Number 5 Type Collection

I researched game situations for several 1956 Topps cards in my 17-March post , including #171 Jim Wilson. This post revisits and revises my initial take and then updated it again on 2-May. This ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2024/03/1956-topps-baseball-171-jim-wilson-if.html

INTRODUCTION I spent this week inspecting 1956 Topps baseball cards in more detail than usual. Many cards with background action show actual games and some contain enough context to suss out da...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2024/03/identifying-background-photos-in-1956.html

Things can exist in the hobby for decades, yet never pierce my veil of collecting awareness! I discoverd this slim book of "tat-oos" via an overseas site in late 2023 and am fascinated by how wel...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2024/03/1951-baseball-tat-oos-book-featuring.html

INTRODUCTION Most collectors who know the 1922 American Caramel set (Old Cardboard profile ) will recognize their baroque borders and aspire to own any big name from its star-filled checklist. ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2024/02/five-facets-of-1922-american-caramel.html

This classic baseball pose under sunny Dodgertown skies made me wonder why I knew so little about its #5, Norm Larker. He even compares favorably to a HOFer , Red Ruffing, six-time World Series w...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2024/02/1961-bell-brand-dodgers-baseball-5-norm.html

INTRODUCTION If you're like me, Roy Carlson's Topps team card analysis for Sports Collectors Daily  started a wave of enthusiasm for vintage player identification that's yet to crash. Discover...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/12/sharkey-week-deeper-look-at-baseballs.html

The 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, also called A Century of Progress , included baseball's first All-Star Game, an assumed one-off benefit that became MLB's annual midseason event thanks to vigoro...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/12/identifying-everyone-in-1933-goudey.html

Our hobby's fortunate several 1950s veterans remain with us who sign through the mail (TTM) in 2023. Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Vern Law's own history goes all the way back to 1951 Bowman and he s...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/12/2021-and-2023-ttm-autographs-from-vern.html

People who pursue sets between the world wars notice a certain unwelcome consistency to what's on offer. Some 1930s companies recycled their limited number of images, year by year, tweaking thing...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/12/interregnum-investigations-oscar-melillo.html

SAY HEY! WHAT DID I SEND YOU AGAIN? In November 2023, I mailed some vintage Giants to a collector friend. When they arrived, he said, "thanks for the Willie Mays card!" That gave me pause. Did ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/11/top-five-vintage-team-cards-for-player.html

Here's my third post on the best players from fifth rounds of MLB's "Rule 4" amateur draft. Previous iterations covered 1965-69 and 1970-74 . Evaluating talent must feel like fishing. You cast...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/11/baseballs-best-fifth-round-draft-picks.html

Thanks to Immaculate Grid game #212 's new category (first round draft pick) for inspiring me to bone up on MLB's Rule 4 amateur draft, which kicked off in 1965. Baseball Reference's statistical ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/11/top-fifth-round-picks-1970-74.html

I'm a consistent Immaculate Grid player and use whatever cards litter my desk as "original sources" to plug in names. On Halloween 2023, the grid-makers added a curveball for game #212 with "Fi...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/11/immaculate-grid-and-top-five-fifth.html

I spent a chunk of August visiting family in and around Salt Lake City, a town with more than a century of minor league history. We made multiple baseball stops in the area and caught Tuesday's n...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/08/utah-baseball-stops-in-august-2023.html

A long chain of events, fortunate and unfortunate, led me to factory outlet shopping in Lee, MA, over the weekend. I parked our car and turned around to see a local success story looking back. ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/07/baseball-in-berkshires-exhibit-in-lee.html

INTRO FOR MY LATEST AT THE SABR BASEBALL CARDS BLOG I enjoy picking apart hard-to-explain details of vintage cards to see where that journey leads. This post puts three aspects of Goudey's 1935...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/07/1935-goudey-big-league-gum-baseball.html

While my type collection might never include this hobby rarity, it deserves a profile on its own merits and for those of its subject, Dave Brown. First excelling on independent teams in the ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/07/1923-24-tomas-gutierrez-cuban-cigars.html

This Honey Boy set exists thanks to an ideal confluence of circumstances: baseball's growing popularity at all levels, recent success for a local Manitoba (Canada) team, and better refrigeration ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2023/04/1927-honey-boy-ice-cream-baseball-5.html

Starting in 1972, TCMA found growing success with direct-to-collector sets built from their collection of vintage baseball photo negatives and sold via mail order. Some of their work covered clas...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2022/10/1974-tcma-1952-brooklyn-dodgers.html

It took me several years to track down today's oddball #5, thanks on one hand to its small-scale production and on the other to its niche appeal among Red Sox collectors and those who like "Tools...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2022/08/1979-tony-mclaughlins-early-red-sox.html

THE STORY SO FAR My past posts about the Universal Toy & Novelty Company covered their ten-card strips of boxers and American presidents. 1919-21 Universal Toy & Novelty Co. boxing 1921 Un...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2022/07/1920-universal-toy-novelty-co-hollywood.html

As best I can tell, baseball existed in Cuba as long as Cuba and baseball each existed. Its professional league started in 1878, just two years after our National League. Cubans love to play it, ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2021/12/1927-28-mallorquina-cuban-baseball-5.html

Been away from this blog too long and yet still close to our hobby! This post covers my week at Chicago's 2021 National Sports Collectors Convention, from local sightseeing to show shopping. Let'...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2021/08/2021-chicago-national-show-report.html

CONTINUING DOWN THE UNIVERSAL TRAIL Presidents Day 2021 is an ideal time to look at one subset of Universal Toy & Novelty's strip cards from a full century ago: the presidents. Let's also talk ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2021/02/1921-universal-toy-novelty-co-american.html

Back in 2014, I profiled this W529 boxing #5 as my toe-in-the-water for collecting type cards beyond baseball. Tendler's straightforward look and $2 price tag appealed to me. W529-1 #5 Lou ...

https://www.number5typecollection.com/2021/01/1919-21-universal-toy-novelty-co-boxing.html