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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. 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.

***  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

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 !!!

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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