Carl Yastrzemski - 1977 Customized MSA Disc (Red Sox)

1974 Topps & Parker Brothers Football

Most Parker Brothers cards are similar to the ones from packs except on the back where most Parker Brothers cards had 1972 stats instead of 1973 and (2)* rather than (1)* in the copyright line. BUT NOTE: Some regular Topps cards have both * and ** --- It's complicated! Six of the cards have totally different designs; three All-Pros and three with horizontal designs that were changed to vertical to match the rest of the cards.

Team checklist cards were randomly included in the Topps wax packs.
TOP ROOKIES: Joe DeLamielleure, Ray Guy, Bert Jones, Harold Carmichael, John Matuszak, Ahmad Rashad, Chuck Foreman, John Hannah and actor Ed Marinaro.

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 Cardboard Dreams Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

Neat oddball set with a very unusual mix of players. A promotional lead-in for "Cardboard Dreams" a soon to be sportscard magazine. Promo cards were given out at a few regional baseball card shows mostly in So. Cal.
MLB filed lawsuits against similar magazines and the magazine was cancelled before 1st issue leaving just a small run of promo cards (limited to 5,000) and some scarce proofs. 1991 Cardboard Dreams Ryan back

      SERIES 1                   SERIES 2
  #1 Willie Mays            # 9 Mickey Mantle                
  #2 Nolan Ryan             #10 Nolan Ryan & Sandy Koufax   
  #3 Tony Gwynn             #11 Frank Thomas & David Justice
  #4 Wayne Gretzky          #12 Brett Hull                  
  #5 Jose Canseco/Madonna   #13 Ted Williams & Joe DiMaggio 
  #6 Ken Griffey Jr         #14 Barry Sanders               
  #7 Bo Jackson             #15 Dan Marino                  
  #8 Michael Jordan         #16 Magic Johnson & Larry Bird  

 Prototype #1: Nolan Ryan / Wayne Gretzky / Bo Jackson / Jose Canseco & Madonna
 Prototype #2: Mickey Mantle / Nolan Ryan & Sandy Koufax 
               Ted Williams & Joe DiMaggio / David Justice & Frank Thomas

1991 Cardboard Dreams Baseball card listings

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.

Carl Yastrzemski - 1977 Customized MSA Disc (Red Sox)

1974 Topps & Parker Brothers Football

1961 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1991 Cardboard Dreams Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1961 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1991 Cardboard Dreams Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values