Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
In 1963, Topps started using “leaders” cards to kick off their sets on a strong note. These cards featured players who had led the league in some statistical category the previous season. It’s worth noting that these cards, in graded form, can be in slightly poorer condition than other cards in the set due to … Read more
A lot of collectors may already know that the 1969 Topps #653 Aurelio Rodriguez baseball card doesn’t actually show a picture of Aurelio Rodriguez; it’s a picture of California Angels batboy Leonard Garcia from 1968. There have been some great articles written about the card, which I’ll summarize, but I want to highlight a recent … Read more
I’ve written extensively about checklists on the blog: The Curiously Similar 1970 Topps Baseball and Basketball Checklists Ranking The 19 1970s Topps Basketball Checklists The Story of the Scarce 1975 Topps Football Team Checklists Are the 1957 Topps Football Twin Blony and Bazooka Checklists the Set’s True Gems? The 1973 Topps Football Team Checklists The … Read more
In May 2021, I wrote an article about the 1969 Topps baseball blue cello packs being a test issue at the 10-cent price point to get kids used to the higher cost of packs that was coming. I wrote that I wasn’t aware of any blue wrap cello boxes, but over the past few months, … Read more
I probably don’t need to tell you about Mickey Mantle’s career or place in the hobby. If you’re curious, check out his Wikipedia page or any major auction house’s card catalog results to see the power Mantle has in the card market. But one card you might not know a lot about is the 1969 … Read more
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., is one of the greatest basketball players ever to play the game. His list of accolades as a professional is long and impressive; he won 6 MVP awards, 6 NBA championships, made 19 All-Star game appearances, was on 10 All-NBA First Teams, and 5 NBA All-Defensive First Teams, … Read more
Variety is the spice of life, and Topps definitely mixed things up with the introduction of tall boy sized cards with their 1964 Hockey set. The cards must have been pretty popular because the following year, in 1965, they released tall boy football cards to stand out against their competition. Then, when they decided to … Read more
I recently jumped into vintage sports card checklist collecting and have gone deep down the rabbit hole. I’ve noticed that high-grade basketball checklists are particularly scarce in high grades, so I wanted to share a little more about five super-tough checklists here on the blog. 1969 Topps #99 Checklist 1-99 The 99-card 1969 Topps basketball … Read more
The NBA season is winding up, so it’s time to focus a bit more on vintage basketball cards here on the blog. I thought I’d start with a quick overview of the most significant sets in the hobby. 1948 Bowman, 1957 Topps, and 1961 Fleer are usually called the ‘Big 3’, 1969 Topps is considered … Read more
Topps started including subsets for the first time with their 1958 set with All-Star cards. It gave collectors a chance at a second card in a set of some of the game’s best players, like Mickey Mantle. It was a little something extra before there were inserts. The heyday for these All-Star cards was 1958-1961. … Read more