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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.

Q5: What are some useful to know baseball card collecting terms ? (part 1) Certificate Of Authenticity - a document that is used to verify the legitimacy of a collectible. In reality, it is worthless, unless it shares a counterfeit- proof serially-numbered hologram that is attached to the item, and the certificate bears the signature of a notary public, or written verification by the manufacturer. Common - any card which is not short-printed, an insert, a bonus card, or has an insertion ratio. In short, the cards that comprise the manufacturer’s basic set. Condition - the physical appearance of a card/collectible. Centering, corner wear, photo clarity, edges, the presence of foreign material, signs of misuse are the critical components. Along with rarity/scarcity, it is a major factor in determining the value of a card or collectible. Crease - an obvious paper wrinkle defect usually caused by bending the card [i.e.- the result of being tortured on a rear-wheel bicycle spoke during the early ‘50s and ‘60s]. Die-Cut - an insert/parallel card that differs from the basic card by a process of the manufacturer "cutting" portions of the card revealing a special design. Recent issues may also be individually and serially-numbered. 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.

***  BATTING AVERAGE  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Active Players - "+" BOLD in CAPS with AGE
Rank Player              Batting Average
 1.  Ty Cobb HOF            .3664
 2.  Rogers Hornsby HOF     .3585
 3.  Joe Jackson            .3558
 4.  Lefty O'Doul           .3493
 5.  Ed Delahanty HOF       .3459
 6.  Tris Speaker HOF       .3447
 7.  Ted Williams HOF       .3444
 8.  Billy Hamilton HOF     .3443
 9.  Dan Brouthers HOF      .3421
     Babe Ruth HOF          .3421
11.  Dave Orr               .3420
12.  Harry Heilmann HOF     .3416
13.  Pete Browning          .3415
14.  Willie Keeler HOF      .3413
15.  Bill Terry HOF         .3412
16.  George Sisler HOF      .3402
17.  Lou Gehrig HOF         .3401
18.  Jake Stenzel           .3386
19.  Jesse Burkett HOF      .3384
20.  Tony Gwynn             .3382
21.  Nap Lajoie HOF         .3381
22.+ TODD HELTON (31)       .3366
23.  Riggs Stephenson       .3361
24.  Al Simmons HOF         .3342
25.  John McGraw HOF        .3336
26.  Eddie Collins HOF      .3332
     Paul Waner HOF         .3332
28.  Cap Anson HOF          .3326
     Mike Donlin            .3326
30.+ ALBERT PUJOLS (25)     .3324
31.+ ICHIRO SUZUKI (31)     .3323
32.  Stan Musial HOF        .3308
33.  Sam Thompson HOF       .3307
34.  Bill Lange             .3302
35.  Heinie Manush HOF      .3298
36.  Wade Boggs HOF         .3279
37.  Rod Carew HOF          .3278
38.  Honus Wagner HOF       .3274
39.  Tip O'Neill            .3257
40.  Bob Fothergill         .3255
41.  Jimmie Foxx HOF        .3253
42.  Earle Combs HOF        .3248
43.  Joe DiMaggio HOF       .3246
44.  Babe Herman            .3245
45.  Hugh Duffy HOF         .3241
46.+ VLADAMIR GUERRERO (29) .3240
47.  Joe Medwick HOF        .3236
48.  Edd Roush HOF          .3227
49.  Sam Rice HOF           .3223
50.  Ross Youngs HOF        .3222
51.  Kiki Cuyler HOF        .3210
52.  Charlie Gehringer HOF  .3204
53.  Chuck Klein HOF        .3201
54.+ NOMAR GARCIAPARRA (31) .3197
55.  Mickey Cochrane HOF    .3196
     Pie Traynor HOF        .3196
57.  Ken Williams           .3192
58.  Kirby Puckett HOF      .3181
59.  Earl Averill HOF       .3178
60.  Arky Vaughan HOF       .3176
61.  Bill Everitt           .3174
62.  Roberto Clemente HOF   .3173
     Joe Harris             .3173
64.  Chick Hafey HOF        .3170
65.  Joe Kelley HOF         .3169
66.  Zack Wheat HOF         .3167
67.  Roger Connor HOF       .3165
68.  Lloyd Waner HOF        .3164
69.  Frankie Frisch HOF     .3161
70.  Goose Goslin HOF       .3160
71.  Lew Fonseca            .3158
72.  George Van Haltren     .3157
73.  Bibb Falk              .3145
74.  Cecil Travis           .3142
75.+ DEREK JETER (31)       .3139
76.+ MANNY RAMIREZ (33)     .3137
77.  Hank Greenberg HOF     .3135
78.  Jack Fournier          .3132
79.  Elmer Flick HOF        .3130
80.  Ed Morgan              .3128
81.  Larry Walker           .3127
82.  Bill Dickey HOF        .3125
83.  Dale Mitchell          .3123
84.  Johnny Mize HOF        .3121
     Joe Sewell HOF         .3121
86.  Fred Clarke HOF        .3119
     Deacon White           .3119
88.  Barney McCosky         .3118
89.  Edgar Martinez         .3115
90.  Johnny Hodapp          .3114
     Hughie Jennings HOF    .3114
     Freddie Lindstrom HOF  .3114
93.  Bing Miller            .3113
     Jackie Robinson HOF    .3113
95.  Baby Doll Jacobson     .3112
     Taffy Wright           .3112
97.+ MIKE PIAZZA (36)       .3110
     Rip Radcliff           .3110
99.  Bug Holliday           .3109
100. Ginger Beaumont        .3108
   
