1974 Topps Deckle Edge UN-DECKLED PROOF [WB] #71 Johnny Bench (Reds)

Book = $ *BOOK*
Price = $ 250

Book price from Beckett Annual for the regular card, Proofs are scarcer.

Price = $ 250

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.

Topps Vault & Proofs

Auctioneer Guernsey's went thru Topps offices gathering over 3,000 items for the auction. Topps spokesman reported auction sales of OVER $1.5 million !!! Additional sales were made from a mail-only auction. Collector Keith Olbermann, at the auction, described it as an archaeological dig.
Topps archive material continued to accumulate after the auction ending up with another treasure of over 250,000 transparencies, uncut sheets, color separations, art, photos, slides, proof sheets & wrappers, canceled checks, contracts and one-of-a-kind items to sell.

Click for complete Topps Vault, Proofs & Blank-Backs
Note: You may be on that page right now.

1962 Topps Football Bucks
The 1962 Topps Football Bucks resembled U.S. currency and measured 1 1/4" x 4 1/4". But ... instead of Abe Lincoln staring at you, it could be Fran Tarkenton !!!
Drawings of the player's home parks along with brief write-ups appeared on the front. The backs included team and league logos. Printing was done with black and green ink on off-white (very thin) paper stock. Bucks are typically found with a fold crease in the middle as they were inserted in packs in that manner.

The 1962 Topps Bucks were inserts in wax packs of the 1962 Topps regular issue football cards. Player selection was super and the featured ROOKIES of Fran Tarkenton and Mike Ditka !!! Also numerous other Hall-of-Famers including JIM BROWN, BART STARR, Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Unitas, Lou Groza and other greats !!!

1985 Leaf Baseball
In 1985 Donruss created a special version of its baseball cards (1985 Leaf) in an attempt to enter the Canadian baseball card market. Except for the addition of a colorful green leaf, the card fronts were virtually identical to Donruss cards. The most interesting difference occurred on the back where the Leaf cards featured text in both French and English !
At only 264 cards, the Leaf set was much smaller than Donruss with it's 660 cards. But ... because of it's smaller set size the Leaf set has a much higher percentage of star cards. There was also a special two-card "Canadian Greats" subset with paintings of Dave Stieb and Tim Raines.

Top rookies are: Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett, Orel Hershiser, Dwight Gooden and Mark Lamgston.

How long have sports cards been around ? (part 1)

The first baseball trading cards date back to 1869. For many years, baseball cards were packaged in packs of tobacco as a way to increase sales the same way that today prizes are packaged in boxes of cereal. In the 1920's and 1930's, candy and gum companies started packaging baseball cards in their products as well.

Baseball card production was virtually halted in the early 1940's due to paper shortages created by World War II. The "Modern Era" of baseball cards began in 1948 when Bowman Gum Inc. offered one card and one piece of gum in a pack for a penny.

The first important football set was the Mayo set featuring college players in 1984. Other than the 1935 National Chicle set no other key football set was issued until 1948 when noth Bowman and Leaf produced sets.