1953 Bowman Color # 21 Joe Garagiola (Pirates)

Book Value
$ 60
Our Price
n/a
Out of stock

1953 Bowman Color # 21 Joe Garagiola (Pirates)  cards value
Baseball
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.

1993 Topps Finest Refractors
Checklist & Values


Topps went all in in 1993 with their most premium baseball card set to date, the famous 1993 Topps Finest set with RARE parallel issue REFRACTORS. With only 199 cards, 7 per team, the 'Finest' set only had room for the 'Finest' players !

Rare REFRACTORS were randomly placed in some packs. REFRACTORS looked exactly like regular cards unless you knew where AND how to look. Tilting a REFRACTOR in sunshine released a rainbow of colors, "refracting light" Topps scientists liked to say.

Current info is only 241 REFRACTORS were issued of each card making this parallel issue one of the scarcest. Collecting a complete set is made even more difficult by the hoarding of certain cards by collectors AND even major league baseball players !

Click for complete 1993 Topps Finest Refractors checklist, values & prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.

Baseball

vintage baseball wirephotos UPI/AP

Vintage Baseball Wire Photos

vintage baseball wirephotos UPI/AP

UPI/AP Wirephotos

wirephotos vintage machine UPI/AP
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.

Click for a complete listing and images of our UPI/AP Sports Wirephotos.
Baseball

1968 Topps Action All-Star Stickers
Checklist & Values


1968 was an awesome year for Topps test & oddball issues with Game cards, Player Posters, 3-D cards, Plaks, Discs, Punchouts and these "Baseball Action Stickers" also called "Action All-Stars Stickers".

"Baseball Action Stickers" were STAR-PACKED 3-panel sticker strips, some with facsimile autographs. There were (16) different strips in the set but only 12 are totally different. #13 thru #16 re-used panels from #1 thru #12.

Strips were perforated, folded at joints and put in packs. Boxes had 12 packs (10 cents each) with 1 sticker per pack. Sets could be made back then for $1.60. Today, the Mantle panel goes for around $2,000.

Collectors often collect just individual panels as complete strips are so scarce, fragile & EXPENSIVE. Single panels themselves are quite scarce - in 20+ years PSA has graded just over 200 TOTAL compared to over 1,000 1952 Mantles !!!

PROOF sheet below is missing the facsimile autographs.

Click for complete 1968 Topps Action All-Star Stickers Info, Checklist & Prices

Another interesting issue: 1960 Pirates Tag-Ons Baseball Stickers

Baseball
Baseball card collecting terms (part S-Z)

Series are groups of cards in an issue released together. Example: Series #1 (cards #1-100) are released in April; Series #2 (#101-200) released in July; and so on. This allowed kids to easier complete sets. A side-effect was the creation of scarce "High Numbers".

Short Print (SP) is a card printed in lesser quantity than other cards in the set. Recent short prints are often serially-numbered.

Team Set is a group of all the cards of players for a certain team.

Test Issue is a small printing by a card company to see if products are of interest to collectors. Some of Topps neatest items are "Test Issues" like 1956 Topps Pins & 1974 Topps Puzzles.

Tobacco Card is typically from the early 1900's and were issued with tobacco products, the most famous of which is the T-206 Honus Wagner card.

Traded/Update Set is a set issued after the original issue primarily featuring rookies or players who were traded since the original issue came out.

Trimmed Card is a card reduced in size mostly to hide damaged edges or corners. Trimmed cards have very little value compared to the un-trimmed version. In some cases such as the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, even trimmed cards can go for thousands. The most famous 'trimmed' card is the T206 Honus Wagner purchased by Wayne Gretzky. The card was actually too large before it was trimmed down to size.

Unauthorized Issue is a card release which is not licensed by the league, player's association or player.

Variation is a card printed by the manufacturer that differs in some way from the normal card.

Wax Pack is a generic term for a pack of cards. The "wax" came from a time when packs were sealed in wax paper wrappers. Today it is still used for packs even though they no longer use wax paper.

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