*** BATTING AVERAGE  -  Active Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)        Batting Average
 1.  Todd Helton (31)       .3366
 2.  Albert Pujols (25)     .3324
 3.  Ichiro Suzuki (31)     .3323
 4.  Vladimir Guerrero (29) .3240
 5.  Nomar Garciaparra (31) .3197
 6.  Derek Jeter (31)       .3139
 7.  Manny Ramirez (33)     .3137
 8.  Mike Piazza (36)       .3110
 9.  Frank Thomas (37)      .3071
10.  Alex Rodriguez (29)    .3069
11.  Magglio Ordonez (31)   .3062
12.  Sean Casey (30)        .3050
13.  Juan Pierre (27)       .3049
14.  Ivan Rodriguez (33)    .3042
15.  Mike Sweeney (31)      .3040
16.  Chipper Jones (33)     .3031
17.  Bobby Abreu (31)       .3029
18.  Jose Vidro (30)        .3021
19.  Jason Kendall (31)     .3019
20.  Lance Berkman (29)     .3018
21.  Moises Alou (38)       .3010
22.  Mark Loretta (33)      .3006
23.  Placido Polanco (29)   .3005
24.  Barry Bonds (40)       .3000
25.  Shannon Stewart (31)   .2996
26.  Julio Franco (46)      .2993
27.  Brian Giles (34)       .2992
28.  Kenny Lofton (38)      .2991
29.  Garret Anderson (33)   .2980
30.  Bernie Williams (36)   .2978

1952 Wheaties Champions In 1952 Wheaties issued this set of cards on the back of their boxes. The 2" x 2-3/4" cards needed to be hand cut from the back of the boxes making high quality samples almost impossible to find. The set featured 30 different champions from a variety of sports in both "Portrait" and "In-Action" poses for a total of 60 different cards. 10 of the 30 athletes are baseball players with football, basketball, golf, bowling, diving and other sports also included. Top players in the set are Ted Williams, Stan Musial, George Mikan, Ben Hogan and Otto Graham.

1974 Topps Stamps Topps released this 240 stamp issue in 1974. These 1 by 1 1/2 stamp are unnumbered and feature a color photo with the player's name, team and position inside a colored oval at the bottom of the stamp. Very similar to their 1969 Topps Stamps issue, the 1974 Topps Stamps were issued in panels of 12 stamps. Alomg with the stamps, Topps also issued a set of 24 stamp albums, one per team, to store the stamps. Due to double prints and different combinations of stamps on panels there are actually 24 different 12-Stamp panels. The stamps were not inserts but a totally separate issue and were sold in packs containing one 12-Stamp panel along with one stamp album. The 1974 Topps Stamps set is packed with SuperStars including over 23 members of the Baseball Hall-of-Fame with greats such as Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Ernie Banks, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, Willie Stargell, Tom Seaver and plenty more !!! The set even contains seldom seen ROOKIES of Dave Winfield and Dave Parker.

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