1959 Fleer Ted Williams #20 '1942 - On to Naval Training' (Red Sox)

Grade	NEAR MINT
Book Value	$ 15
Our Price	$ 17.95 Add to cart

1959 Fleer Ted Williams #20 '1942 - On to Naval Training' (Red Sox) cards value

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.

1981 Fleer Baseball

Collector's were excited when they heard Fleer was re-entering the baseball card market. Their prior issues, the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set and their 1963 Fleer baseball-Star sets were hgue succeses. What did they have up their sleeve ???
The answer was NOTHING !
What a mess. Awful ! Poorly printed on medicore card stock, the images were even worse. Then to cap it off, Fleer introduced tons of errors into their set. Some think it was done on purpose to force collector's to keep collecting. Nearly all were useless. The only one to draw much attention was the Graig Nettles variations. One had his name spelled Craig on back. WOW !!!
TOP ROOKIES: Hall-of-Famers Tim Raines and Harold Baines.
Who will ever forget "Fernando Mania" ???
Fleer didn't forget and had him featured on his own card while Topps had him share one of their multi-player rookie cards.
Oother rookies of note were Danny Ainge, later a pro with the Boston Celtics and World Series hero Kirk Gibson.
Click for complete 1981 Fleer Baseball Checklist, Values & Info
Note: You may be on that page right now.

1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values

1952 is often thought of as Topps 1st baseball card set, but it was not.
Topps issued the following baseball card sets prior to their huge 1952 set:
• 1948 Topps Magic Photos
• 1951 Topps Red Backs
• 1951 Topps Blue Backs
• 1951 Topps Connie Mack's All-Stars
• 1951 Topps Major League All-Stars

The 1951 Red & Blue Back issues (52 cards each) were similar to a deck of cards and could be used to play a baseball card game. The sets left out all the game's stars and were not fan favorites keeping Bowman far ahead in the baseball card market.
In response, Topps issued their "BIGGER is BETTER" 1952 Topps set they described as: "GIANT IN BOTH SIZE and NUMBER of CARDS" (407).
Series one cards (#1-80) can be found with black or red backs. The key card in the 1952 Topps set is card #311 MICKEY MANTLE. It is often called Mickey Mantle's Rookie card but it is not. The honor goes to his 1951 Bowman card. The 1952 Topps set also featured my favorite and THE greatest player of all-time, WILLIE MAYS !!! Again, this is sometimes called Willie Mays' Rookie card but it is not. That honor also goes to his 1951 Bowman card.
Another 1952 Topps card of note is card #1 Andy Pafko. Pafko, a fine player, is basically just a "Common card" and should be worth no more than any other "Common" in the 1952 Topps set - But SURPRIZE !!! It's worth TONS more because it's card #1 and absorbed much more damage than most cards from rubber bands and other damage, thus high grade cards are very, very tough to find accounting for the super high values.
BUT --- That should not account for the super high asking prices on lower grade copies. THose prices do not make sense (supply and demand).
The 6th (last) series, starts with #311 Mickey Mantle and ends with #407 Braves Hall-of-Famer Eddie Mathews. These "High Numbers" are significantly scarcer and can almost be called rare. In addition to Mickey Mantle, other star High Numbers included #312 Jackie Robinson and #314 Roy Campanella.
The most common explanation for their scarcity is as follows.
This HUGE set was released in series weeks apart. When it came to the last series the baseball season was winding down and football was starting. Most candy store owners had boxes of baseball cards leftover from earlier in the year so most eliminated their orders for the 6th series of 1952 Topps thus creating the scarcity.
To add interest to the story, it is often said that the unsold 6th series cards (including THOUSANDS of 1952 Topps MICKEY MANTLEs !!!) were disposed of by Topps, dumped offshore into the Atlantic Ocean like most of New York's trash in those days.

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.

1959 Fleer Ted Williams #20 '1942 - On to Naval Training' (Red Sox)

1981 Fleer Baseball

1952 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values