The Bill Russell Collection is now on the block. As we reported earlier this year, the basketball great consigned a large group of items from his career to Hunt Auctions, which put them up for bids on Monday. The auction will end December 10 with a live finale at TD Garden in Boston. Several championship rings, trophies, game-worn items and other memorabilia—even … [Read more...] about Notes: Russell Auction Opens; Lucky 1960 Cello Break; New KY Show; New NorCal Shop
1960 Topps Baseball
Worth the Wait: 1960 Topps Cello Pack Break Yields Big Prize
Sixty years after it was boxed up and left the Topps plant during the Eisenhower administration, a Topps baseball cello pack finally revealed its contents Tuesday night. Still tightly sealed, the 12-card pack would have cost 10 cents in 1960. It was the star attraction in a five-hour pack breaking marathon conducted by Just Rip It. The company offered … [Read more...] about Worth the Wait: 1960 Topps Cello Pack Break Yields Big Prize
Baseball Card Coverage from 60 Years Ago Reveals Interesting Info on Market
By popular demand, here are a few more nuggets we dug up over the weekend from coverage of the hobby decades ago. In 1959, Topps wax putting 250 million baseball cards and 70 million football on the market, mostly through penny and nickel wax packs. Cello packs were decent sellers, which proved to company officials that in many cases, it wasn't the gum that was the … [Read more...] about Baseball Card Coverage from 60 Years Ago Reveals Interesting Info on Market
Vintage Pack Facts: 1960 Topps Baseball
After three standard size, vertical designs, Topps shook things up again in 1960. Their baseball card set went horizontal for the first time since 1956, with a split screen type look that featured a head shot for most of the main photos and a posed action image on the side. There were plenty of ways to buy cards as the decade began, too. There have been finds of … [Read more...] about Vintage Pack Facts: 1960 Topps Baseball
Remembering ‘Newk’: 5 Cards of Don Newcombe
Don Newcombe, who died Tuesday at the age of 92, was an imposing, hard-throwing pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He won 20 or more games three times during his 10-year major-league career and 19 games in 1950. He might have topped the 20-win plateau a few more times, but he lost the 1952 and 1953 seasons to military service. “Newk” stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 220 pounds. … [Read more...] about Remembering ‘Newk’: 5 Cards of Don Newcombe
Recalling Yaz Cards 50 Years After Triple Crown Season
It started, oddly enough, with an 0-for-4. Rico Petrocelli--not Carl Yastrzemski-- was the star of the Boston Red Sox season opener on April 12, 1967. By the end of the year, though, Yaz would etch his name into baseball's record book. For those who remember, it might seem hard to believe this is the 50th anniversary season of his Triple Crown year. Yaz … [Read more...] about Recalling Yaz Cards 50 Years After Triple Crown Season
SCP Auctions Bids Farewell to Long-Time Fixture Clay Hill
The sports memorabilia business still a relatively young field and that’s why you’ll have a hard time finding anyone who has spent more than 30 years working for one company but Clay Hill was one of those people. Hill recently stepped down as SCP Auctions’ trading card expert to spend more time with his family. Long-time collectors will remember him as president of the … [Read more...] about SCP Auctions Bids Farewell to Long-Time Fixture Clay Hill
Vintage Set Break of the Week: 1960 Topps
If you’re anything like me, the 1960 Topps design is a personal favorite. Maybe it's because it was the first vintage set I built. Maybe it’s the horizontal design. Maybe it’s the rookie card mini-sets, or the fun-loving all-star high numbers. Mickey Mantle’s card is, of course, iconic. Following closely on his heels in terms of hobby popularity are rookie cards of … [Read more...] about Vintage Set Break of the Week: 1960 Topps
’60 Topps Set Bought, Sold for $40,000 in Short Order
One of the better 1960 Topps Baseball card sets in the hobby was broken up and sold recently with several cards either setting or approaching hobby records. New Jersey-based Just Collect offered the set, which had been virtually a lifetime project for a collector who opted to sell after a move to the west coast. All 572 cards had been graded by PSA, with none rating lower … [Read more...] about ’60 Topps Set Bought, Sold for $40,000 in Short Order
1960 Topps Baseball Set Saw Return of Horizontal Design
Distributed in penny or nickel wax packs, cello packs and rack packs (36 cards for 29 cents!), the 1960 Topps Baseball set took kids aback. Used to seeing a vertical image on their cards from 1957 through 1959, Topps shook things up by using the horizontal format they’d offered in 1955 and ’56. The idea lasted only one year. Topps promoted the set to stores that … [Read more...] about 1960 Topps Baseball Set Saw Return of Horizontal Design