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Below are some tidbits on baseball and sportscard collecting along with a listing of the All-Time and Active Leaders in a selected statistical cateogry. 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 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.

***  RUNS  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)          Runs 
 1.  Rickey Henderson      2295
 2.  Ty Cobb HOF           2246
 3.  Babe Ruth HOF         2175
 4.  Hank Aaron HOF        2174
 5.  Pete Rose             2165
 6.+ BARRY BONDS (40)      2078
 7.  Willie Mays HOF       2062
 8.  Cap Anson HOF         1996
 9.  Stan Musial HOF       1949
10.  Lou Gehrig HOF        1888
11.  Tris Speaker HOF      1882
12.  Mel Ott HOF           1859
13.  Frank Robinson HOF    1829
14.  Eddie Collins HOF     1821
15.  Carl Yastrzemski HOF  1816
16.  Ted Williams HOF      1798
17.  Paul Molitor HOF      1782
18.  Charlie Gehringer HOF 1774
19.  Jimmie Foxx HOF       1751
20.  Honus Wagner HOF      1736
21.  Jim O'Rourke HOF      1729
22.  Jesse Burkett HOF     1720
23.  Willie Keeler HOF     1719
24.+ CRAIG BIGGIO (39)     1697
25.  Billy Hamilton HOF    1690
26.  Bid McPhee HOF        1678
27.  Mickey Mantle HOF     1677
28.  Dave Winfield HOF     1669
29.  Rafael Palmeiro       1663
30.  Joe Morgan HOF        1650
31.  Cal Ripken            1647
32.  Jimmy Ryan            1642
33.  George Van Haltren    1639
34.  Robin Yount HOF       1632
35.  Eddie Murray HOF      1627
     Paul Waner HOF        1627
37.  Al Kaline HOF         1622
38.  Roger Connor HOF      1620
39.  Fred Clarke HOF       1619
40.  Lou Brock HOF         1610
41.  Jake Beckley HOF      1600
42.  Ed Delahanty HOF      1599
43.  Bill Dahlen           1589
44.  George Brett HOF      1583
45.  Rogers Hornsby HOF    1579
46.  Tim Raines            1571
47.  Hugh Duffy HOF        1552
48.  Reggie Jackson HOF    1551
49.  Max Carey HOF         1545
50.  George Davis HOF      1539
51.  Frankie Frisch HOF    1532
52.  Dan Brouthers HOF     1523
53.  Tom Brown             1521
54.  Jeff Bagwell          1517
55.  Sam Rice HOF          1514
56.  Wade Boggs HOF        1513
57.  Eddie Mathews HOF     1509
58.  Roberto Alomar        1508
59.  Al Simmons HOF        1507
60.  Mike Schmidt HOF      1506
61.  Nap Lajoie HOF        1504
62.  Harry Stovey          1492
63.  Goose Goslin HOF      1483
64.  Arlie Latham          1478
65.  Dwight Evans          1470
66.  Herman Long           1455
67.  Harry Hooper HOF      1429
68.  Dummy Hoy             1426
69.  Rod Carew HOF         1424
70.  Sammy Sosa            1422
71.  Joe Kelley HOF        1421
72.  Roberto Clemente HOF  1416
73.+ GARY SHEFFIELD (36)   1411
74.  Billy Williams HOF    1410
75.  John Ward HOF         1408
76.+ KEN GRIFFEY JR (35)   1405
     Mike Griffin          1405
78.  Sam Crawford HOF      1391
79.  Joe DiMaggio HOF      1390
80.  Lou Whitaker          1386
81.  Tony Gwynn            1383
82.  Andre Dawson          1373
83.+ STEVE FINLEY (40)     1368
84.  Vada Pinson           1366
85.  Kenny Lofton (38)     1363
86.  Brett Butler          1359
87.  Doc Cramer            1357
     King Kelly HOF        1357
89.  Tommy Leach           1355
     Larry Walker          1355
91.  Fred McGriff          1349
92.  Darrell Evans         1344
93.  Pee Wee Reese HOF     1338
94.  Luis Aparicio HOF     1335
95.  Lave Cross            1333
96.  Barry Larkin          1329
97.  George Gore           1327
   + FRANK THOMAS (37)     1327
99.  Richie Ashburn HOF    1322
100. Luke Appling HOF      1319

