1970 Baseball Cards eBook Offers Trip Back in Time

Depending on your original level of devotion, they are a sweet childhood memory or a passion that never left.  Baseball cards were a part of millions of young lives in the early 1970s.  Some bought them mainly for that sweet slab of dusted pink bubble gum.  Others, though, connected with the game through the colorful images on the cards inside each tightly wrapped package.   Sports Collectors Daily and super pack collector Unopened Pack Guy have joined forces to launch a new e-book  that transports current and former collectors and fans back in time, providing a fresh, new look at the era, the cards, the packaging and the secrets behind the baseball cards that launched a new decade.  The Ultimate Collector’s Guide to Collecting 1970 Baseball Cards ($4.97) is available for both the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook readers.

If you don’t have an e-reader you can also open it on a PC or laptop simply by downloading a Kindle reader (free).

Weaved within the carefully crafted pages are bits of trivia that appeal to baseball fans, even if they aren’t avid collectors today.  You’ll learn about the player who was the oldest in the game that season and the teenager who made his debut; both now in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  You’ll find out which player showed up on a “rookie card” that year, seven years after he actually debuted on a baseball card and which one kept appearing on rookie cards over and over again before finally getting his first regular card—showing him as an “All Star Rookie” (hint:  he later became a famous manager).

Inside the full-color book is a treasure trove of information about the sets issued in 1970 by Topps and its Canadian-based colleague, O-Pee-Chee.   You’ll get a breakdown by series, mini biographies of the players who appeared on the even numbered cards usually reserved for the most popular and successful players, learn which cards are among the most difficult to find in high grade today and get the thoughts of collectors who have been trying to put together the entire 720-card set.

The Ultimate Guide to Collecting 1970 Baseball Cards is especially valuable for collectors who appreciate unopened packs and boxes, as it dissects the wax pack wrapper variations and promotional offers Topps offered to kids.  You’ll learn which types of packs are the most difficult to find today and even get a virtual look at a vintage pack that was recently opened—a sort of baseball card time capsule.

Even the most fanatical collector is likely to learn something from the book, which is the first of a series planned for each year of the 1970s.

Checklists and packaging information is presented for not just the primary sets but also for the insert sets that were distributed with packs at various times throughout the spring and summer of 1970 and the separate issues like the 1970 Poster packs and ever-popular oversized “Super” sets.

To put everything in perspective, you’ll also find a synopsis of the 1970 season and the events that surrounded it.

It was an era when only one company produced the cards that were collected from coast to coast.   Long before ESPN and the internet brought highlights into homes, baseball cards were one of the few ways kids could connect with big league baseball on an affordable level.  The 1970 set launched the post-Mickey Mantle era, an important series that continues to resonate with collectors.

The Ultimate Collector’s Guide to 1970 Baseball Cards is available for download now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $4.97.  Click here to order via Amazon.com or here to order for the Nook at Barnes & Noble.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]