When old baseball card collectors gather around their shoe boxes full of rubber-band-bound stacks and conversation turns to the greatest sets of the post-War era, as it inevitably does, the predictable run of iconic issues fills the air: 1951 Bowman, 1952 Topps, 1953 Topps and Bowman. Sandwiched among these heavyweights of the hobby, maybe the 1952 Bowman set … [Read more...]
1973 Topps Baseball Set Bid Farewell to Clemente, Hello to Schmidt
In the waning hours of 1972, a cargo plane bound for Nicaragua crashed into the ocean off the coast of Puerto Rico, taking with it a true baseball hero and casting a dark pall over the 1973 season before the New Year could even introduce itself to the world. Roberto Clemente had collected his 3000th hit just months before, on the last day of the regular season, and … [Read more...]
Set of the Week: 1980 Topps Baseball Marked the End of a Monopoly
When they ripped open their first packs of baseball cards to greet a new decade, collectors couldn't have known that they were looking at the end of a monopoly AND the seeds of a hobby boom. The 1980 Topps baseball set was not too far removed from its recent predecessors in look and feel, but it was in a different league entirely when it came to making history. Indeed, by … [Read more...]
1950 Bowman Baseball a Trend Setter
As Americans said their good-riddances to the 1940s, a decade that shredded our hearts and families with war and decimated the National Pastime, sports fans were ready to finally enjoy their games with a full roster of superstars once again. When the first spring of the new decade dawned, the 1950 Bowman baseball set was ready and waiting to greet collectors who had waited all … [Read more...]
10 Underrated Baseball Rookie Cards of the 1980s
The baseball card hobby exploded during the 1980s, and nothing was hotter during the decade than the rookie card of the latest phenom. While the sets of the era are home to the debut issues of many Hall of Famers, plenty of other "budding superstars" fizzled out on the road to Cooperstown. In between is a group of players who put together stellar careers but who have slid in … [Read more...]
1948 Bowman Baseball Set Launched Post-War Card Market
After a flurry of colorful and interesting issues released just as the Great Depression began to lift in the late 1930s, baseball cards disappeared from the American landscape after 1941 thanks to the ravages and rations of World War II. Seven long years later, and nearly three full years after our troops came home, the 1948 Bowman baseball set gave the hobby a tentative … [Read more...]
Great American Baseball Card Book is Back on Kindle
If not for a chance encounter in 1972, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading And Bubblegum Book might never have been born and the hobby might never grown into the bustling industry that we know today. Indeed, when a curious collector walked into a Boston bookstore that summer looking for a book about baseball cards, he couldn't have known that he was about to … [Read more...]
1955 Bowman Baseball Set Marked Company’s Farewell
Imagine for a moment that it's late 1954 and your boss calls you into his office with exciting, yet terrifying, news: he's putting YOU in charge of saving a crumbling bubble gum card empire that not too long ago virtually created the entire hobby. How would you go about designing the 1955 Bowman baseball set to pique collector interest and stave off extinction for another … [Read more...]
Vintage Set of the Week: 1974 Topps Baseball
In February of 1974, baseball fans climbed out of their winter cocoons to find history waiting on their icy doorsteps, courtesy of Hank Aaron and his impending assault on Babe Ruth's all-time home run record. Whether they realized it or not, collectors were on the verge of a different sort of history because, by the time Al Downing delivered his fateful high fastball to … [Read more...]
Blindness Can’t Stop This Kid’s Love for Cards, Sports, Music
In many regards, 15-year-old Jake Cohen is a typical hobbyist, adding to his collection whenever he can and pouring over his cards to learn more about the players and teams they depict. However, there is one big difference between Jake and most collectors who spend hours reading and sorting their cards -- he has been blind since the sixth grade. Jake is a 13-year survivor of … [Read more...]