***  RUNS  -  Active Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)          Runs
 1.  Barry Bonds (40)      2078
 2.  Craig Biggio (39)     1697
 3.  Rafael Palmeiro (40)  1663
 4.  Jeff Bagwell (37)     1517
 5.  Sammy Sosa (36)       1422
 6.  Gary Sheffield (36)   1411
 7.  Ken Griffey (35)      1405
 8.  Steve Finley (40)     1368
 9.  Kenny Lofton (38)     1363
10.  Frank Thomas (37)     1327
11.  Bernie Williams (36)  1301
12.  Julio Franco (46)     1263
13.  Alex Rodriguez (29)   1245
14.  Luis Gonzalez (37)    1219
15.  Omar Vizquel (38)     1195
16.  Manny Ramirez (33)    1179
17.  Derek Jeter (31)      1159
18.  Jim Thome (34)        1151
19.  Jeff Kent (37)        1139
     John Olerud (36)      1139
21.  Chipper Jones (33)    1101
22.  Ivan Rodriguez (33)   1085
23.  Ruben Sierra (39)     1081
24.  Johnny Damon (31)     1073
25.  Jim Edmonds (35)      1063
26.  B.J. Surhoff (40)     1062
27.  Juan Gonzalez (35)    1061
28.  Ray Durham (33)       1050
29.  Robin Ventura (37)    1006
30.  Moises Alou (38)      1002

1956 Topps Pins In addition to their regular issue 1956 Topps baseball card set, which in my opinion, was Topps' nicest regular issue set, Topps released a special pin set. This was the first pins ever issued by Topps. Few issues can compare to the 1956 Topps Pins set. The colorful and attractive 1-1/8" diameter pins, just like baseball cards from the era, were packaged with bubble gum. The pins featured a full color photo of the player with a pin clasp on the reverse. Interestingly, some images for the pin set are the same as those on the regular 1956 Topps cards. Even if you don't want to collect the set, if you collect 1956 Topps cards than YOU MUST add at least one 1956 Topps Pin to your collection. The 1956 Topps Pins set features most of the eras Hall-of-Famers including Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Duke Snider, Al Kaline, Yogi Berra, Eddie Mathews and also includes some super tough scarcities such as Chuck Stobbs, Hector Lopez and Chuck Diering. There is not firm opinion as to which of the 3 scarce short prints are the toughest to find. In the end, collectors in the day preferred their cards to pins and Topps cut back the 1956 Topps Pin set issue from a planned 90 pins to just 60.

1974 Topps DECKLE EDGE This 72-card test issue set was released with a very limited distribution on only the East Coast around Massachusetts making them quite scarce. They were Officially simply called "Topps Baseball Photos" but their serrated or "DECKLED" edge gave them the name they go by today. The 2 7/8" x 5" inch cards were sold in either a 2 card pack with gum or a 3 card pack with no gum for 5 cents. The cards were meant to have the look of the black and white movie star photos from the 1950's and feature a black & white photo with a blue facsimilie autograph on the front. The backs make this very scarce test issue even more interesting ! They feature handwritten script of the player's name, team, position & date and location of the photograph as well as a mock newspaper article on the player's career. This was Topps 2nd "Deckle Edge" issue, their first being their smaller and much more common 1969 Topps Deckle Edge which were inserts in certain series of packs of 1969 Topps cards. Variations of 1974 Topps Deckle Edge do exist, making this issue even more fun and challenging to collect. The backs can be found in either gray or a much scarcer white version. Also, a more limited proof version with non-scalloped edges exists and occasionally can be found.

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