1996 -2000 Topps Gallery - PLAYER's PRIVATE ISSUE - Lot of (36) [#/250]
All different & LIMITED,most to ONLY 250 ! (6) Hall-of-Famers:Barry Larkin,John Smoltz,Craig Biggio,Paul Molitor,Roberto Alomar & Ivan Rodriguez. With 1996*(17), 1997*(12)...
Grade |
NM/MINT |
Book Value |
$ 110 |
Our Price |
$ 39.95
Add to cart
|
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.
1968 Topps Action All-Star Stickers Baseball Cards Set checklist/info
Another one of my favorite Topps test issues !!!
In 1968, trying to catch the fancy of young collectors, Topps issued a set of
"Baseball Action Stickers", also called "Action All-Stars Stickers".
1968 was a huge year for Topps with their test/oddball issues of
Game cards, Player Posters, 3-D cards, Plaks, Discs and Punchouts.
Topps 1968 "Baseball Action Stickers" consisted of (16) 3-part sticker panel
strips containing removable, die-cut stickers. They were PACKED !!! Mantle,
Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Seaver, Yastrzemski ...
There are (16) different three-panel stickers in the set but only 12
contain totally different panels. Stickers #13 thru #16 re-used panels
from the first 12 strips.
Each (15 3/4" by 3 1/4") strip had (3) 3-1/4 x 5-1/4 inch panels,
perforated at the joints for separation. Each strip featured a large image of a star player
in the center, with smaller pictures of three players on top & bottom panels.
The large sticker and some of the others had facsimile autographs
The peel-able back was blank-backed.
The strip was folded along 2 perforations and placed in it's pack.
Sold in 1-sticker packs in 1968 with 12 packs/box; at ten cents a pack, sets could be put together
for just $1.60. Today, if you could find them, a mid four figures or more would be needed to build a set.
Today a complete 3-panel sticker with Mantle in the center commands up to $2,000 alone.
Complete strips with the 3-panels still attached are so scarce and fragile AND EXPENSIVE
that collectors usually collect individual panels and the grading companies including PSA
grade the individual panels.
The single panels themselves are quite scarce and in the 23 years PSA has been
around they have graded just over 200 TOTAL, less than 9 per year !!!
The pop report is on the average of only 4 to 5 of each individual panel !!!
Compare that to PSA has graded over a thousand 1952 Topps Mickey Mantles !!!
Vintage Topps collectors understand supply and demand and just how cool
these are !
Proof sheets, usually from Topps Vault, have shown up.
This sheet is missing the facsimile autographs.
Click for complete
1968 Topps Action All-Star Stickers baseball cards Checklist and Prices
Note: You may be on that page right now.
Another interesting issue
1960 Pirates Tag-Ons Baseball Stickers
Click for larger image of proof sheet
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History Of O-Pee-Chee
O-Pee-Chee (OPC) based in Ontario Canada, is mostly thought of as the
Canadian version of Topps but it actually pre-dates Topps by many years.
In 1933, OPC issued their first sports card set, the V304 Hockey cards and
is currently in the tens of thousands. Their first baseball set was
issued in 1937. It was similar to the 1934 Goudeys and Batter-Ups
and the top player was Joe Dimaggio.
O-Pee-Chee created baseball card sets similar to TOpps from 1965 into the
1990's. At first OPC sets were much smaller than Topps
and included just the first few series. Fronts & backs were nearly identical
but with a small "Printed in Canada" on the back and the card stock was
slightly different.
Baseball being much less popular in Canada, OPC print runs of their early
years were between 1% and 10% of Topps making them exceedingly scarce !!!
Starting in 1970, Canadian legislation demanded all items produced in Canada
carry both French & English so OPC baseball cards became bilingual with both
languages included.
Other OPC differences include:
1971, OPC even changed the back design to a much more
interesting back and also offered 14 different card photos not in the Topps set.
1972 OPC included a card of Gil Hodges mentioning his death that was
not a part of the Topps set.
1974 OPC did not include any "Washington Nationals" variations.
1977 the card format remained like Topps but almost 1/3 of the OPC set had
different poses/images than Topps.
In late 1970's, OPC card fronts appeared similar to Topps but sometimes
included traded information saying "Now with XXXX". They were able to do
this as the OPC cards were printed much later into the season.