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.
1955 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values
1955 Topps was the first of 2 years of horizontal card designs.
As with 1952, 1953 & 1954, cards were again a tad larger than today's
standard. A nice feature, facsimile autographs, again appeared on the cards.
The set came in 2 series, #1-160 and scarcer "High Numbers" #161-210.
Due to the contract battles between Topps & Bowman, Cards #175,186,203 & 209
were never issued. Topps eventually won the war, buying Bowman making 1955
the last year for Bowman cards. But the damage was done as Topps had to
leave out many stars including Mickey Mantle & Stan Musial.
There were a total of (15) Hall of Famers in the 1955 set !!!
Top ROOKIEs: Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax & Harmon Killebrew
Top Stars: Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, Warren Spahn,
Jackie Robinson, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra & Duke Snider.
"The Golden Greek" Harry Agganis, a popular 1955 Topps card, is a tragic
story, Agganis, a rising young star, died after his first card was issued.
A football star at Boston U., he turned down an offer from the Cleveland
Browns and became the starting first baseman. Shortly after he came down
with pneumonia and died of a Pulmonary Embolism.
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Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs
Team signed baseballs were the thing well before single-signed
balls exploded on the market.
What is a "Team Signed Baseball" ???
Simple answer: A ball with XXX signatures of a certain team
for a certain year. What is difficult is the XXX.
Baseball tons of roster moves make it nearly impossible to
"Get Them All".
Generally, team signed baseballs from early 1900's had 10 to 15
signatures, the 1940's that jumped to 18 to 25.
Joyce Sports Research Collection (Notre Dame) says "signatures must
include only members of a specific team from a specific year, and there
must be some approximation of completeness."
Not concrete but to me a "team ball" MUST have ALL the team's
STARS (unless a rookie or in season trade) and in today's market
at least 20, preferably more, and the manager.
Determining Age of Team Signed Balls
"Official" league balls have stamped signatures of current league
presidents on the "sweet spot".
Starting 1934/1935 balls were produced by Spalding (NL)
and Reach (AL). Rawlings took over in 1977/78.
Have a possible team roster at hand, ESPN & baseball-reference.com
have great sites), decipher a few signatures then solve the puzzle.
Team Signed Baseballs Values
Pricing team signed baseballs is difficult due to subjectivity and
factors involved suce as: Signatures placement, quality, strength,
number of autographs, stars, age, team significance, and
eye appeal considering fading, whiteness,
scuffs, shellacking, staining, overall wear...
Team autographed baseballs on official league balls get higher values.
They are "official", made better, preserve better and even help in
dating especially with balls signed at "Reunion" baseball card shows
which brought together great teams of the past.
Facsimile Autographed Balls
1960's/1970's machine-printed "autographed" team baseballs were sold
at stadium gift shops for around $1.95. Easy to identify as
all signatures were uniform in ink, color, size and look.
"Facsimile" signatures are also often found on baseball cards.
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1974 Topps DECKLE EDGE
Checklist & Values
This scarce 72-card test issue set was released with very limited
East Coast distribution making them quite scarce.
Officially simply called "Topps Baseball Photos", their serrated or "DECKLED"
edge gave them the name they go by today.
The 2 7/8" x 5" inch cards were sold in 2 card packs with gum or 3 card
packs without for 5 cents.
Click to enlarge Complete Proof Sheet on left
Fronts are similar to b&w Exhibit Postcards from the 50's
with photos and facsimile autographs.
The backs make this very scarce test issue more interesting !
They feature handwritten script of player's name, team, position & date
and location of the photograph as well as a mock newspaper article.
This was Topps 2nd "Deckle Edge" issue, their first being the smaller
and more common 1969 Topps Deckle Edge inserts in 1969 Topps packs.
Variations of 1974 Topps Deckle Edge exist,
making this issue more fun and challenging to collect.
Backs can be found in gray or a much scarcer white.
Also, more limited proof versions with non-scalloped edges exist and
can be found with and without card numbers.
Click for complete
1969 Topps Deckle Edge checklist and prices
Click for complete
1974 Topps Deckle Edge checklist and prices
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Baseball card collecting terms (part H-R)
High Numbers - vintage cards were issued in the ‘50s-‘70s in a series. During the
baseball season, the largest number of cards were made. As the schedule
progressed into September, when there would be less interest in baseball cards
, Topps for one, specifically decreased production and hence much less product
was available. As a result, a scarcity-factor was created and a premium holds
for these first type of "short-printed" cards.
Inserts - special randomly-inserted cards which are not part of the regular set.
Many modern inserts are sequentially-numbered and rarer than the card sets into which they are inserted.
O-Pee-Chee / OPC - a subsidiary of Topps, this card issue was produced specifically for distribution
in Canada.
Promotional Card - generally referred to as cards issued to show what the product
will look like on release and intended to help spur future sales. Often called
a "promo" card.
Reprint - cards issued to reproduce the originals. With the current trend of
vintage reprints, the new versions have a distinguishing characteristic
evidenced by numbering.
Restored - a card or piece of memorabilia which someone has tried to return to a
"like-new" condition. A restored card is considered to be of very little
value.
Rookie Card - any league-licensed, widely distributed card to feature a player in
his first year of trading cards.
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