Select a different Sport or Vintage Baseball Cards set       or SEARCH for:     Enter words, partial words with wildcards (*) or phrases in quotes.   1959 Yankees     displays vintage 1959 Yankees cards.   Willie Mays     displays all Willie Mays cards, old and recent.

80,000+ cards in stock-clicking escorts you there. New York.
Topps,Donruss,Upper Deck-clicking escorts you there San Diego.

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.

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.

***  TRIPLES  -  ALL-TIME Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)        Triples
 1.  Sam Crawford HOF      309
 2.  Ty Cobb HOF           295
 3.  Honus Wagner HOF      252
 4.  Jake Beckley HOF      243
 5.  Roger Connor HOF      233
 6.  Tris Speaker HOF      222
 7.  Fred Clarke HOF       220
 8.  Dan Brouthers HOF     205
 9.  Joe Kelley HOF        194
10.  Paul Waner HOF        191
11.  Bid McPhee HOF        188
12.  Eddie Collins HOF     187
13.  Ed Delahanty HOF      185
14.  Sam Rice HOF          184
15.  Jesse Burkett HOF     182
     Ed Konetchy           182
     Edd Roush HOF         182
18.  Buck Ewing HOF        178
19.  Rabbit Maranville HOF 177
     Stan Musial HOF       177
21.  Harry Stovey          174
22.  Goose Goslin HOF      173
23.  Tommy Leach           172
     Zack Wheat HOF        172
25.  Rogers Hornsby HOF    169
26.  Joe Jackson           168
27.  Roberto Clemente HOF  166
     Sherry Magee          166
29.  Jake Daubert          165
30.  Elmer Flick HOF       164
     George Sisler HOF     164
     Pie Traynor HOF       164
33.  Bill Dahlen           163
     George Davis HOF      163
     Lou Gehrig HOF        163
     Nap Lajoie HOF        163
37.  Mike Tiernan          162
38.  George Van Haltren    161
39.  Harry Hooper HOF      160
     Heinie Manush HOF     160
     Sam Thompson HOF      160
42.  Max Carey HOF         159
     Joe Judge             159
44.  Ed McKean             158
45.  Kiki Cuyler HOF       157
     Jimmy Ryan            157
47.  Tommy Corcoran        155
48.  Earle Combs HOF       154
49.  Jim Bottomley HOF     151
     Harry Heilmann HOF    151
     Jim O'Rourke HOF      151
52.  Kip Selbach           149
     Al Simmons HOF        149
54.  Wally Pipp            148
     Enos Slaughter HOF    148
56.  Bobby Veach           147
     Willie Wilson         147
58.  Charlie Gehringer HOF 146
59.  Harry Davis           145
     Willie Keeler HOF     145
61.  Bobby Wallace HOF     143
62.  Cap Anson HOF         142
63.  Lou Brock HOF         141
64.  Willie Mays HOF       140
65.  John Reilly           139
     Jimmy Williams        139
67.  Tom Brown             138
     Willie Davis          138
     Frankie Frisch HOF    138
70.  George Brett HOF      137
71.  Babe Ruth HOF         136
     Jimmy Sheckard        136
     Elmer Smith           136
74.  Lave Cross            135
     Pete Rose             135
76.  Shano Collins         133
77.  George Wood           132
78.  Brett Butler          131
     Joe DiMaggio HOF      131
     Buck Freeman          131
81.  Buddy Myer            130
82.  Oyster Burns          129
     Larry Gardner         129
84.  Earl Averill HOF      128
     Arky Vaughan HOF      128
86.  Vada Pinson           127
87.  Hardy Richardson      126
     Robin Yount HOF       126
89.  Jimmie Foxx HOF       125
90.  John Anderson         124
     Hal Chase             124
     Frank Schulte         124
93.  Larry Doyle           123
     Duke Farrell          123
95.  Dummy Hoy             121
96.  Mickey Vernon         120
97.  Hugh Duffy HOF        119
     Fred Pfeffer          119
99.  Joe Cronin HOF        118
     Chick Stahl           118
     Lloyd Waner HOF       118

***  TRIPLES  -  Active Leaders  ***
Rank Player (age)        Triples
 1.  Steve Finley (40)     112
 2.  Kenny Lofton (38)      98
 3.  Johnny Damon (31)      80
 4.  Barry Bonds (40)       77
 5.  Jose Offerman (36)     72
 6.  Ray Durham (33)        70
 7.  Cristian Guzman (27)   67
 8.  Luis Gonzalez (37)     63
 9.  Neifi Perez (32)       60
10.  Reggie Sanders (37)    59
     Ruben Sierra (39)      59
     Tony Womack (35)       59
13.  Omar Vizquel (38)      58
14.  Bernie Williams (36)   55
15.  Carlos Beltran (28)    54
     Royce Clayton (35)     54
     Julio Franco (46)      54
     Ray Lankford (38)      54
19.  Craig Biggio (39)      52
     Jimmy Rollins (26)     52
21.  Nomar Garciaparra (31) 50
22.  Carl Crawford (23)     49
     Raul Mondesi (34)      49
     Michael Tucker (34)    49
     Fernando Vina (36)     49
26.  Juan Pierre (27)       48
27.  Brian Giles (34)       47
     Derek Jeter (31)       47
     Mark McLemore (40)     47
     Jose Vizcaino (37)     47

1951 Bowman Baseball This was Bowman's largest set to date, both in the size and the number of cards. Due to the major rookies in this set (led by Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) the 1951 Bowman set is by far the most valuable of their issues. Card fronts were very similarly to Bowman's 1950 set, so much so that several players 1951 Bowman cards look like larger versions of their 1950 card. Bowman again used hand-painted color reproductions of actual photographs. Cards numbered 243 to 324 (High Numbers) were printed in smaller quantities and are scarcer. This is hte series that features the rookie cards of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays making them even more difficult to obtain. Other notable rookies include Whitey Ford, Monte Irvin, Jackie Jensen and Jim Piersall. TOP ROOKIES: Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays,Whitey Ford, Monte Irvin, Nellie Fox, Joe Garagiola, Jackie Jensen, Jim Piersall .... TOP STARS: Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Duke Snider, Richie Ashburn & 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 !!!

1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man TOBACCO Red Man Tobacco issued baseball cards in 1952, 1953, 1954 and 1955, making them the only tobacco company to do so since 1920. The cards are very attractive with a large, painted portrait and a short player's bio on the front. On the back is company advertising. 1/2" tabs at the bottom of each card could be exchanged for a prize. The exchange rate was 50 tabs for one free Big League style baseball cap. Thus, cards with the tabs still intact are much, much, harder to find making them more valuable. Without the tabs it is difficult to determine which year certain players were issued. It is usually easiest to determine the year by looking at the expiration date on the back. Subtract 1 from the expiration year to determine the year of the card. Each set is made up of 25 players from each league all personally selected by Editor J.G. Taylor Spink of the "Sporting News". Managers from each league were included in the 1952 and 1953 sets. The 1954 set had four different variations. That brings the total to only 208 cards to complete your Master Red Man Tobacco Baseball Card Set !!! Start collecting now !

Web site services provided by   www.BadaBadaBing.com
CA: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco;   Las Vegas, Miami, New York City, Washington DC escorts

© 1995-2007 "InterNet's Baseball Card Store" / Joseph Juhasz ... All Rights Reserved