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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.

***  HITS  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)          Hits
 1.  Pete Rose             4256
 2.  Ty Cobb HOF           4189
 3.  Hank Aaron HOF        3771
 4.  Stan Musial HOF       3630
 5.  Tris Speaker HOF      3514
 6.  Carl Yastrzemski HOF  3419
 7.  Cap Anson HOF         3418
 8.  Honus Wagner HOF      3415
 9.  Paul Molitor HOF      3319
10.  Eddie Collins HOF     3315
11.  Willie Mays HOF       3283
12.  Eddie Murray HOF      3255
13.  Nap Lajoie HOF        3242
14.  Cal Ripken            3184
15.  George Brett HOF      3154
16.  Paul Waner HOF        3152
17.  Robin Yount HOF       3142
18.  Tony Gwynn            3141
19.  Dave Winfield HOF     3110
20.  Rickey Henderson      3055
21.  Rod Carew HOF         3053
22.  Lou Brock HOF         3023
23.  Rafael Palmeiro       3020
24.  Wade Boggs HOF        3010
25.  Al Kaline HOF         3007
26.  Roberto Clemente HOF  3000
27.  Sam Rice HOF          2987
28.  Sam Crawford HOF      2961
29.  Frank Robinson HOF    2943
30.  Willie Keeler HOF     2932
31.  Jake Beckley HOF      2930
     Rogers Hornsby HOF    2930
33.  Al Simmons HOF        2927
34.  Zack Wheat HOF        2884
35.  Frankie Frisch HOF    2880
36.  Mel Ott HOF           2876
37.  Babe Ruth HOF         2873
38.  Harold Baines         2866
39.  Jesse Burkett HOF     2850
40.  Brooks Robinson HOF   2848
41.  Charlie Gehringer HOF 2839
42.  George Sisler HOF     2812
43.+ CRAIG BIGGIO (39)     2795
44.  Andre Dawson          2774
45.  Vada Pinson           2757
46.  Luke Appling HOF      2749
47.  Al Oliver             2743
48.+ BARRY BONDS (40)      2742
49.  Goose Goslin HOF      2735
50.  Tony Perez HOF        2732
51.  Roberto Alomar        2724
52.  Lou Gehrig HOF        2721
53.  Rusty Staub           2716
54.  Bill Buckner          2715
55.  Dave Parker           2712
56.  Billy Williams HOF    2711
57.  Doc Cramer            2705
58.  Luis Aparicio HOF     2677
59.  Fred Clarke HOF       2672
60.  Max Carey HOF         2665
61.  Nellie Fox HOF        2663
62.  George Davis HOF      2660
     Harry Heilmann HOF    2660
64.  Ted Williams HOF      2654
65.  Jimmie Foxx HOF       2646
66.  Lave Cross            2645
67.  Jim O'Rourke HOF      2643
68.  Rabbit Maranville HOF 2605
     Tim Raines            2605
70.  Steve Garvey          2599
71.  Ed Delahanty HOF      2596
72.  Reggie Jackson HOF    2584
73.  Ernie Banks HOF       2583
74.  Richie Ashburn HOF    2574
75.  Willie Davis          2561
76.  George Van Haltren    2532
77.  Heinie Manush HOF     2524
78.+ JULIO FRANCO (46)     2521
79.  Joe Morgan HOF        2517
80.  Buddy Bell            2514
81.  Jimmy Ryan            2502
82.  Mickey Vernon         2495
83.  Fred McGriff          2490
84.  Ted Simmons           2472
85.  Joe Medwick HOF       2471
86.  Roger Connor HOF      2467
87.  Harry Hooper HOF      2466
88.  Ozzie Smith HOF       2460
89.  Lloyd Waner HOF       2459
90.  Bill Dahlen           2457
91.  Jim Rice              2452 
92.  Red Schoendienst HOF  2449
93.  Dwight Evans          2446
94.  Mark Grace            2445
95.+ STEVE FINLEY (40)     2426
96.  Pie Traynor HOF       2416
97.  Mickey Mantle HOF     2415
98.  Stuffy McInnis        2405
99.  Ryne Sandberg HOF     2386
100. Enos Slaughter HOF    2383

***  HITS  -  Active  ***
Rank Player (age)          Hits
 1.  Rafael Palmeiro (40)  3020
 2.  Craig Biggio (39)     2795
 3.  Barry Bonds (40)      2742
 4.  Julio Franco (46)     2521
 5.  Steve Finley (40)     2426
 6.  Gary Sheffield (36)   2345
 7.  B.J. Surhoff          2326
 8.  Jeff Bagwell (37)     2314
 9.  Ken Griffey (35)      2304
     Sammy Sosa (36)       2304
11.  Omar Vizquel (38)     2301
12.  John Olerud (36)      2239
13.  Bernie Williams (36)  2218
14.  Luis Gonzalez (37)    2214
15.  Ivan Rodriguez (33)   2190
16.  Ruben Sierra (39)     2147
17.  Kenny Lofton (38)     2142
18.  Frank Thomas (37)     2136
19.  Jeff Kent (37)        2070
20.  Juan Gonzalez (35)    1936
     Derek Jeter (31)      1936
22.  Garret Anderson (33)  1929
     Mike Piazza (36)      1929
24.  Manny Ramirez (33)    1922
25.  Moises Alou (38)      1901
     Alex Rodriguez (29)   1901
27.  Robin Ventura (37)    1885
28.  Benito Santiago (40)  1830
29.  Vinny Castilla (37)   1821
30.  Chipper Jones (33)    1811

1962 Topps Baseball Bucks Another Hit Topps Test Issue from the 1960's !!! The 1962 Topps Bucks were one of Topps most creative Test Issues. Each "Buck" resembled U.S. currency and measured 1 3/4" x 4 1/8" but instead of George Washington staring at you, it could be Mickey Mantle !!! A drawing of the player's home park along with a brief write-up also appeared on the front. The backs included team and league logos. The 1962 Topps Bucks test issue was sold in it's own 1 cent wax packs and was not an insert in 1962 Topps wax packs. Most examples exist with a fold line but it should not be overly noticeable. Player selection was great as the set is packed with numerous Hall-of-Famers including MICKEY MANTLE, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Carl Yastrzemski, Stan Musial, Al Kaline, Brooks Robinson, Don Drysdale, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron and more !!!

1951 O-Pee-Chee Baseball Also know as OPC or Topps Canada, the 1971 set is an interesting set to collect and is really very different than its Topps Counterpart for a number of reasons: OPC changed approx. 20 cards including the introduction of some of the earliest "traded" cards and added more Expo player cards at the expense of #202 "Reds Celebrate" and #289 "White Sox Team". The first four series had different card backs that included French translations - this resetting of the type created several uncorrected errors including ERA’s that look like Batting Averages and Vice-Versa. This set is legendary for its short print run (5% - 10% of Topps’ Production). Anyone who has tried to collect older OPC will attest to the fact that they are hard to find, even in Canada. TOP ROOKIE: Steve Garvey TOP STARS: Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Pete Rose, Ted Williams & MORE !!!

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