The checklist is a short one. During his relatively short playing career, Jackie Robinson appeared on baseball cards for a very limited amount of time. While they're all very desirable and many represent key cards in some very popular vintage sets, high-grade Robinson cards bring robust interest whenever they're offered for auction. But which years … [Read more...]
More Than Just Mickey: 1955 Bowman Cello Break Cards Now Graded
Several of the collectors who weren't lucky enough to nab the Mickey Mantle card that came out of that 1955 Bowman cello pack break at the National Sports Collectors Convention came away with some pretty good consolation prizes. All 20 cards from the break were submitted to PSA for grading and the results of the 19 grades known so far were revealed Tuesday night by Vintage … [Read more...]
PSA Launches New, Search-Based Population Report
PSA has launched what it calls “a quicker, search-based” version of its Population Report. Instead of a multi-layered, drill down search that navigates through multiple web pages, including pages for category, year, set, player and card number, users can now simply type in the set year, name and subject (“1960 Topps Carl Yastrzemski”) from a search box. Collectors will … [Read more...]
Step-by-Step Guide for Investing in Vintage Baseball Cards
Yeah, we know. Buy stocks and mutual funds. Don’t invest in baseball cards. Believe me, our retirement savings are not locked up in cardboard and we're not suggesting yours should be either. But… there’s no denying that high quality vintage cards have been very solid performers over time. If only we’d bought a few ’52 Mantles when nice ones could be had for under … [Read more...]
Second Tier George Brett Rookie Cards Strong as Icon Turns 60
If you grew up in the 1970s and 80s, last week’s news hit you like a ton of bricks. George Brett has turned 60. That sentence doesn’t even look right but the star of those great Kansas City Royals teams of the late 1970s and early 80s first saw big league action 40 years ago this coming August. Collectors have always appreciated him but some of the more obscure and high … [Read more...]
1966 Topps Grant Jackson 591
If you walked the floor of the National Sports Collectors Convention this summer, you heard virtually every dealer of post-World War II cards lamenting the lack of 1966 Topps high number short prints. It's a case of the demand being far greater than the supply. Topps' 7th series sheets were configured in such a way that more than two dozen cards weren't printed in the same … [Read more...]
E98 Baseball Cards Have Quirks, New Realities
Suddenly, the world is interested in E98 baseball cards. Until this week, considered one of the more scarce issues in the world of early candy and gum cards (that's what the 'e' stands for--the American Card Catalog's original designation for cards of its era and ilk), the set has had babies. Lots of them. The Black Swamp Find has poured about 700 new cards into PSA's … [Read more...]
PSA Population Report Goes Free
As promised, PSA has opened its Population Report for sports cards to free online use. The company announced last month that it would make the data available to visitors on January 1, no longer requiring a membership in the company's Collectors Club. The PSA Population Report is a complete listing of every item graded by the company since its inception in 1991. The Pop … [Read more...]
PSA Will Make Population Report Free
Starting January 1, 2012 PSA will make its Online SMR and PSA Population Report free. The SMR Online contains over 300,000 prices for a host of different collectibles and was previously available only through membership. The PSA Population Report is a complete listing of every item graded by PSA since the company's inception in 1991. The Pop Report currently contains data … [Read more...]