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Q5: What are some useful to know baseball card collecting terms ? (part 1) Certificate Of Authenticity - a document that is used to verify the legitimacy of a collectible. In reality, it is worthless, unless it shares a counterfeit- proof serially-numbered hologram that is attached to the item, and the certificate bears the signature of a notary public, or written verification by the manufacturer. Common - any card which is not short-printed, an insert, a bonus card, or has an insertion ratio. In short, the cards that comprise the manufacturer’s basic set. Condition - the physical appearance of a card/collectible. Centering, corner wear, photo clarity, edges, the presence of foreign material, signs of misuse are the critical components. Along with rarity/scarcity, it is a major factor in determining the value of a card or collectible. Crease - an obvious paper wrinkle defect usually caused by bending the card [i.e.- the result of being tortured on a rear-wheel bicycle spoke during the early ‘50s and ‘60s]. Die-Cut - an insert/parallel card that differs from the basic card by a process of the manufacturer "cutting" portions of the card revealing a special design. Recent issues may also be individually and serially-numbered. 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.

1952 Wheaties Champions In 1952 Wheaties issued this set of cards on the back of their boxes. The 2" x 2-3/4" cards needed to be hand cut from the back of the boxes making high quality samples almost impossible to find. The set featured 30 different champions from a variety of sports in both "Portrait" and "In-Action" poses for a total of 60 different cards. 10 of the 30 athletes are baseball players with football, basketball, golf, bowling, diving and other sports also included. Top players in the set are Ted Williams, Stan Musial, George Mikan, Ben Hogan and Otto Graham.

1964 Topps Stand-Ups Topps most popular 1960's test issue !!! Blank-backed and unnumbered, these standard size cards were called "Stand-Ups". "Stand-Ups" refers to a type of card that was die cut around the player's picture. The background section then could be folded in half, so the card could stand up by itself while the player's picture stood alone. Directions for folding are on the background and when folded only the green background remains. 1934-36 Batter Up and the 1951 Topps All-Star sets are 2 other popular standup issues. Thanks to the green and yellow borders and the likelihood that most cards have been heavily folded, 1964 Stand-Ups are extremely difficult to obtain in top grades. The 77 card set features color photographs of the player on yellow and green backgrounds. 22 of the 77 cards were single printed making them twice as scarce and much higher in demand. The set is packed with Hall-of-Famers including MICKEY MANTLE, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline, Brooks Robinson, Don Drysdale, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey and more !!!

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