1975 Topps #280 Carl Yastrzemski (Red Sox)
Grade |
NM/MINT |
Book Value |
$ 12 |
Our Price |
$ 19.95
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.
Authentic Major League SIGNED
Game-Used LINEUP Cards (PSA)

These are the official lineup cards SIGNED BY THE MANAGER & given
to the home plate umpire before the game with the team's line-up
& batting order !!! Making them even neater, often managers made
lineup changes on these cards throughout the game.
These official lineup cards were SIGNED BY THE MANAGER and presented
to the home plate umpire before the game. They detailed the team's lineup and
batting order. Managers often made lineup changes on these cards throughout
the game, making them even more unique.
Collectors say "They are official documents of a particular game, so they are
absolutely historically relevant. The manager, he was the general in the war.
Imagine owning Eisenhower's list of who he wanted to go into battle, and then he
signed it !!! Imagine what that would be worth?"
The first dugout lineup cards were seen around 1960. Along with lineup
cards, most ended up in the trash after games, making them quite rare today.
MLB saw the light and started marketing them directly in the 2000's.
Astronomical prices have been paid for cards from special games.
$165,010 for the Red Sox dugout lineup card from Game 4 of the 2004 World Series.
$138,000 in 2007 for 1st ever All-Star Game batting order cards.
$ 40,000 for batting order cards and the pen used to fill them out from
Cal Ripken's 2,130th & 2,131st games.
Click for complete
Major League SIGNED Game-Used LINEUP 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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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 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".
Click for complete
1963 Fleer baseball cards Checklist and Prices
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History Of O-Pee-Chee
O-Pee-Chee (OPC) based in Ontario Canada, is mostly thought of as the
Canadian version of Topps but it actually pre-dates Topps by many years.
In 1933, OPC issued their first sports card set, the V304 Hockey cards and
is currently in the tens of thousands. Their first baseball set was
issued in 1937. It was similar to the 1934 Goudeys and Batter-Ups
and the top player was Joe Dimaggio.
O-Pee-Chee created baseball card sets similar to TOpps from 1965 into the
1990's. At first OPC sets were much smaller than Topps
and included just the first few series. Fronts & backs were nearly identical
but with a small "Printed in Canada" on the back and the card stock was
slightly different.
Baseball being much less popular in Canada, OPC print runs of their early
years were between 1% and 10% of Topps making them exceedingly scarce !!!
Starting in 1970, Canadian legislation demanded all items produced in Canada
carry both French & English so OPC baseball cards became bilingual with both
languages included.
Other OPC differences include:
1971, OPC even changed the back design to a much more
interesting back and also offered 14 different card photos not in the Topps set.
1972 OPC included a card of Gil Hodges mentioning his death that was
not a part of the Topps set.
1974 OPC did not include any "Washington Nationals" variations.
1977 the card format remained like Topps but almost 1/3 of the OPC set had
different poses/images than Topps.
In late 1970's, OPC card fronts appeared similar to Topps but sometimes
included traded information saying "Now with XXXX". They were able to do
this as the OPC cards were printed much later into the season.