Old baseball cards are very famous and are collected by baseball card collectors young and old and have been since old tobacco cards like the 1909 T206 Honus Wagner card began selling for millions of dollars in top condition. Also, 1952 was a big year for Topps when they came out with the 1952 Topps set that included a very famous Mickey Mantle card. Here is a recap of some famous Topps cards. Below, you will find links to card listings of various card sets. All of the words that have links will take you to more detailed article pages and specific listings for old baseball cards for sale. Some of the famous brands include Topps, Bowman, Goudey, and T206 cards.
The 1953 Topps Baseball set is a great set. I have a few commons in my collection I believe. That is about as far back as my old baseball card collection goes. They are not in near mint shape but they are great cards. There is a Mickey Mantle card in the set that is the highest valued card, with Willie Mays coming in at second place according to the April/May 2006 Beckett Plus price guide. The Jackie Robinson card is also very famous. There are different ways of obtaining these cards, and of obtaining vintage cards. I am familiar with Ebay auctions that are sold in big lots. They feature a lot of vintage cards in a lot, and you get either cards of one year or of several mixed in. Depending on how much you are willing to pay, you can get a great deal of cards and in many cases, get them fairly cheap compared to full book value. This method, however, will prevent you from being able to easily get specific card numbers in the set for set building purposes. Online websites and brick and mortar baseball card stores also offer single cards in the set according to what they have. Browsing online inventories has never been easier than it is nowadays, with not only quantity of items but a plethora of choices. I find for me that Ebay is simply the best way to buy baseball cards, I have bought and sold many cards on there and they always treat me well. (I make sure to do my homework and make sure that I try my best to deal with reputable sellers when buying) Clicking any Ebay link that you find on our pages will enable you to join Ebay free if you have not already joined.
Fleer Sports cards span many years and included some great late 1950's Ted Williams vintage baseball card sets.
1951 Bowman baseball cards including the true vintage rookie cards of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.
Some of the following cards are not really vintage material in the eyes of some, who would consider pre 1970's cards to be vintage, but they are certainly not new and will become vintage material resoundingly in time, in my opinion.
1975 Topps baseball cards are definitely old baseball cards and contain rookie cards of hall of famers George Brett and Robin Yount.
The 1981 Topps set is right on the threshold of being considered a bonafide vintage baseball card set. I personally recommend that collectors own a set of the regular series and also the traded set. It is the first year that Topps issued a traded set of 132 cards. There are rookie cards of Harold Baines, Tim Raines and Fernando Valenzuela (there is an additional rookie card of him in the Traded set as well). These cards can run about $60-$100 for an unopened wax box and a little bit less than that for a complete master set and a bit less for just a 792 card set.
1984 Topps baseball cards are a fine choice and they include rookie cards of former New York Yankees all star Don Mattingly, and Darryl Strawberry.
1988 Topps Baseball is one of the more overproduced sets of the decade. 1988 Topps Baseball is not highly desirable in my opinion, and I would only recommend collectors to have one set and maybe one unopened wax box. The player selection is not that good. One nice feature is the design, it actually has great eye appeal and Topps really did a great job with the photo colors. These cards are the ones that many collectors have in their collection and they are already over 20 years old.
The 1986 Topps baseball card set is a good set. Despite the fact that it does not have a lot of rookie cards or high booking cards in the set, it is still a good set to have. It is very afforable right now, and at most places you can find boxes for $20 or less. Rack boxes, vending cases, wax boxes and cases are all very affordable. The set has rookie cards of Cecil Fielder and a few others that are notable and also has a second year Roger Clemens along with a Pete Rose subset within the set. For long term value, I would recommend not to expect it to go up to $100 per box, but the price doubling in time is within reason in my opinion.
http://www.mybaseballcardspace.info/1986_Topps_Baseball
The 1980 Topps Baseball card set is basically a true vintage set. The hall of famers that are not rookie cards in the set are quite valuable according to the price guides. That list is headed by Nolan Ryan. The best rookie card in the set and basically the only major rookie card is the Rickey Henderson rookie card. It is a great card to own and is still quite popular and should be for many years to come. The Rickey Henderson rookie card books at $50-$60 in price guides from what I remember and still does unless it has changed in value. The Nolan Ryan card books at slightly over $10 or so and the other star cards book a little less. Common players are about 10 cents each. Complete sets cost over $100 each and wax boxes are significantly more than that due to the fact that a PSA 10 graded card from this set can be worth a lot of money even if it is a common. That is an added bonus with vintage cards.
1987 Topps Baseball cards feature the rookie cards of Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Will Clark, Barry Larkin and Bo Jackson. There is also a nice second year card of Mark McGwire. The cards are very affordable as it was easily available when it was produced. The cards boast an attractive woodback design and wooden color frames bordering the card. Out of the Topps sets in the 1980's, this set is widely believed to not be very good due to overproduction as far as its investment potential. This set is great to put away due to tbe Barry Bonds rookie card, but will probably not increase in value as much as other sets in the 1980's.
1989 Donruss baseball cards feature many rookies including future hall of famers Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Gary Sheffield, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio along with several others. They may not all make the hall of fame, but as you can see, the lineup is solid.
Mike Piazza rookie cards, despite being from 1992, are rookies of a player likely to be in the hall of fame and may be a great investment.
Donruss baseball cards in general from the 1980's contain some great old baseball card sets.
There are some of the Topps sets for baseball cards that I consider noteworthy. I really do like them all though, as they appeal to different kinds of collectors, different budgets and, in the long run, have all proven to be worth keeping around.
http://www.mybaseballcardspace.info/1952_Topps
1989 Score Football 1989 Topps Baseball 1982 Topps Baseball 1983 Topps Baseball
1983 Star Company Star Company Bagged Set 1986-87 Fleer 1993 Bowman
1992 Bowman 1985 Donruss 1981 Topps Baseball 1988 Topps Baseball
1980 Topps 1987 Topps 1985 Topps Baseball vintage card
1951 Bowman 1953 Topps 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle 1980-81 Topps
Upper Deck Exquisite Basketball 1987-88 Fleer Basketball 1981-82 Topps
http://www.mybaseballcardspace.info/1980_Topps