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.
Auction's most costly vintage baseball cards
The history of vintage baseball card auctions is long and colorful.
T-206 Honus Wagner tobacco cards have sold for upto $2.8 million in
auction. The "Holy Grail of Sports Cards", it's extreme-high auction
value can mostly be attributed to great PR and "auction fever".
It's not close to being the rarest baseball card and Honus Wagner is not
Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle. Yes, the T-206 set is beautiful & special but
because of the # of cards and scarcities, few collector's try to complete,
which should keep auction competition down compared to say 1933 Goudey
or 1952 Topps baseball card issues.
BUT IT DOES NOT...
There's a story Wagner banned his card because he was anti-tobacco
but there are other stories about financial considerations.
You surely have heard of PSA and may even know that this card was the
FIRST they ever graded. But did you know that dealer (B.l. .ast.o name
encoded) admitted tampering with the card, perhaps having it trimmed
down to size, before PSA graded it so highly for the auction.
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1971 O-Pee-Chee Baseball
Also referred to as OPC or Topps Canada, most vintage OPC sets were near replicas
of the Topps cards from that year. Exactly same in design they usually only
differed with the addition of French to the backs and some fronts.
To the benefit of collector's OPC made several changes in their 1971 set.
The most obvious and useful was a complete redesign of the card backs and the
addition of another player photo ! Additionly, over 20 cards were changed including
the inclusion of what could be considered the first "Traded" cards. Another
difference: Topps cards #202 and #289 were changed to allow the addition of 2
more Expos to the set.
The 1971 OPC set is legendary for its short print run, estimated at perhaps
just 5% of Topps’ Production. This issue is considered quite elusive, even in Canada.
TOP ROOKIE: Steve Garvey
TOP STARS: Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks,
Pete Rose, Ted Williams, Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Don Baylor/Dusty Baker RC & MORE !!!
Click for complete
1971 OPC/O-Pee-Chee Baseball checklist and prices
Note: You may be on that page right now.
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Vintage Topps 1956 Baseball Cards
Checklist & Prices
1956 Topps were slightly larger (3-3/4" by 2 5/8") horizontal cards
similar to 1955 Topps cards, some even sharing portraits with 1954 and 1955
Topps cards. Team cards & checklists appeared for the first time in 1956.
With Bowman gone, after missing the last 3 years, Mickey Mantle was back !!!
A fun & simple set, 1956 Topps had no high numbers or expensive rookies
but for serious 1956 collectors, there are over 200 variations.
Most variations deal with card stock (gray or white back).
For #101-180 gray appears to outnumber white about 9-to-1.
Many team cards had 2 or 3 variations with team names
Left, Center or Right.
There are 2 great cards: #31 Hank Aaron which actually pictures Willie Mays
sliding home and #135 Mickey Mantle.
Mantle shown leaping high into the stands robbing a home run !
Artist did a great job showing Mantle making the catch !
BUT ... Mantle looked great leaping but the ball flew over his glove.
The 1956 Topps Pins used same portrait photos as the cards.
Click for complete
1956 Topps Pins Checklist and Prices
Click for more info and complete
1956 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
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Baseball card collecting terms (part B)
Bazooka Bazooka Bubble Gum put baseball cards on the back of their
boxes from 1959 thru 1971. Complete boxes and panels can get extremely costly.
Most kids back then could not afford complete boxes of bubble gum at one
making Bazooka cards quite scarce. I actually don't recall ever obtaining
a Bazooka card directly from a box as a kid. Do you ???
Black Sox Scandal Name given to the the most famous scandal in
baseball history after the 1919 Chicago White Sox versus the Cincinatti Reds
World Series when 8 White Sox players were accused of throwing the series.
Details have remained somewhat unclear. The players were acquitted of
criminal charges but 8 players still received a lifetime ban from
professional baseball including the All-Time great "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.
Blank-Back a card in which nothing is printed on the back.
These cards are usually not in packs and are either "PROOF ISSUES" or
were removed from the factory in some way.
Blanket a term used for collectibles in the 1910's made of fabric .
Border is the part of the card that surrounds the photo or image.
Bowman was a card manufacturer in the 1940's and 1950's that was
bought out by Topps. In 1989 Topps started issuing cards using the Bowman
brand.
Break a term used to indicate the opening of a set, pack, box or case.
Break Value is the total book value of each card added up individually.
The break value of a set is usually way, way more than the value of the complete set.
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