1952 Topps -- Card Gallery

[jayshum]

It's players like this that I know make some people reluctant to collect complete sets. Why spend money for a card of someone you have likely never heard of? However, it's something I always found interesting. When I was working on my run of Topps sets, there were many players from the 50s and 60s I never heard of who I found in 5 or more sets so they had to have been decent players to make it in the majors for that long (especially when there were only 20 teams) even if they never became household names.

[irv]

Originally Posted by jayshum

It's players like this that I know make some people reluctant to collect complete sets. Why spend money for a card of someone you have likely never heard of? However, it's something I always found interesting. When I was working on my run of Topps sets, there were many players from the 50s and 60s I never heard of who I found in 5 or more sets so they had to have been decent players to make it in the majors for that long (especially when there were only 20 teams) even if they never became household names.

What I have found, just like what you have said above, is that some players, although not HOF's, were/are fan/team favorites.
While amassing my 52's, on many occasions, I'd come across a card/player who seemed to command a premium over another player so that got me researching as to why? Outside of the hard to find centered copies, variations, etc, it was fun to find out some of these players had real good careers and/or had some baseball history to them that I never knew about.
That is a side to the collecting, outside of thinking only about the ROI, etc, that makes collecting so much fun.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by irv

What I have found, just like what you have said above, is that some players, although not HOF's, were/are fan/team favorites.
While amassing my 52's, on many occasions, I'd come across a card/player who seemed to command a premium over another player so that got me researching as to why? Outside of the hard to find centered copies, variations, etc, it was fun to find out some of these players had real good careers and/or had some baseball history to them that I never knew about.
That is a side to the collecting, outside of thinking only about the ROI, etc, that makes collecting so much fun.

The one card where that really stood out for me was a 1968 Joe Sparma. When I started working on the 1968 set many years ago, he was listed in the Beckett price guide along with the other stars and minor stars. I had never heard of him so I asked a dealer I was friendly with why. His response - he's a 1968 Tiger and they are very popular since they won the World Series so his card has a premium to it.

[smellthegum]

Here's my black back Romanus

[bobsbbcards]

[irv]

And to start today off, Mr. Wyrostek.

[LincolnVT]

My copy.