The baseball card landscape had been the same since 1956. Topps was the only game in town for the next 24 years, with the rare exception of 1963 when Fleer snuck out a set of cards packed with cookies. Forty years ago, though, everything changed and there was no going back. Long-running lawsuits had finally reached the …
Read more1981 was a huge year for alternative baseball card sets
On the 40-year anniversary of Fernandomania, we take a look back at Fernando Valenzuela’s impact on the baseball card hobby.
In 1981, a court ruling eliminated Topps’ exclusivity on MLB cards. This is the story of how chaos reigned as several manufacturers jumped in on the fad.
Sports Collectors Daily takes us back to a golden age when every box of cereal came with some buried treasure: An exclusive sports card.
As Topps celebrates its 70th anniversary, we take a look back at another time when it saw unprecedented success: 1991 and the height of the junk wax era.
Gas was 40 cents a gallon. Stamps were 8 cents. The average monthly rent was about $150. A new house? In the Midwest, you could still snare a decent one for less than $25,000. A pack of sports cards cost pennies unless you could nab a 25-cent cello pack or a rack pack (54 cards for 39 cents!). …
Read moreDad’s old sets: A look back at the sports cards of 1971
Major League Baseball has been dubbed as “America’s pastime”, and for good reason. Every era has produced iconic hall of famers and larger than life figures like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Willie Mays. The sport has been embedded into the fabric of our culture which is in big part due to the …
Read moreStarting Five: Most popular vintage baseball card sets of all-time
Topps has always loved its inserts. Decades ago, they were decidedly different in type and quantity and the company worked up a bunch of them. Stamps. Stickers. Decals. Coins. Glossy cards. Team checklists. All of those and more showed up as bonuses inside wax packs. What they loved more than anything, though, were posters. Chances …