No film exists of professional baseball in the nineteenth century. Without moving pictures we are left with colorful, often embellished, words to describe the early greats of the game. In those early days in the league's formative years no player's exploits jump off the page more-so than Mike 'King' Kelly. While we can't hear him speak in his thick Irish brogue, we can … [Read more...]
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Talking Ichiro Cards and 3000 Hits with ‘Super Collector’ Tony Yi
(This article originally appeared in December 2015) Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker - iconic names of baseball's deadball era whose clutch hitting and aggressive speed made triples more common than home runs. This style of play had been abandoned by the dawn of the 21st century - replaced with power hitting and exciting home runs that had packed ballparks for 75 years. … [Read more...]
10 Surprisingly Cheap Vintage Sports Card Sets
With so many trading card sets being produced over the past 130 years, there is no reason for a collector to have to overpay for quality, vintage material with a girth of material on the market. For every set like 1909-11 T206 and 1952 Topps that increase in value as collectors pursue registry sets and key cards, there are others that remain under the radar, unappreciated, or … [Read more...]
Best Baseball Rookie Cards by Year: The 1950s
Rookies are the most popular and sought after cards by collectors of post-war baseball cards. Before World War II a rookie card is something of much debate and conjecture with spirited arguments on baseball card forums about which eclectic entry might be considered the 'true' rookie card of the game's greatest stars. However, thanks to Bowman and Topps a sense of consistency … [Read more...]
E95 Philadelphia Caramel – An Underrated Pre-War Gem
Collectors who have been put off by the daunting checklist of the 1909-11 T206 set, which features 524 examples including pricey Hall of Famers, variations, and short prints, have often looked for alternative sets that include the key players of the era and striking visuals. Many collectors gravitated towards the 1911 T205 set, but with a basic checklist of 206 cards, many … [Read more...]
Who’s Next? Vintage Cards With Potential to Climb
Last week a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded PSA 8 sold for a record high $525,800 in Heritage Auctions, completing a yearlong price surge that included two other sales at over $400,000. For most collectors the '52 Topps Mantle is now out of reach, but there are several well-known cards that have the potential to rise as interest shifts and more collectors enter the hobby in … [Read more...]
Kershaw Rookie, Autograph Cards Continue Steady Rise
In January 2014, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Clayton Kershaw to a contract extension valued at $215 million over seven seasons. It's beginning to look like a bargain and Kershaw's best baseball cards purchased early in his pro career are too. For Dodgers fans of past and present the inevitable comparison to Sandy Koufax has been made. On the final day of the 2015 … [Read more...]
Topps Strata Football Arrives
Returning for its third year, 2014 Topps Strata Football will be an 18-pack hobby box with three hits, including an autographed relic card when it hits card shops Christmas Eve. Priced as a mid-range product at about $70 per hobby box, the base checklist includes 200 subjects, half of which will be comprised from the 2014 NFL rookie class. There will be a gold parallel … [Read more...]
1927 Yankees Photo and Unique Decal Bat Highlight Hunt’s Louisville Auction
With most catalog auctions ending in the wee small hours of the morning when the final, weary-eyed bidder collapses upon their keyboard, there is a certain charm that exists only in the live auction setting. Few sports memorabilia auction houses continue to mount live auctions, but for more than a decade Pennsylvania-based Hunt Auctions has developed a proven model that has led … [Read more...]
Vintage Set of the Week: 1953 Bowman Color
In 1952 Bowman issued a baseball card set featuring colorful artwork of some of the game's greatest stars. It was their fifth consecutive year of production, an accomplishment no other baseball card manufacturer had been unable to achieve. Unfortunately that same year Topps released a set that was much larger than Bowman, in terms of both the actual size of the cards and the … [Read more...]
