Collecting baseball cards is a popular hobby for the young, young at heart, and those who are looking to profit from their collections. The world of baseball cards is incredibly vast. There are tens thousands of cards featuring thousands of our favorite athletes as well as some that may have slipped from our memories. There are dozens of companies that have produced baseball cards over the years, both locally and nationwide.
With such a wide assortment of cards, there has to be some sort of organizational system otherwise it would be an impossible feat to keep them organized. That's why baseball cards are organized into series or sets. Baseball card sets are all the cards produced by one company within a year or one baseball season. Different sets, particularly the older ones, can be worth tens of thousands of dollars if the entire baseball card sets are complete and in mint condition.
The 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards released a list of baseball card sets that are not as commonly heard of or circulated as much as sets like those from popular companies like Topps or Bowman. One of these sets was the Decathlon Negro League Baseball Stars released in 1984. This historical set featured African American baseball heroes who played before Jim Crow laws were done away with. The Decathlon company worked with the Negro Baseball Hall of History in Kentucky to accurately portray these athletes.
The front of the card featured a black and white picture of the baseball player, the words "Negro League Baseball Stars" in red writing on the top and the player's name between two stars on the bottom. The back of the card included statistics from the athlete's career including the various teams they may have played with. One hundred and nineteen cards were released as part of the set and only two thousand of the baseball card sets were printed, making this a rare and valuable full set to get your hands on.
In 1986, Decathlon sold the rights to produce these baseball card sets to Fritsch. Fritsch released several baseball card sets of the Negro League while he had the right to. None of these baseball card sets is listed more valuable than the 1988 Negro League Stars. Again, these cards featured the heroes of the Negro Baseball League from the greater Pittsburgh area. The players name sat below the black and white picture next to the icon of the League. There were twenty cards in this set whose production was sponsored by the Duquesne Light Company and the Pittsburgh Pirates. These cards were never sold in stores. Rather, they were handed out on September 10, 1988 while the Pirates played seven innings against Houston.
Baseball card companies such as Topps and Bowman have released hundreds of sets, too many to list in just one article. Sets dating before 1948 are generally the most valuable of all baseball card sets. Collectors attend conventions and talk on line arranging trades and purchases to try and complete their baseball card sets and possibly cash in a small fortune.
image source: Diva Eva
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