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Q2: How long have sports cards been around ? (part 2) The first important and mainstream basketball set was issued by Bowman in 1948. Other than a Topps set in 1957-58 and a 1961-62 Fleer set, there were no mainstream basketball sets issued until Topps started producing yearly sets beginning with their 1969-70 set featuring the rookie card of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who then went under the name of Lew Alcindor. In hockey, there were a few sets issued in the 1910's and while O-Pee-Chee issued some sets in the 1930's, the real modern sets began in 1951 with the itroduction of Parkhurst's first set. In racing, while cards go back as far as the early Indy car days of 1911, modern racing sets began in 1988 with the issues released by MAXX. Modern Sports Cards (T2) The drop in production from World War I was compounded by the Black Sox scandal and cards were not produced in significant quantities for over a decade. In the 1930s, baseball cards finally began to reappear with candy products. Beginning in 1933, Goudey, a chewing gum company, began producing cards. Gum became the product associated with baseball cards. Goudey produced larger sets of cards than usual and a boon to collector's they numbered them ! For the next several years, Goudey released new sets of cards to coincide with the baseball season. Again a World War (II) curtailed baseball card production. Bowman Gum Company resurrected baseball cards in 1948 soon to be followed by another bubblegum company, Topps. The two competed not only for consumers but also for rights to baseball players with each trying to sign players to exclusive contracts. In 1956 Topps bought out Bowman and enjoyed a relative monopoly for decades. While Topps was dominant nationally, various regionally-produced sets, usually on or in packages of foods. Post Cereal and Jello printed baseball cards on the backs of their boxes from 1961 to 1963 in both U.S. and Canada. In 1962 Post also produced a football card set featuring players from the two countries in each respective country. Fleer and Donruss ended Topps baseball card monopoly in 1981. Topps sued both but the courts ruled that Topps' exclusive rights only applied to sports cards sold with gum. Score in 1988 and Upper Deck in 1989 joined the market. In 1989 Topps reintroduced tje Bowman brand. The baseball card hobby quickly became saturated with cards. The baseball player's strike in 1994 started a rapid decline in interest. Baseball card companies, trying to remain profitable, started introducing improvements in card quality and also measures to prevent counterfeiting. They released many different brands of cards as well as rare and unique cards. Now baseball cards have come full circle and in 2006 there are only two companies marketing and selling baseball cards: Topps and Upper Deck. Fleer went bankrupt and Donruss lost their license. Upper Deck did buy Fleer and began issuing Fleer brand again.

1955 Topps Double-Headers (Doubleheaders) Without a doubt this is my favorite set - PERIOD. Regular issue, test issues, inserts ... whatever ... this is # 1 !!! Patterned after the famous Mecca Double Folders issued in the early 1900's, these colorful 2 1/16" x 4 7/8" cards are actually 2-cards-in-1! They are perforated in the center and depending on which way you fold the card you create cards of 2 different players. Unperforated 1955 Topps Doubleheaders can sometimes be found. The 1955 Topps Doubleheaders set has been featured in many hobby magazines often with a full color spread showing how the individual cards fit together to form a spectacular stadium scene !!! All 132 players (66 cards) in the 1955 Topps DoubleHeaders set were also in Topps regular 1955 issue. TOP ROOKIES: Harmon Killebrew & Hal Newhouser Top STARS: Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Jackie Robinson, Al Kaline, Warren Spahn & MORE !!! No doubt about it - the best !!!

1963 Fleer Baseball In an attempt by Fleer to circumvent Topps exclusive rights to baseball cards, Fleer issued their 1963 baseball cards with cookies instead of gum. The 1963 Fleer baseball card issue was intended to be a much larger set issued in multiple series but Topps sued Fleer after their first series was released. Due to Topps deep pockets Fleer soon pulled the set from the market and cancelled their plans for the remaining series leaving this very, very popular set at just 66 cards plus one unnumbered checklist. But what a 66 cards !!! The 1963 Fleer Cards are attractive and feature an extremely high percentage of stars. Some of the top stars in the 1963 Fleer baseball card set are Brooks Robinson, Willie Mays, Carl Yastrzemski, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Don Drysdale and Warren Spahn.. The set also included 2 very scare Short Prints, Joe Adcock and an unnumbered checklist. The most interesting card in this set is the Maury Wills Rookie card. Even though Wills started his major league career with the Dodgers way back in 1959 quickly becoming a superstar, his 1963 Fleer card is considered his rookie card ! How is this possible ? Well, back in 1959, 1960 and 1961, Topps did not consider Wills worthy enough to have a baseball card. Needless to say, Wills was very upset at this slight from Topps. After Wills won the 1962 N.L. MVP award, Topps quickly came a courting but Wills answered with a large "NO". From 1961 thru 1966, Wills prevented Topps from making any of his baseball cards. Wills and Topps finally made up making his 1967 Topps high number short print his first Topps card and also his most expensive card. Adding interest to the Wills baseball card story, Post Cereal released a Maury Wills card in their 1962 set making that the earliest Maury Wills rookie card. Wills was also pictured on a special 1960 Topps card featuring the 1959 World Series. The card features Luis Aparicio stealing 2nd base with Wills pictured trying to make the tag.

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