Below are short bits & pieces on sportscard & baseball trading card collecting.
Please wander around the website for more info, prices, values & images
on vintage baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sport and non-sports cards.
1969-1970 Topps Basketball Cards
Checklist & Values
The 1969-1970 Topps Basketball set, (99) "Tall Boys" (a huge 2-1/2 x 4-11/16)
, sold in 10-card packs for 10 cents, was history making in card size
& players. WOW !!! Lew Alcindor's ROOKIE (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar),
John Havlicek, Dave Bing, Earl the Pearl Monroe,
Bill Bradley, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Elvin Hayes & more.
Brightly-colored "Rulers" were random inserts.
Delicate 2-1/2 x 9-7/8, printed on thin paper,
they featured a cartoon drawing and a ruler measuring
his height. Planned for 24, #5 Bill Russell was not issued.
Note: You may be on that page.
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1971 Kellogg's
1971, Kellogg's second and by far scarcest and most valuable set,
contained 75 different players on 2 ¼” by 3 ½” cards.
The cards were plastic coated giving them a 3-D look !!!
The plastic coating also made high grade cards nearly impossible find.
Over time and the elements, most cards would curl making light and heavy
cracks very common.
As opposed to Kellogg's other issues which were available from the company as complete sets,
1971 Kellogg's cards were ONLY available one in each specially marked box of Kellogg's cereal.
The only way to complete your 1971 Kellogg's set was to pester mom to buy, buy, buy more boxes of cereal.
In addition to the 75 different players, numerous scarcer variations exist
with minor differences in the stats on back. In addition, all 75 cards and
some variations are found with 2 different forms of copyright on the back:
XOGRAPH ( 80 total cards)
@1970 XOGRAPH (121 total cards)
The numbers above may not be 100% accurate.
The "toughest" cards appear to be:
# 7 Alou (1970 Oakland NL)
# 28 Wright (Angles Crest Logo)
# 54 Johnson (Angles Crest Logo)
# 64 Fregosi (Angles Crest Logo)
# 70 Osteen (No Number on back)
# 2 Seaver (ERA 2.81)
# 41 Gaston (113 Runs)
# 65 Rose (RBI 485)
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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.
Note: You may be on that page now.
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Baseball card collecting terms (part G)
Grade/Condition Centering, corner wear, photo clarity, edges,
creases, print flaws ... all combine to determine a card's condition or grade.
Along with rarity/scarcity it is the major factor in a card's value.
Graded Card As values increased the condition of cards and the
determination of fakes and alterations became increasingly more important.
Various companies became "graders" of your cards. For a fee they would grade
your card (usually on a 1 to 10 scale) and then placed in a sealed plastic
holder with labelling of the vital information.
From past experiences, most people are NOT HAPPY with the grades they receive.
To keep values up, graders can be extremely picky. Things you don't see,
they do so don't be surprized when the NEAR MINT card you send in ends up
with an EX or EX/MINT grade.
There are TOO many grading companies - if you do, do choose carefully.
PSA / SGC / GAI / BGS are some of the many companies.
It is good to know that getting a card graded by a company that people
do not recognize or respect will usually just cost you time and money
and not help you in any way.
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