1971 O-Pee-Chee/OPC - Phillies - Low# COMPLETE TEAM SET (19)

1963 Fleer Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1960 & 1961 Fleer baseball card sets of old-timers like Babe Ruth bombed. Kids wanted Willie Mays & Mickey Mantle. Topps had rights to baseball cards & gum so Fleer tried something new ... COOKIES !!!
Cherry flavored cookies with 1963 baseball cards.
1963 Topps Fleer Cookie

1963 Fleer baseball card set was cut short at 66 cards & checklist by Topps lawsuit. But what 66 cards! Attractive & packed: Clemente,Koufax... & 2 very scare Short Prints.

Maury Wills 'rookie' card is a story. Majors in 1959, quickly superstar. But 1963 for rookie ??? In 1959 Topps deemed Wills NOT WORTHY.

Wills was upset. After 1962 MVP, Topps came knocking but he said "NO!". Finally, 1967, Wills first Topps & most costly card. Note: 1961 Post Cereal card, years BEFORE 'official' rookie. He also photo-bombed a 1960 Topps card.

Disclaimer: Above mostly true - but Wills has said "no feud".

1963 Fleer baseball cards Checklist and Prices

1961 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

The 1961 Topps baseball card set had 587 cards (#1-#598 with some missing numbers). In addition to the missing cards, 2 cards were accidently numbered #463 (the Braves Team card was supposed to be card #426).
1961 Topps set was packed with special "subsets":
League Leaders (10 cards), World Series cards (10), Highlights (11 cards), MVP's (16 cards), Checklists (7 cards plus several variations), Team cards, Special Multi-Player cards, Managers, Topps Rookie All-Star Trophies, & Sporting News All-Stars

Of note - 1961 Topps were the first cards bearing the very popular Topps Rookie All-Star Award Trophies. "High Number" cards (#523-#589) are very scarce.

The least attractive aspect of the 1961 Topps baseball card set were the capless players !!! Baseball expansion led to the problem when Los Angeles Angels were added, the Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins and the Washington Senators got a new franchise. Because of these changes, tons of players were capless and looked awful. picture you 50 year old grand-dad. Life was obviously tougher back then.

More 1961 Topps card info:
Card #1 was All-American basketball player Dick Groat
Card #2 was Roger Maris, right before his record breaking 61 Home Run season
Mickey Mantle was on (6) 1961 Topps cards adding to the sets cost.

Topps released 3 other sets in 1961: Topps Dice Game, Topps Magic Rub-Offs & Topps Stamps.

1991 Topps Desert Shield cards
Checklist & Values

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 ...

1991 Topps Topps Desert Shield checklist, values and prices.

Baseball card collecting terms (part C)

Cabinet Card Were oversized trading cards featuring paintings issued mostly 1910-1915.

Card Show is a gathering of dealers & collectors looking to buy/sell/trade sports cards and memorabilia.

Card Stock is the material a card is printed on. Usually paper-based, today companies play with the card stock and sometimes it appears to be wood or leather or see-thru acrylic ...

Cello Pack is a card pack whose wrapper is see-thru plastic. Usually the top & bottom cards are seen. Unopened cello packs showing major stars and rookies sell for heavy premiums.

Centering is the balance of the borders: top/bottom & left/right. On perfectly-centered cards, top/bottom borders match as do the left/right borders. Centering is presented as a set of numbers & directions and often included with the grade. Perfectly-centered is "50/50 t/b" AND "50/50 l/r". As centering gets worse, one number increases and the other decreases. For example: 90/10 t/b is considered extremely off-center top to bottom. The numbers add up to 100 (50/50, 60/40, 90/10 ...).

Certificate Of Authenticity (COA) A document used to verify legitimacy of a collectible. NOTE: Keep in mind that COA's are easier to fake then autographs.

Common A card of a non-star player is considered a "Common" as opposed to cards of a star players or specialty/subset cards such as league leaders, teams cards, World Series cards...

Condition (Grade) Centering, corner wear, photo clarity, edges, creases, print flaws ... all combine to determine a card's condition or grade. Along with rarity/scarcity it is the major factor in a card's value.

Crease Defect usually caused by bending the card. Hard to see, or not, a crease lowers the card's grade (VG or lower) and greatly diminishes it's value.

1971 O-Pee-Chee/OPC - Phillies - Low# COMPLETE TEAM SET (19)

1963 Fleer Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1961 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1991 Topps Desert Shield cards Checklist & Values

1963 Fleer Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1961 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1991 Topps Desert Shield cards
Checklist & Values