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1959 Topps #512 George Altman SCARCE HIGH # (Cubs)


Book   = $ *BOOK*
Price = $ 15.95
EX/MINT+

1959 Topps #512 George Altman SCARCE HIGH # (Cubs) Baseball 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.

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Baseball

1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man TOBACCO
Checklist & Values


Tobacco cards were instrumental in the start of the baseball card industry but were pretty much unheard of since 1920. That is until RED MAN TOBACCO got in the game issuing baseball cards in 1952, 1953, 1954 & 1955.

For just 20 cents you got a pouch of Red Man tobacco and one awesome 3-1/2 x 4 inch baseball card with it's tab (3-1/2 x 3-5/8 without). Exchange FIFTY tabs and you got one free big league style felt baseball cap of your favorite team. This made cards with tabs much, much harder to find and values 2 to 10 times higher.

25 players from each league were selected by "Sporting News" editor J.G. Taylor Spink. A Player's artwork with different backgrounds was used year after year. If a player changed teams, new team name & logo were painted over the old one. To determine the year, just subtract 1 from the expiration date on back of the card. The 1954 set had four variations.

Click for complete 1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man Tobacco cards checklist & prices
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Baseball
Baseball card collecting terms (part D-F)

Die-Cut A special card that differs from a basic card by "Die-Cutting", cutting away portions of the card to create a special design. Most are serially numbered & limited.

Error Card Baseball card history is filled with error cards, many of them very interesting. Hank Aaron is on 2 of my favorite error cards. Aaron's 1956 Topps card action photo shows Aaron sliding home but it is actually Willie Mays not Aaron. Topps again goofed on Aaron's 1957 "reversed negative" card showing Aaron batting left-handed.

"Error Cards" are usually found early in print runs and often corrected. When this correction happens a VARIATION is created. Some variations are extremely interesting and very expensive while others are totally boring and you wonder why they were even made.

Extended Set Also frequently called Update Set or Traded Set.
They are sets issued after the original release to update the regular set with new and traded players.

Facsimile Autograph is an autograph printed on a card to show what the player's actual signature looks like. They are not "real" autographs.

Factory Set are complete sets usually in special boxes produced by the manufacturer. "Hand-Collated Sets" are sets collectors have put together card by card from packs.

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