1971 Topps - Angels - COMPLETE Low# & Semi-High# TEAM SET (23)

Due to the contract battles between Topps & Bowman, Cards #175,186,203 & 209 were never issued. Topps eventually won the war, buying Bowman making 1955 the last year for Bowman cards. But the damage was done as Topps had to leave out many stars including Mickey Mantle & Stan Musial.

There were a total of (15) Hall of Famers in the 1955 set !!!
Top ROOKIEs: Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax & Harmon Killebrew
Top Stars: Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, Warren Spahn, Jackie Robinson, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra & Duke Snider.

"The Golden Greek" Harry Agganis, a popular 1955 Topps card, is a tragic story, Agganis, a rising young star, died after his first card was issued. A football star at Boston U., he turned down an offer from the Cleveland Browns and became the starting first baseman. Shortly after he came down with pneumonia and died of a Pulmonary Embolism.

"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.