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Collecting Baseball Cards For Sale

By Marissa Velazquez


Once the sole preserve of enthusiastic school boys, baseball cards for sale are now an investment opportunity to rival precious metals, diamonds and oil. A vintage card from the rookie days of Babe Ruth was originally packaged with four others in a pack of bubble gum. That same card recently fetched more than 80 thousand dollars at auction.

Among the great names to watch out for are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb and Roger Maris. Cards were there to be traded, tossed or flipped. Flipping is a simple game consisting of "flipping" a card on the floor, seeing if it lands face up or down, and then the next player trying to match the previous player's throw.

Born George Herman Ruth (11895-1948), renowned outfielder and pitcher "Babe" Ruth was a south paw at both throwing and batting. Sports Illustrated Magazine named "The Bambino" the best baseball player of the twentieth century. He played for a total of 22 seasons on three separate teams.

Lou Gehrig was a pitch hitter and first baseman for the New York Yankees for his entire 17-year career. He was known as The Iron Horse owing to his enduring stamina. His career batting average was 340. On his 36th birthday, Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disorder that was ultimately christened, "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Gehrig had such stature with the city, that New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had the flags of the city flown at half staff when Gehrig died in 1941.

Known almost as well for his brief marriage to Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio (1914-1999) played center field for the New York Yankees for the duration of his 13 years in major league baseball. He held the record for a 56-game hitting streak in 1941, a record which stands to this day. He had two brothers, Vince and Dom, who both played the position of center field. DiMaggio was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.

Mickey Charles Mantle (1931-1995) played first base and centerfield for the New York Yankees for 18 seasons between 1951 and 1968. He played in 12 World Series and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Himself the recipient of a liver transplant, Mantle established a foundation to raise the public's awareness of the need for organ donations.

Tyrus "Ty" Cobb, nicknamed the Georgia Peach, was born in December 1886 in a small rural community in Georgia. He played outfield for the Detroit Lions for his first 22 years in baseball, retiring after playing for the Philadelphia Athletics. Actor Tommy Lee Jones starred in a biopic of Cobb's life in 1994.

Baseball cards for sale featuring this famous names and countless others can be found on eBay and other auction sites. Cards are most often found in the United States but Canada, Japan and Cuba also have a large and active fan base. The fronts of most cards have an image of the player, his name and club affiliation. The reverse side of the card has statistics and maybe some biographical information. Many cards were sponsored by tobacco and bubble gum companies.




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