Select a different Sport or Vintage Baseball Cards set       or SEARCH for:     Enter words, partial words with wildcards (*) or phrases in quotes.   1959 Yankees     displays vintage 1959 Yankees cards.   Willie Mays     displays all Willie Mays cards, old and recent.

San Diego, New York, Las Vegas, Miami - escort your cards here.
Best selection vintage baseball,football and basketball cards.

Below are some tidbits on baseball and sportscard collecting. Visit our web site for more info on vintage and current baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sports and non-sport cards and card collecting.

Q1: How long have sports cards been around ? (part 1) The first baseball trading cards date back to 1869. For many years, baseball cards were packaged in packs of tobacco as a way to increase sales the same way that today prizes are packaged in boxes of cereal. In the 1920's and 1930's, candy and gum companies started packaging baseball cards in their products as well. Baseball card production was virtually halted in the early 1940's due to paper shortages created by World War II. The "Modern Era" of baseball cards began in 1948 when Bowman Gum Inc. offered one card and one piece of gum in a pack for a penny. The first important football set was the Mayo set featuring college players in 1984. Other than the 1935 National Chicle set no other key football set was issued until 1948 when noth Bowman and Leaf produced sets. History of Basketball Cards (T4) The first major basketball card issue was released by Bowman Gum Company in 1948. Topps entered the market in 1957. At the time interest was minimal in professional basketball and the Topps issue was considered a failure. Basketball cards were in direct competition with baseball cards at a time when baseball was the nationally broadcasted America's sport. Collectors were not yet ready for basketball or basketball cards and Topps quickly left the basketball card market after just 1 year not to return till 1969. In the 1960's there was rising interest in basketball and basketball card collecting took off, much like baseball card collecting thirty years earlier. In the 1970's basketball cards started to gain popularity and reached a peak in the 1980's and 1990's, partially attribuable to the great Michael Jordan. Today, high grade vintage basketball cards of greats like Jerry West, Bob Cousy, Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Pettit can run into the hundreds and thousands of dollars. Joining them are more recent stars like Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Larry Byrd, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Even though basketball cards got a much later start than baseball cards and football cards they are now a part of America's collecting heritage.

1951 Bowman Baseball 1951 was Bowman's largest set to date, both in the card size and number of cards. Thanks to the several major rookies, led by Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, the 1951 Bowman set is by far Bowman's most valuable. Bowman again used hand-painted color reproductions of actual photographs. The 1951 Bowman card fronts were very similar to the 1950 set, with several players 1951 Bowman cards look like larger versions of their 1950 card. Cards #243-#324 are scarce high numbers. The rookie cards of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays are in this series making them very difficult to obtain. TOP ROOKIES: Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Whitey Ford, Monte Irvin, Nellie Fox, Joe Garagiola, Jackie Jensen, Jim Piersall ... TOP STARS: Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Duke Snider, Richie Ashburn & MORE !!!

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 !!!

Web site services provided by   www.BadaBadaBing.com
CA: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco;   Las Vegas, Miami, New York City, Washington DC escorts

© 1995-2010 "InterNet's Baseball Card Store" / Joseph Juhasz ... All Rights Reserved