1955 Bowman # 53 Alex Kellner (Kansas City A's)

Grade	NM/MINT
Book Value	$ 12
Our Price	$ 23.95 Add to cart

1955 Bowman # 53 Alex Kellner (Kansas City A's) 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.

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.
The buzz word at Topps back then 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, released weeks apart. By the last series, baseball was over and football starting.
??? Perhaps the set was too huge ???
Shops had cards left from earlier in the year so many orders were cancelled, thus the scarcity.
Adding interest is how Topps got rid of the now useless cards, including THOUSANDS of MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Ocean !!!

Click for complete 1952 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.

Vintage Baseball Wire Photos

UPI/AP Wirephotos

Official authentic vintage UPI/AP Wirephotos/Laserphotos are very limited, normally only 1 sent to subscribing newspapers. Photos were black & white printed on electro-static printers, usually sent in 3 stages, Cyan, Magenta & Yellow, then combined into a color photograph. Photos are work products and VG to NEAR MINT. As a bonus, some have editor's blue-line cropping marks.

Scarce, interesting and snapshots of history, wire photos of major subjects and moments make for great collectibles. Wirephotos and laserphotos are no longer transmitted in this manner (stopping around the early 90's). Images are now transmitted from computer to computer with no need for hardcopies.
old UPI wirephotos old AP wirephotos Wirephotos images taken with low res camera so images do not do them justice. The wirephotos are nicer than in the image. Most wirephotos from San Diego Union Tribune archives and make nice additions to your collection.

Select category below for wirephotos from other sports

Boxing,Golf , Tennis,Film & other

For more info on authentic vintage UPI/AP baseball Wirephotos visit:
Wiki for Wirephotos

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.

1955 Bowman # 53 Alex Kellner (Kansas City A's)

1952 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values

Vintage Baseball Wire Photos

UPI/AP Wirephotos

1952 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values