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Q7: What are some additional useful to know baseball card collecting terms ? (part 3) 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. Series - a group of cards within an issue deliberately split up by the manufacturer to distribute at different times of the year. (i.e.- vintage 1st series cards 1-100 were released in April and 2nd series cards 101-200 were released in July, etc.). Short Print (SP) - a card printed to a lesser quantity than other cards in a set. Many recent short prints are also individually & serially-numbered. 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.

1934,1935,1936 Diamond Matchbooks During much of the Great Depression, matchbook collecting swept the country ! Sports matchbooks started appearing in the 1930s, most issued by Diamond Match Company of New York. Over the next few years, several series were issued with similar designs; b/w photo of the player on front with short write-up and stats on back. The player's name and team was also printed on the 'saddle'. Please consider the following info as approximate. 1934's first baseball release featured 200 players, in 4 different background colors (red,blue,green and orange) for a total of 800 different covers. The set features plenty of Hall-of-Fame greats like Dizzy Dean and Mel Ott. 1935's issue was tiny with only 24 total covers (8 red,8 blue,8 green). A third series was later released with 200 or more different covers (players/colors). 1930's matchbook covers appear to be huge bargains for collectors as their current values are fractions of the value of Goudey and other baseball cards from the same era.

1970 Chemtoy Superballs Chemtoy and MLB teamed up in 1970 to offer a set of major league baseball player "superballs". The 285 "superball" set has 12 from each AL & NL team except Minn., Chicago and Oakland with 11 and is packed with HALL-OF-FAMERS !!! Each "superball" has the player's photo inside the ball. On the back is the player's name, team name, position and a Chemtoy inventory number. This is one of the more interesting collectibles from the late 1960's, early 1970's and highly sought after by Team and player collectors.

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