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Q9: What are some of the terms used for card grading ? Using a system of grading codes based on those established by price guides such as Beckett, Tuff Stuff, Sports Collector’s Digest, collectors can determine the approximate condition of items offered by interpreting the following grades. Grading is very subjective and there can also be grades in between the levels below. MINT (MT) - while we rarely use this grade, occasionally it can be found for items that we appraise as appearing nearly perfect to the naked eye. With respect to cards, it would be defined as one with 50/50 centering all around, razor-sharp corners, a photo that is well-registered and completely focused, and no visible imperfections on card front or back. NEAR MINT-MINT (NRMT/MT) - is qualified by at least 60/40 centering, only the slightest hint of corner wear upon close inspection, and may have a barely visible print spot, lack of intense color, or a slight focus imperfection. NEAR MINT (NRMT) - card displays at least 70/30 centering, may have a visible slight touch of corner wear all around, and/or a few slightly visible print spots, a lack of intense color, or a slight focus imperfection. EXCELLENT-MINT (EX/MINT) - centering equivalent to NRMT (70/30), but 2 or 3 corners display an obvious "fuzzy" quality. Essentially, a card that would have been deemed NRMT if not for the corner wear being more apparent. May have a barely visible print spot, a lack of intense color, or a slight focus imperfection. EXCELLENT (EX) - all four corners show visible signs of wear, but are not rounded. Centering at least 80/20. May have a visible print spot, a lack of intense color, or a slight focus imperfection. VERY GOOD (VG) - Corners are rounded and the card may have creases or wrinkles. FAIR TO GOOD - in this grade, card has rounded corners and other major defects such as scuffing, pinholes, loss of gloss, multiple creases. In general, a markedly worn card and often used as a "filler" until a better one comes along. History Of O-Pee-Chee (T5) O-Pee-Chee, also known as OPC, is the Canadian equivalent of Topps. The history of this gum & sports card company is actually quite different. OPC is based in London, Ontario Canada and pre-dates Topps by many years. OPC’s first sports card set was back in 1933 when they produced the V304 hockey cards. The set included stars Eddie Shore and Howie Morenz and has a book value of around $15,000. Their first baseball set was released in 1937. It was a cross between the 1934 Goudeys and Batter-Ups and featured only American League players. The top player in the set is Joe Dimaggio. OPC started their long run of complete baseball card sets in 1965. In these early years, the OPC sets were much smaller than Topps and usually included only the first couple of series. Although they were printed on a slightly different card stock the cards front and backs were nearly identical to Topps but with a small "Printed in Canada" on the back. Baseball was much less popular in Canada and it is estimated that OPC cards from these early years were produced in a ratio of between 1% and 5% of Topps cards making them exceedingly scarce !!! Starting in 1970, OPC baseball cards became more interesting. Canadian legislation demanded that all items produced in Canada carry both French & English so O-Pee-Chee baseball cards became bilingual with their card backs printed in both languages. In 1971, the OPC baseball set had a much more interesting back design and also offered 14 different card photos not in the Topps set of that year. 1972 OPC included a card of Gil Hodges mentioning his death that was not a part of the Topps set. 1974 OPC did include any of the "Washington Nationals/San Diego Padres" variations. In 1977 although the card format remained the same, about 1/3 of the OPC set had different poses/images than their Topps counterparts. In the late ‘70’s, the OPC card fronts appeared similar to Topps but sometimes included traded information with a line across them saying "Now with XXXX". These differences were due the the OPC cards being printed much later into the season allowing for an update of the players status. OPC also was busy with their hockey and Canadian Football League issues. In 1968 they re- entered the hockey market. Today OPC is still strong in the baseball card and hockey card market and has also started printing non-sports cards.

1961 Topps Baseball Cards AUTOGRAPHED Set info/information The 1961 Topps baseball card set included 587 standard size 2˝" x 3˝" cards (#1-#598 with several skipped numbers). 2 cards were accidently numbered #463, one of them (the Braves Team card was supposed to be card #426). The 1961 Topps set included the following special "subsets": * League Leaders (10 cards) * World Series highlights (10 cards) * Highlights (11 cards) * MVP's (16 cards) * Checklists (7 cards plus several variations) * Team cards (xx cards) * Special Multi-Player cards (xx cards) * Managers (xx cards) * Topps Rookie All-Star Trophies (xx cards) * Sporting News All-Stars (#566-#589) 1961 Topps was the first of the very popular and continuing Topps Rookie All-Star Trophies subsets. Cards from the last series (#523-#589) are scarce "High Numbers" making the set fairly expensive to complete. MLB Baseball expansion led to one of the least attractive aspects of the 1961 Topps baseball card set. The American League made several changes. The Los Angeles Angels were added, the Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins and a new franchise was granted to the Washington Senators who also debuted in 1961. Possibly because of these team changes, many players had their portrait photos taken without their baseball caps. Not only did most of the players look awful without their caps, they looked more like your old, not so handsome uncle then athletes! Card backs were black print on an army green background on a dark card stock making them somewhat difficult to read. TOP ROOKIES: #35 Ron Santo, #141 Billy Williams, #417 Juan Marichal, Willie Davis, Zoilo Versalles & Jim Maloney; are popular players but still reasonably priced. More interesting tid-bits from the 1961 Topps set: Card #1 features All-American basketball player Dick Groat Card #2 features Roger Maris, right prior to his record breaking 61 Home Run season ........Maris once ran back four kickoffs for touchdowns in a single game! Mickey Mantle had 6 cards making the 1961 Topps set that much more costly.   #.44 American League Home Run Leaders   #300 Mickey Mantle's regular card   #307 Mickey Mantle 'Slams 2 Home Runs' World Series   #406 Mickey Mantle "Blasts 565 ft. HR"   #475 Mickey Mantle MVP card   #578 Mickey Mantle's scarce high # All-Star card Other than the checklists, the set has no other variations. Collectors of 1961 Topps cards may also want to take a look at 3 other baseball issues Topps released that year: a Topps Dice Game, Topps Magic Rub-Offs and a series of Topps Stamps. Although some dealers and collectors consider this set boring, with it's clean design, many special subsets and multiple cards of some of the games top stars including 6 Mantle's I rate it much higher. And, as I end most of my write-ups on vintage Topps sets, grab a glance at Don Mossi and those famous ears !

1969 Topps Stamps This was Topps 3rd stamp issue in the last eight years and it was a good one !!! The stamps were not inserts but a totally separate issue . For a nickel you got a strip of twelve stamps plus a mini album. The 1969 Topps Stamps complete set contains 240 stamps. The 1 x 1-7/16 inch stamps were unnumbered and featured a color photo with the player's name, team and position inside a colored banner at the bottom of the stamp. The stamps were released in both vertical and horizontal strips of 12 stamps. The 1969 Topps Stamps are often confused with Topps' 1974 issue. The 1974 Topps Stamps have ovals rather than banners at the bottom and were released only in 12-stamp horizontal panels. Along with the stamps, Topps also issued a set of 24 albums, one per team, to store them in. The 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" orange albums were the same size as a baseball card and held a complete 10-stamp team set. To add even more collecting fun, the album's back cover had facsimile autographs of the ten players shown in the album. The 1969 Topps Stamps set is packed with stars like Pete Rose along with tons of Hall-of-Famers including MICKEY MANTLE, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente & many, many more !!!

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