1973 O-Pee-Chee/OPC #305 Willie Mays (Mets)

OPC is the Canadian version of Topps with French & English backs. HUNDREDS OF TIMES SCARCER THAN HIS $40 1973 TOPPS CARD !!!
Grade
NM/MINT to MINT
Book Value
$ 100
Our Price
$ 245
Add to cart

1973 O-Pee-Chee/OPC #305 Willie Mays (Mets)  cards value
Baseball
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.

Vintage 1981 Topps Football Old 1981 Topps card

1981 Topps Football

The 1981 Topps Football set contained (528) cards. Top rookies were Joe Montana, Art Monk, Kellen Winslow, Billy Sims, Dwight Clark...
Click for complete 1981 Topps Football Checklist and Prices
Note: You may be on that page right now.

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.

Click for our current Autographed/Signed Team Baseball inventory
Note: You may be on that page now.
Baseball

1979 Topps Baseball Cards
Checklist & Values


Highlights of the 1979 Topps baseball card set are:
* Hall-of-Famer Ozzie Smith's rookie card,
* (2) Bump Wills variations; Rangers and the ERROR Blue Jays,
* Special All-Time Leaders with Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan...
* Packed as (37) or more cards featured Hall-of-Famers !!!

Given all of the above, the 1979 set is very affordable.

TOP ROOKIES were Hall-of-Famers Eddie Murray, Paul Molitor, Alan Trammell & Jack Morris.

NOTE: Ozzie Smith is by far the most value card in the set. Unfortuantely, for some reason, it suffered from poor sheet cutting and most Ozzie rookies are well off center.

Click for complete 1979 Topps Baseball card checklist, values and prices.
Note: You may be on that page right now.

Baseball
Baseball card collecting terms (part S-Z)

Series are groups of cards in an issue released together. Example: Series #1 (cards #1-100) are released in April; Series #2 (#101-200) released in July; and so on. This allowed kids to easier complete sets. A side-effect was the creation of scarce "High Numbers".

Short Print (SP) is a card printed in lesser quantity than other cards in the set. Recent short prints are often serially-numbered.

Team Set is a group of all the cards of players for a certain team.

Test Issue is a small printing by a card company to see if products are of interest to collectors. Some of Topps neatest items are "Test Issues" like 1956 Topps Pins & 1974 Topps Puzzles.

Tobacco Card is typically from the early 1900's and were issued with tobacco products, the most famous of which is the T-206 Honus Wagner card.

Traded/Update Set is a set issued after the original issue primarily featuring rookies or players who were traded since the original issue came out.

Trimmed Card is a card reduced in size mostly to hide damaged edges or corners. Trimmed cards have very little value compared to the un-trimmed version. In some cases such as the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, even trimmed cards can go for thousands. The most famous 'trimmed' card is the T206 Honus Wagner purchased by Wayne Gretzky. The card was actually too large before it was trimmed down to size.

Unauthorized Issue is a card release which is not licensed by the league, player's association or player.

Variation is a card printed by the manufacturer that differs in some way from the normal card.

Wax Pack is a generic term for a pack of cards. The "wax" came from a time when packs were sealed in wax paper wrappers. Today it is still used for packs even though they no longer use wax paper.

Go back to the Goto top of Vintage Cards
© 1995-2025 www.Baseball-Cards.com / Joseph Juhasz ... All Rights Reserved