Shadowy groups and criminals looking to steal data are a major problem for website owners and over the weekend, we saw two such efforts in the hobby. Heritage Auctions was hit with a malware attack Friday that disrupted a planned close of its latest sports memorabilia auction. The company's entire site remained essentially offline through Tuesday morning. By late … [Read more...]
The National Through the Eyes of a First Timer
Jonathan Luedloff had heard the stories. An avid collector as a kid in the 1980s, he rediscovered his old cards and rejoined the ranks just a few years ago, reading tales of the National Sports Collectors Convention with some amount of fascination as he began to catch up on the state of the hobby in the 21st century. This year, after moving from southern Indiana to … [Read more...]
5 Underrated 1981 Donruss Baseball Cards
In 1981, Donruss and Fleer gave Topps some much-needed competition. Having earned the right to produce baseball cards in a court case with Topps, the 1981 Donruss set became the company's first baseball offering. There were tons of errors, collation inside boxes was hit and miss (mostly miss) and the cards were printed on a cheap, thin stock that sometimes stuck … [Read more...]
Hottest Rickey Henderson Cards on eBay
They called it a "Rickey Rally". The Oakland A's of the late 1980s and 90s counted on Rickey Henderson to jump-start the offense. They just never knew in what form it would come. A walk, a steal and a hit behind him. A triple to the corner. Beating out an infield hit. Stealing second. Stealing third. Scoring on a fly ball. Sometimes he just hit a home run 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...]
Editor’s Blog: Take Me Back to 1980
Sunday marked the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s stunning victory over the Soviet Union, the ‘Miracle on Ice’ game that’s a part of the collective consciousness of any sports fan old enough to remember it. It got me thinking about what was going on from a collecting perspective 35 years ago, a time which also marked the end of an era of dominance. It … [Read more...]
Vintage Set of the Week: 1980 Topps Set Marked End of an Era
Who knew, back when a few photos of baseball stars were placed onto cardboard, that the baseball card phenomenon would become an enormously competitive, large industry, one that sparked a series of legal challenges that changed the collecting landscape forever? Topps baseball cards were virtually the only game in town from 1956 through 1980. Although other companies tried … [Read more...]
Top Baseball Cards of Players Born on Christmas Day
Back in the day of early childhood, when the great matters of life were discussed and settled on the playground between innings — or during rounds of “pickle” if we did not have enough players for a game — there was rarely consensus on any issue. Even if everyone present agreed that the Tigers were the only team that mattered in the American League (that is how it was growing … [Read more...]