Ever “wonder what Topps basketball cards might have looked like during the hiatus years, 1983-91, when Topps discontinued its hoops series?” Topps presents the 1992-93 Topps Archives Basketball set, with designs matching their baseball counterparts!
That Pippen card was available on eBay in late March 2025 for $145.
Topps highlighted the release in issue 14 of Topps Magazine (Spring 1993) and gave away 20 boxes via a random drawing.
Since I write an Unopened Newsletter and maintain the Unopened Archive page here on the site, here’s a photo of the box, case, factory set (where collectors would find the gold parallels), and factory set case.
For more, check out this great piece from Sports Collectors Daily and the set’s page on TCDB; happy collecting!
Here’s an original New York Yankees payroll check signed by Thurman Munson—a tough and highly sought-after autograph from the beloved captain.
Mastro sold the check in April 2006; here’s what they wrote about it:
In 1973, Thurman Munson had already established himself as a New York Yankee mainstay. He enjoyed one of his finest seasons that year by batting .301 and smashing a career-high twenty home runs. This colorful Yankees payroll check measures 3-1/2” x 7-7’16” and presents in overall EX/MT condition. Dated December 14, 1973, it is made payable to Thurman Munson for the amount of $1,740.54. Munson has endorsed the back “Thurman Munson” in blue ballpoint. The signature is clearly readable, projects “10” in strength and is free from any back stampings. A small area of peripheral paper loss on the reverse is removed from Munson’s quality endorsement. The Yankee captain and seven-time All-Star tragically died in 1979 in an airplane crash. A very difficult signature to acquire on an official New York Yankees check. LOA from Steve Grad/PSA DNA and LOA from James Spence Authentication
Minimum Bid $300
REA sold this exact check in the spring of 2010 for $1,998. But more recently, checks like this have been selling for ~$4k.
Here’s its description from Mastro’s December 2007 catalog:
During the 1960s the likeness of football star John Brodie helped Wilson, one of the top sports retailers in the United States commemorate its 50th anniversary. And why not John Brodie? He was a collegiate phenom and a figurehead with the popular San Francisco 49ers. The talented quarterback is vividly captured in the die-cut advertising sign offered here, shown in a ready-to-throw action shot and wearing his 49ers attire. Wilson’s striking message-“a progressive past…a golden future”-is printed near the lower edge of the 22-1/2”-tall example. The well-preserved piece shows a few furrows-primarily at the face, left hand and left shoulder-though the bright colors remain unaffected. Matted and framed to total dimensions of 23-3/4” x 30-1/8”
Minimum Bid $200
And just like the Jerry West version, I can’t find another copy of this one either!
I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m a checklist collector. However, when asked about team checklists, I say I don’t collect them, but that’s only because I need to focus my collection a little. That’s not to say I’m not a fan, though! I think the 1973 Topps Football Team Checklists are pretty interesting.
1973 Topps Football Baltimore Colts Team Checklists
The set has 26 cards, one for each National Football League team. They’re unnumbered and were inserted in packs. The upper quarter of the card is an action photo. Beneath that is a Topps helmet, the team name, and the words “Team Checklist.” Then, the bottom 2/3 of the card is an alphabetical list of players, with the card number on the left of the player’s name, their uniform number, and position to the right.
The backs of the cards form a photo of either Joe Namath or Larry Brown. Unfortunately, as I said, I don’t have these cards, so I can’t piece them all together. However, I did find one of Joe Namath online and a photo of all the backs, but not in “order.”
1973 Topps Football Checklists – Joe Namath
1973 Topps Team Checklist Complete Set – Reverse
PSA has graded 909 1973 Topps Team Checklists; fewer than 10% have hit ultra high-grade PSA 10 or PSA 9 grades. There are 7 PSA 10s and 76 PSA 9s. However, there are a lot of eights and sevens with 320 and 209, respectively. So in ultra-high-end, these are tough cards, but the eye-appealing 7/8 range cards are readily available (and affordable).
The Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Los Angeles Rams are the most commonly graded checklists. And the least graded are the Chicago Bears with 21, Atlanta Falcons with 22, New York Jets with 23, and St. Louis Cardinals with 24.
1973 Topps Football New York Jets Team Checklists
A couple of years ago, a few higher-end sales included a PSA 10 Dallas Cowboys checklist for $482 in June 2019, a PSA 9 Atlanta Falcons for $599 in early 2020, and a PSA 9 New York Jets checklist for $214 in mid-2019.
1973 Topps Football Atlanta Falcons Team Checklists
Complete raw sets can be purchased for between $50 and $200, depending on condition and whether they’re marked. Just a few years ago, you could commonly find them for between $25 and $50.
1973 Topps Team Checklists Complete Set
There are also variations where one or two asterisks can be found printed next to the copyright symbol.
Once I check off a few of my bucket list checklists, I’ll probably go after the 1973 Topps Football Team Checklists. As you can see above, a complete set of these looks great together and could make an excellent wall display for a football fan. Let me know in the comments or on X if you have any of these cards, and happy collecting!
I noticed a nice signed, raw, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card while perusing Mastro’s September 2000 catalog and wondered if it ever got graded. Yup! Heritage sold it for $132k in August 2021.
Here’s how Mastro described the card back in 2000:
The prized possession of any Topps baseball card collection is the 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card. In prime condition, its cost is dear for the collector who seeks the highest grades possible. However, in the real world, most such cards passed through young hands for years, with the resultant wear that is necessary in creating the value for the very scarce high condition examples. This 1952 Topps Mantle, with rounded corners and creases, is an example of a card that LOOKS like a vintage card almost 50 years old. With that said, the card does have good color and an unmarred image of Mantle. In addition, the great Yankee slugger has graced the card with an ink signature which grades 8.5/9. The most sought afterTopps card, signed by Mickey Mantle, a perfect combination. LOA.
Here’s a nicer photo of the front and back of the card slabbed, as scanned by Heritage.
This is their description of the card:
The Mick leaves his mark…
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Signed #311 PSA Poor 1, Auto 8. If a mathematician were to undertake the task of calculating the probability of this card’s existence in the collecting hobby today, beginning with Mickey Mantle’s unsteady debut in pinstripes, we would see this relic for the lightning-strike-on-a-lottery-winner that it is. Though the Mick now stands near the pinnacle of the baseball pantheon, he might just as easily have fallen into anonymity had he not heeded his father’s advice to soldier on after early failures in Joe DiMaggio’s shadow.
Mantle’s early departure from the Majors alone might have deleted his number 311 card from the Topps company’s late season printing run of the rare and coveted high number series, and surely would have left little interest in having one autographed by a Yankee drop-out if its production continued. But, as it stands, this most famous baseball card of the post-war era remains painfully scarce despite the elite status of its subject. Planning miscues for the fledgling Topps company delayed the release of the final 1952 baseball series until far too late in the season, the packs made available to only a small fragment of American geography, and for a very limited time. Hundreds of cases were left to languish in a warehouse until the need for storage space was solved by a burial at sea of the obsolete stock.
This brings us to the final twist of fate. Today, there’s not a living legend who hasn’t autographed hundreds if not thousands of rookie cards. As a collecting subgenre, signed trading cards has never been more popular. But this hobby advancement was in its infancy when the Mick succumbed to liver failure in 1995. Only fourteen signed examples of this card appear in the PSA population.
Oddly, that population lists only the grade of the card itself, and not that of the autograph, and this is one of three listed at a Poor 1 assessment. Six are simply “Authentic.” While the significant edge and corner wear validate the grade, the image area is a beauty, far better than the technical rating. The autograph itself is applied in 8/10 blue ballpoint vertically, which proves to be the ideal position, making use of the largest area of blank space the obverse of this important relic affords. A wonderful autographed example of the hobby’s post-war trading card king. Encapsulated by PSA, Poor 1 Auto 8.
