparing the gold foil logo with a real Desert Shield card.

The Chipper Jones rookie is the key card in the set along with the usual super stars like Nolan Ryan, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken ...

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.