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A trio of vintage Topps baseball card sets from one of the latest deals we made with collectors like yourself are completed and ready to be displayed!  Take a look at a stack of Hall of Famers like Mantle, Mays, and Aaron from our deals collectively known as the Pandemic Purchases.  A little surprise was stuck in one of the sets, too!

THREE vintage baseball card sets have been purchased and we're ready to show these beauties off!  We'll also tell you how easy to is to sell your cards SAFELY during the Covid-19 pandemic as we all deal with travel restrictions and safety issues.

This blog is sponsored by JUST COLLECT where we specialize in buying vintage cards, autographs, and collections. If you have any of THESE cards, give us a shout; we'd be interested in buying.

1961 Topps Baseball Set:

The 1961 Topps set is a classic that focuses on the PLAYERS.  While other issues had facsimile autographs, vertical layouts or action shots, the '61 cards emphasize player over design.  Plain white borders and a little block lettering around the players' names and teams is all that Topps infused onto the cards, leaving us to see incredible poses of the players.  What an era to focus on players, too - there are so many stars and Hall of Famers in this set:

KEY CARDS:

• Roger Maris (#2)
• Ron Santo (#35) ROOKIE
• Billy Williams (#141) ROOKIE
• Willie Mays (#150)
• Stan Musial (#290)
• Mickey Mantle (#307)
• Sandy Koufax (#344)
• Juan Marichal (#417) ROOKIE
• Hank Aaron (#418)

The 1961 season saw the National emergence of Roger Maris, too.  Maris won the AL MVP and Gold Glove awards in 1960 while helping the Yankees to the Fall Classic season in his first season with NY.  However, 1961 brought on the Babe Ruth home run chase in which Maris eclipsed the Babe. Imagine pulling this lovely Maris out of a wax pack back in the heat of the chase:

This is the exact Maris card from the set we purchased! Here you can see the white boarder and block lettering taking little away from the great pose that Maris is in.  In 1961, a wax pack would have set you back a shiny nickel.  If only we had a DeLorean...

While we were going through the 1961 set, we also stumbled upon little surprise: an authentic autographed card.  

Occasionally we'll receive collections to apprise and find duplicate cards in one pocket of a page, or signed cads mixed in.  We always reach out to the collector, note the find, and include the findings in our evaluations.  In this case, the collector included the card in the set purchase.  Check out the signed Herb Score card we pulled from the set binder:

It's no Uncle Jimmy special, but we love that a card signed 59 years ago was hidden in the set. 

If you see any 1961 cards, there are few facts to know before trying to build a full set:

• 587 cards
• High-number cards 523-589 = scarce
• Cards  426, 587 and 588 were NOT issued
• Card 463 issued twice - Braves Team and Jack Fisher

Want to Sell Your Collection? We Want to Buy it! 

If you have vintage cards like a full 1961 Topps set, cards from Hall of Famers, or signed cards that you would like to sell, we'd love to hear from you!  This blog is sponsored by JUST COLLECT, where we specialize in buying vintage cards.

• We offer FREE appraisals HERE
• Learn how to PROTECT your cards HERE
• Shipping Tips for your cards HERE

One of the best features we offer for an appraisal is to SHIP your cards to us!  Safety is important to us!  With safety and travel restrictions being an issue during the Covid pandemic, we want to provide the safest and easiest way for you to sell your cards.  We also know it takes forever to send photos of each card if you're looking to sell a full set or collection.  If you choose to mail your cards, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards,  we will ship them back shipping fees paid by us!  

1965 Topps Baseball Set:

A second collector with TWO different, complete 1960's set came to us this week, too.  We've purchased cards from this collector before and we're glad to have made another deal that works well for both of us.  Both full sets arrived safely in the mail in card boxes rather than binders.  We were happy to pull out the cards and review each one. 

