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1978-79 Topps Basketball # 59 Fred Brown AUTOGRAPHED


Book   = $ *BOOK*
Price = $ 15.95
NM/MINT to EX/MINT

1978-79 Topps Basketball # 59 Fred Brown AUTOGRAPHED Basketball cards value
Price = $ 15.95
         

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Baseball

Team Autographed / Signed Baseballs


Team signed baseballs were the thing well before single-signed balls exploded on the market.
What is a "Team Signed Baseball" ???
Simple answer: A ball with XXX signatures of a certain team for a certain year. What is difficult is the XXX. Baseball tons of roster moves make it nearly impossible to "Get Them All".

Generally, team signed baseballs from early 1900's had 10 to 15 signatures, the 1940's that jumped to 18 to 25. Joyce Sports Research Collection (Notre Dame) says "signatures must include only members of a specific team from a specific year, and there must be some approximation of completeness."

Not concrete but to me a "team ball" MUST have ALL the team's STARS (unless a rookie or in season trade) and in today's market at least 20, preferably more, and the manager.

Determining Age of Team Signed Balls
"Official" league balls have stamped signatures of current league presidents on the "sweet spot". Starting 1934/1935 balls were produced by Spalding (NL) and Reach (AL). Rawlings took over in 1977/78. Have a possible team roster at hand, ESPN & baseball-reference.com have great sites), decipher a few signatures then solve the puzzle.

Team Signed Baseballs Values
Pricing team signed baseballs is difficult due to subjectivity and factors involved suce as: Signatures placement, quality, strength, number of autographs, stars, age, team significance, and eye appeal considering fading, whiteness, scuffs, shellacking, staining, overall wear...

Team autographed baseballs on official league balls get higher values. They are "official", made better, preserve better and even help in dating especially with balls signed at "Reunion" baseball card shows which brought together great teams of the past.

Facsimile Autographed Balls
1960's/1970's machine-printed "autographed" team baseballs were sold at stadium gift shops for around $1.95. Easy to identify as all signatures were uniform in ink, color, size and look. "Facsimile" signatures are also often found on baseball cards.

Click for our current Autographed/Signed Team Baseball inventory
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Baseball

1993 Topps Rockies Inaugural logo

1993 Topps Inaugural
Colorado Rockies Set


In 1993 Topps produced a limited number of special factory sets to honor the Colorado Rockies first season. A special gold foil Rockies logo was added to each card.

The initial print run of 5,000 ran out quickly so the Rockies had 5,000 more sets made. Cards were only available as factory sets so singles and team sets are a bit tougher to find.

Click for complete 1993 Topps Inaugural Rockies checklist & prices
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Baseball

1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values


1952 is often thought of as Topps 1st baseball card set, but it was not.
Topps issued several smaller baseball card sets prior to their huge 1952 set.
Topps buzz word was "BIGGER is BETTER" for their 1952 Topps set which Topps described as: "GIANT IN BOTH SIZE and NUMBER of CARDS" (407).

Key card in the 1952 Topps set is #311 MICKEY MANTLE. Often called Mickey Mantle's Rookie card - BUT IT IS NOT. That honor goes to his 1951 Bowman.
1952 Topps "High Numbers" (#311-#407), are very, very scarce with an interesting story:
This HUGE set was released in series weeks apart. By the last (6th) series, baseball season was over and football starting. Candy shops had plenty of baseball cards from earlier series so most cancelled their orders for the last series creating the scarcity.

Adding interest is how Topps disposed of the now un-needed cards including THOUSANDS of 1952 Topps MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Atlantic Ocean like most of New York's trash in those days.

Click for complete 1952 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
Baseball
Protecting and Storing your Card Collection

There are many different ways to protect, organize and store your sports cards.

Soft Sleeves also called "penny sleeves" are the most basic protection for your cards. Made of thin plastic, they come in packs of 100 and are very inexpensive.

Top Loads are rigid plastic holders and a step up in protection over "soft sleeves". Called top-loads because you place the card thru a thin opening at the top. They come in many sizes for regular cards upto 8-1/2 x 11 for magazines and even larger.

Screw-Down Acrylic Holders
These are sometimes used for better, more expensive cards. Small screws hold two pieces of clear acrylic together. In a variety of sizes and thickness that not only protect the card but can funciton as a paper weight or display item.

There are also Single-Screw Screw-Downs that use only 1 screw to seal the holder. They are easier to use and provide the same type of protectionas regular screwdowns and they are also much less expensive costing as little as .30 in quantity while 1 inch or 2 inch acrylic screw-downs can cost upto several dollars.

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