1953 Bowman Color # 56 Bob Cain (St. Louis Browns)
Grade |
EX to EX/MINT |
Book Value |
$ 40 |
Our Price |
$ 17.95
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.
1961 Fleer Baseball Cards

The 1961 Fleer baseball set contained 154 regular-sized cards
honoring careers of Hall-of-Famers Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson,
Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, Ted Williams and many lesser
known old-timers.
Released in 2 series, the 2nd series cards #89-#154 are somewhat
tougher to find.
Fleer was prevented from using current players by Topps'
exclusive rights, so they issued their Baseball Greats set using
retired players, managers, executives and the two league
commissioners. Luckily Fleer had their own exclusive rights deal
with Ted Williams, who quickly became the most in demand card in
the set.
Unfortunately the weak card design and retired players made it a
giant dud with kids and the product was not well received.
Cards were sold in five-cent packs and packaged with two special
inserts; a logo team decal and team pennant sticker of past World Series
champions.
Click for complete
1961 Fleer Baseball Cards
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Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs
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.
Click for our current
Autographed/Signed Team Baseball inventory
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1969 CITGO Coins
In 1969, to commemorate Baseball's 100th Anniversary, CITGO released their
"Famous Baseball Player Coin Collection" of 20 brass coated metal coins.
On the front, the coins featured the player's name and a raised image of
his head. The back displayed a banner honoring baseball's s 100th Anniversary.
The coins are approx. 1" in diameter and are very susceptible to
tarnishing due to oxidation.
Customers received a single coin in it's sealed pack free with a fill-up and
could pay 25 cents for additional coins.
The 20 coin set could be inserted into a cardboard backing for display.
On the back of the display was a short bio with stats of each player.
Click to view an image of the
cardboard backing and some more sample coins:
Pictured is an unopened pack containing one coin.
Click for complete
1969 CITGO Coins Checklist and Prices
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Baseball card collecting terms (part A)
Airbrushing is the art of touching up a photo prior to the card being printed.
It was generally done to remove imperfections or update or hide a players
jersey/cap logo. Because of advancements in print technology and computers this is
no longer needed.
All-Star card (AS) usually a subset card picturing a player who participated in the
previous season’s all-star game. Topps created these in their 1958 High Number
issue and has continued the practice fairly regularly to date. Such cards
are usually designated in price guides with the abbreviation of AS.
Assorted A general mix of cards often containing many duplicates.
Auction items are sold to the highest bidder. Auctions used to be live
or thru the mail/phone but today most auctions are online.
Auction Catalog lists the rules and descriptions and often images
of the items in an auction.
Authentication verification that an item (card, autograph) is genuine. Most "game-used"
material inserts have a written declaration of authenticity on the reverse.
Authorized Issue card or memorabilia item that has been properly licensed. If
the item is of a player, his written permission must be given in order for it to be considered authorized.