The 1965 Topps design brought a little more flavor to the front AND back of the cards.  On the front, a pennant, a staple of the baseball symbols, is waving to us.  Team name and logo/mascot is also prominently displayed inside of the pennant; pretty unique layout!  Look at the Mickey Mantle that came in the set:

KEY CARDS:

• Joe Morgan (#16) ROOKIE
• Roberto Clemente (#160)
• Hank Aaron (#170)
• Pete Rose (#207)
• Willie Mays (#250)
• Sandy Koufax (#300)
• Mickey Mantle (#350)
• Steve Carlton (#477) ROOKIE
• Jim (Catfish) Hunter (#526) ROOKIE

With the recent passing of the great Joe Morgan, the rookie in this set reminds of us of one our favorite pieces - a traveling Morgan rookie card.  Check out a cool story about collector from the the Department of Defense that brought his collection around the world with him.  We were fortunate enough to buy a Morgan rookie that spent time in Japan, Europe, and here in the US.  Read the full story HERE.

There are 43 ...43 Hall of Famers in this set!  Imagine seeing as like such in 2020.  Do you think there are 43 current players in the game today that will be in the baseball Hall of Fame in the future?  

If you are looking to complete a '65 set for sale, here are more helpful tips:

• 598 cards
• Low Numbers = #1-506
• High Numbers = #507-598, only slightly more scarce than low numbers
• 78 cards are Short Prints

To see what each card looks like, here are a few of the key cards from the actual set purchase:

I always think of Steve Carlton as member of the Phillies, but don't forget that Carlton won a World Series (1967) and Cy Young award (1971) with the team on his cap in that rookie card - the Cards!

The same collector also sold us a complete 1966 Topps set.

1966 Topps Baseball Set:

For the first time, Topps put out SEVEN different series for the '66 set.  The high-numbered, 7th series is also notorious for having centering issues.  If you have well-centered, mint high numbers, you've got something special. The last card in the set, HOF'er Gaylord Perry, has just one card graded PSA 10. 

The block-lettering and white border may not be as attractive '65 set, there are still over 40 Hall of Famers sitting in the '66 complete set!  

KEY CARDS:

• Willie Mays (#1)
• Pete Rose (#30)
• Mickey Mantle (#50)
• Sandy Koufax (#100)
• Ernie Banks (#110)
• Jim Palmer (#167) ROOKIE
• Fergie Jenkins (#264) ROOKIE
• Roberto Clemente (#300)
• Frank Robinson (#310)
• Hank Aaron (#500)

It's nearly impossible to point out "Key Cards" when you're looking at 40 + Hall of Famers! However, there are two cards that stick out amongst the stars for us:

Sandy Koufax at card #100 is the LAST card of Sandy's playing career.  In 1966, Koufax won the Cy Young award, finished second in MVP voting, and brought the Dodgers to the NL Pennant.  However, an elbow injury forced Koufax to retire after the season at the age of just 30.

Speaking of being 30-years old, Frank Robinson was traded by the Reds in 1965 as the team thought he was "old."  Robinson went on to beat Koufax for the World Series title in 1966 while winning the AL Triple Crown.  If only all of our favorite players were "old" like that.

Couple of facts for complete-set building:

• 598 cards
• 7 series 
• 43 short prints
• TOUGH centering

These gems from the set we just purchased:

This isn't the first time Just Collect has had the pleasure of buying a complete 1966 Topps baseball set.  In fact, we once purchased an entire PSA graded set!  HERE is the story about our graded-set purchase.

Here is a cool video showing all three collections:

Our sister company, Vintage Breaks, is a breaking company.  If you'd like to get in on vintage packs like a 1970 Topps baseball or brand new Panini National Treasures basketball, Vintage Breaks offers a huge variety of cards!  We at Just Collect often share contests on the Vintage Breaks Facebook page to win free prizes.  Currently, we have a contest running to enter the Code Word above!  Get in HERE before time runs out! 

LOOKING TO BUY THESE VINTAGE SETS ABOVE?

If you're interested in buying these new 1961, 1965, or 1966 Topps baseball sets, please reach out!  We offer cards on our eBay pages - we have two pages:

• Graded Cards for Sale
• Raw Cards for Sale

If you don't see either set on eBay, we may be holding these sets and more in our office.

Plenty of ways to reach out to us:

• (732) 828-2261
• info@justcollect.com
• Facebook 
• Twitter

Check out some of our other purchases during the Pandemic that we were able to buy safely and easily from you on our blogs HERE.

If you just came into a collection from your parents or grandparents or if you've had a collection that you no longer want to hold onto, reach out now and we'll be glad to fully explain and walk you through the process :)