Today, there are 20 signed 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards in PSA’s signed Pop Report.
If you’re a Cubs fan, how’s this for a cool hobby cave display piece: a 1945 World Series Ticket Sign from Wrigley Field?
This one came from a 2003 auction catalog, but in June 2016, Lelands sold the following Game 6 copy for $360, and I think it’s the exact same one (see the top right corner)
You can find other 10” x 14” Gate versions of these signs, but this one depicts four mounted proof tickets for Gate 2 and Game 6: Standing Room ($3.60), Lower Grand Stand ($6.00), Mezzanine ($7.20), and Box ($7.20). The tickets were used so ticket takers could identify fakes and differentiate tickets intended for that gate.
The other day, I was looking through the checklist of the 1975 Topps football set and saw the George Blanda had two consecutive cards, #7 and #8. I then read that this was the only time Topps has put a player on consecutive cards, but why?
The answer is pretty simple, and it’s rooted in his longevity in the game. George Blanda played an incredible 26 seasons of professional football as a kicker and quarterback between 1949 and 1974. His statistics were too long to fit on the back of a single card, along with his vitals/biography, so Topps made two cards, one is now known as the Black Jersey card and another now referred to as the White Jersey card.
1975 Topps #7 George Blanda Black Jersey – Front
1975 Topps #7 George Blanda Black Jersey – Reverse
1975 Topps #8 George Blanda White Jersey – Front
1975 Topps #8 George Blanda White Jersey – Reverse
Blanda threw for 26,920 yards and tossed 236 touchdowns as a quarterback, and made 335 field goals and 943 extra points as a kicker. He also had the NFL record for interceptions thrown with 277 until Brett Favre broke that record. When Blanda retired, he was pro football’s scoring leader with 2002 points, but now sits 7th on the list behind Adam Vinatieri, Morten Andersen, Gary Andersen, Jason Hanson, John Carney, and Matt Stover. He went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, which was the first year he was eligible.
Some collectors consider the two 1975 Topps Blanda cards to be tributes since the Black Jersey card (#7) shares his bio and key achievements, while the White Jersey card (#8) lists his career scoring record (he scored nine touchdowns too).
The White Jersey card is a little more challenging in premium (PSA 9/10) grades than the Black Jersey card, but that doesn’t result in a price premium.
Overall, PSA has graded 214 Black Jersey 1975 Topps George Blanda cards. Here are some more population and price sale data (from PSA’s APR) for Blanda’s 1975 Topps #7 card:
PSA 10 – Pop 19 (doubled the past 2.5 years from Pop 9) – Last two sales were $100 in September 2021 and $84 in August 2021
PSA 9 – Pop 72 – Last two sales were $32 in January 2025 and $25 in February 2022
PSA 8 – Pop 76 – There’s a lot of variance in these with prices over the last year ranging from $3.25 to $22.18
PSA has graded 227 White Jersey 1975 Topps George Blanda cards. Here are the population and price sale data for card #8:
PSA 10 – Pop 11 – last two sales were $84 in August 2021 and $80 in October 2017
PSA 9 – Pop 57 – last two sales were $50 in Mar 2022 and $26 in June 2022
PSA 8 – Pop 92 – Just under $10
The 528-card 1975 Topps football set features another Blanda card too. Card #351 is a record holder card honoring Blanda as the All-Time Scoring Leader. Funny enough, it’s a Pop 2 now in PSA 10 (up from one 2.5 years ago), so it would be the most expensive Gem Mint 10 of his three 1975 Topps football cards.
1975 Topps #351 George Blanda – Front
1975 Topps #351 George Blanda – Reverse
The fact that Topps only once put a player on consecutive base cards is the sort of vintage trivia I really enjoy. And it makes sense that Topps would have wanted to honor Blanda’s career accomplishments this way in the final set he’d be in as a player. What’s particularly nice is if you want these cards graded, the pair, in PSA 8 condition, will only cost you ~$20, happy collecting!
