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.

1958 Hires Root Beer
Hires Root Beer issued this 66 card set back in 1958. The cards came with an attached advertising tab. Cards with their tab intact are extremely difficult to find and thus are quite expensive. The actual card size varies from 2-3/8 in. to 2-5/8 in. wide and 3-3/8 in. to 3-5/8 in. high without the tab. Cards are numbered from #10 thru #76 with #69 not issued.
The card design - a wood grain "knot hole" through which the player is viewed - is a collector's favorite and was brought back by Bowman for their 2003 Bowman Heritage product. Although small at only 66 cards, the set did contain it's share of cards of Hall-of-Famers and Superstars such as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Pee Wee Reese, Don Drysdale, Richie Ashburn, Bill Mazeroski, Duke Snider, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe and others...
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1955 Topps Baseball Cards Checklist & Values
1955 Topps was the first of 2 years of horizontal card designs.
As with 1952, 1953 & 1954, cards were again a tad larger than today's
standard. A nice feature, facsimile autographs, again appeared on the cards.
The set came in 2 series, #1-160 and scarcer "High Numbers" #161-210.
Due to the contract battles between Topps & Bowman, Cards #175,186,203 & 209
were never issued. Topps eventually won the war, buying Bowman making 1955
the last year for Bowman cards. But the damage was done as Topps had to
leave out many stars including Mickey Mantle & Stan Musial.
There were a total of (15) Hall of Famers in the 1955 set !!!
Top ROOKIEs: Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax & Harmon Killebrew
Top Stars: Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, Warren Spahn,
Jackie Robinson, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra & Duke Snider.
"The Golden Greek" Harry Agganis, a popular 1955 Topps card, is a tragic
story, Agganis, a rising young star, died after his first card was issued.
A football star at Boston U., he turned down an offer from the Cleveland
Browns and became the starting first baseman. Shortly after he came down
with pneumonia and died of a Pulmonary Embolism.
Click for complete
1955 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.
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1977 Topps Cloth Stickers Checklist & Values
As 1977 baseball season was winding down, Topps wanted to sell more cards
and released the "1977 Topps Cloth Stickers" test issue.
The 1977 Topps Cloth Stickers set came in at (73) total cards: (55)
cloth stickers and (18) checklist/puzzle cards that
formed large photos of the 1976 AL & NL All-Star teams.
2 Stickers and 1 checklist/puzzle card were in each .15 cent pack
with 36/packs in a box.
Nearly all fronts are same as the regular issue
- with a few different like Nolan Ryan.
LEFT: Regular issue;
CENTER: Cloth Sticker;
RIGHT: O-Pee-Chee (from Canada).
The 2-1/2" x 3" stickers had highlights & instructions on back.
The backing was easily removed and kids could stick them everywhere !
TEACHERS LOVED THEM !!!
Packed with Hall-of-Famers (19 of 55) plus Pete Rose and Mark Fidrych.
In addition, stickers & puzzle pieces came with one '*' or two '**'
asterisks on back.
Click for complete
1977 Topps Baseball Cloth Stickers checklist, values and prices.
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Baseball card collecting terms (part C)
Cabinet Card Were oversized trading cards featuring paintings issued
mostly 1910-1915.
Card Show is a gathering of dealers & collectors looking to buy/sell/trade
sports cards and memorabilia.
Card Stock is the material a card is printed on.
Usually paper-based, today companies play with the card stock and sometimes
it appears to be wood or leather or see-thru acrylic ...
Cello Pack is a card pack whose wrapper is see-thru plastic.
Usually the top & bottom cards are seen. Unopened cello packs showing
major stars and rookies sell for heavy premiums.
Centering is the balance of the borders: top/bottom & left/right.
On perfectly-centered cards, top/bottom borders match as do the
left/right borders.
Centering is presented as a set of numbers & directions and often included
with the grade. Perfectly-centered is "50/50 t/b" AND "50/50 l/r".
As centering gets worse, one number increases and the other decreases.
For example: 90/10 t/b is considered extremely off-center top to bottom.
The numbers add up to 100 (50/50, 60/40, 90/10 ...).
Certificate Of Authenticity (COA) A document used to verify legitimacy
of a collectible. NOTE: Keep in mind that COA's are easier to fake then autographs.
Common A card of a non-star player is considered a "Common" as
opposed to cards of a star players or specialty/subset cards such as
league leaders, teams cards, World Series cards...
Condition (Grade) 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.
Crease Defect usually caused by bending the card.
Hard to see, or not, a crease lowers the card's grade (VG or lower) and
greatly diminishes it's value.
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