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.
1961 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values
The 1961 Topps baseball card set had 587 cards (#1-#598 with some missing numbers).
In addition to the missing cards, 2 cards were accidently numbered #463
(the Braves Team card was supposed to be card #426).
1961 Topps set was packed with special "subsets":
League Leaders (10 cards), World Series cards (10),
Highlights (11 cards), MVP's (16 cards), Checklists (7 cards plus several variations),
Team cards, Special Multi-Player cards, Managers,
Topps Rookie All-Star Trophies, & Sporting News All-Stars
Of note - 1961 Topps were the first cards bearing the very popular Topps Rookie All-Star Award Trophies.
"High Number" cards (#523-#589) are very scarce.
The least attractive aspect of the 1961 Topps baseball card set
were the capless players !!!
Baseball expansion led to the problem when
Los Angeles Angels were added,
the Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins
and the Washington Senators got a new franchise.
Because of these changes, tons of players were capless
and looked awful. picture you 50 year old grand-dad.
Life was obviously tougher back then.
More 1961 Topps card info:
Card #1 was All-American basketball player Dick Groat
Card #2 was Roger Maris, right before his record breaking 61 Home Run season
Mickey Mantle was on (6) 1961 Topps cards adding to the sets cost.
Topps released 3 other sets in 1961: Topps Dice Game, Topps Magic Rub-Offs & Topps Stamps.
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1961 Topps baseball cards Checklist and Prices
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1961 Topps Autographed baseball cards Checklist and Prices
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Vintage Topps 1956 Baseball Cards
Checklist & Prices
1956 Topps were slightly larger (3-3/4" by 2 5/8") horizontal cards
similar to 1955 Topps cards, some even sharing portraits with 1954 and 1955
Topps cards. Team cards & checklists appeared for the first time in 1956.
With Bowman gone, after missing the last 3 years, Mickey Mantle was back !!!
A fun & simple set, 1956 Topps had no high numbers or expensive rookies
but for serious 1956 collectors, there are over 200 variations.
Most variations deal with card stock (gray or white back).
For #101-180 gray appears to outnumber white about 9-to-1.
Many team cards had 2 or 3 variations with team names
Left, Center or Right.
There are 2 great cards: #31 Hank Aaron which actually pictures Willie Mays
sliding home and #135 Mickey Mantle.
Mantle shown leaping high into the stands robbing a home run !
Artist did a great job showing Mantle making the catch !
BUT ... Mantle looked great leaping but the ball flew over his glove.
The 1956 Topps Pins used same portrait photos as the cards.
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1956 Topps Pins Checklist and Prices
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1956 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
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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.
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1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man Tobacco cards checklist & prices
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Baseball card collecting terms (part B)
Bazooka Bazooka Bubble Gum put baseball cards on the back of their
boxes from 1959 thru 1971. Complete boxes and panels can get extremely costly.
Most kids back then could not afford complete boxes of bubble gum at one
making Bazooka cards quite scarce. I actually don't recall ever obtaining
a Bazooka card directly from a box as a kid. Do you ???
Black Sox Scandal Name given to the the most famous scandal in
baseball history after the 1919 Chicago White Sox versus the Cincinatti Reds
World Series when 8 White Sox players were accused of throwing the series.
Details have remained somewhat unclear. The players were acquitted of
criminal charges but 8 players still received a lifetime ban from
professional baseball including the All-Time great "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.
Blank-Back a card in which nothing is printed on the back.
These cards are usually not in packs and are either "PROOF ISSUES" or
were removed from the factory in some way.
Blanket a term used for collectibles in the 1910's made of fabric .
Border is the part of the card that surrounds the photo or image.
Bowman was a card manufacturer in the 1940's and 1950's that was
bought out by Topps. In 1989 Topps started issuing cards using the Bowman
brand.
Break a term used to indicate the opening of a set, pack, box or case.
Break Value is the total book value of each card added up individually.
The break value of a set is usually way, way more than the value of the complete set.
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![1961 Topps #440 Luis Aparicio [#] (White Sox) Baseball cards value](/jpgs/6/1961-440s.jpg)