Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
A few rare cards have managed to trickle into the hobby despite Topps intention not to release them. These cards were usually caught and updated or removed from production in the proof phase of the printing process. Topps had to make set modifications because of player rights (like the 1974 Topps Joe Namath card), trades … Read more
Usually, I’d document a set like the 1980 Topps Pepsi-Cola All-Star Prototype cards on the oddball archive. But this set is so interesting, so scarce, so expensive (particularly for a set from the 80s), and has such a unique history that I felt it warranted a much more dedicated deep dive. The 22-card set was … Read more
The 1980 Topps baseball set is probably best known for the Rickey Henderson rookie card, but another fascinating piece of hobby history is the number of retail promotions that Topps had that year. Topps distributed 3-card cello packs with Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup, Squirt, and Kmart in the United States and 3-card cello packs of OPC … Read more
Rickey Henderson had an incredible 25-year baseball career. On June 24, 1979, he made his MLB debut for the Oakland Athletics, and his last appearance was on September 19, 2003, for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He put up incredible numbers and is still the MLB record holder in stolen bases, runs, unintentional walks, lead-off home … Read more
Fans, coaches, writers, and historians consider Wayne Gretzky to be the greatest hockey player in NHL history. He is the career scoring leader in goals, assists, and points. Gretzky won the Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP) nine times, the record for most MVP awards of any professional North American sports player. As one of the greatest … Read more
In August 2020, I wrote a pair of articles about expensive baseball card printing errors, a vintage edition, and a modern edition article. This post will discuss a few vintage basketball card printing errors that collectors who are OCD about completeness will want to hunt down for their collections. 1948 Bowman Basketball Second Series Gray … Read more