Tag Archives: giant

1964 TOPPS GIANT BASEBALL CARDS VALUE

Leave a reply

The 1964 Topps Giant baseball card set is one of the more unique and visually striking issues ever produced by the Topps Company. Featuring oversized 3.5″ by 5″ cards with full color portraits of players, the 1964 Giants were the largest standard baseball cards ever made until the modern era of premium cards in the 2000s. Given their novelty, historical significance, and limited production run, 1964 Topps Giant cards have become highly sought after by collectors and can possess considerable value depending on the player and condition of the card.

Topps issued the 1964 Giant set as a limited premium parallel to their standard size flagship baseball card release of that same year. The Giants featured the same 126 player checklist as the standard issue, but with much larger portraits and statistics printed on thicker coated stock card stock. Topps produced the Giants in much lower quantities compared to the standard release, making them quite scarce even during the mid-1960s. The rarity of the 1964 Giants has only increased over the decades as many were lost, damaged, or worn out from heavy childhood use due to their novelty status.

In top mint condition, some of the most valuable and desirable 1964 Giant cards can sell for thousands of dollars. One of the true crown jewels of the set is the Giants version of the rookie card of Hall of Famer and all-time home run king Barry Bonds. In pristine mint condition, a 1964 Topps Giant Barry Bonds rookie has sold at auction for over $15,000. Other star rookie cards that command big money include Mickey Mantle ($5,000+), Pete Rose ($3,000+), and Tommy Davis ($2,000+). Star veterans like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Sandy Koufax can reach $1,000-$2,000 each in top condition.

For star players in excellent near-mint to mint condition, values generally range from a few hundred dollars up to $1,000-2,000 for the very top stars. Solid condition common players will sell for $50-150, with the lower end players in the $10-50 range. There is no true “junk wax” era for 1964 Giants as even commons from a set this rare maintain value relative to production. Condition is critical, as heavily played copies can be near worthless while a sharp near-mint example of the same common player may fetch $50-100.

Beyond the star rookies and veterans, there are also several other factors that can influence the value of 1964 Giants. Rare and unique error variants have sold for thousands. The Giants cards of players who went on to later fame, like future Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Tom Seaver, command premiums compared to their 1964 performance. Cards of players whose careers were tragically cut short, like Don Drysdale or Roberto Clemente, tend to attract strong collector interest as well. Team and league variations also exist that are more valuable, such as the Giants’ Willie Mays which is scarcer than his Cardinals variation found in the standard issue set.

When acquiring 1964 Topps Giant cards, authenticity is paramount given the high values some examples can bring. The set is frequently reproduced and counterfeited, so buyers must use caution and work with reputable dealers who stand behind the authenticity and grade of the cards they sell. Overall condition is the most important pricing factor, as even top stars lose value rapidly in played or damaged condition compared to pristine examples. Factors like centering, corners, edges and surface must be considered. Professional grading is highly recommended to validate condition and avoid potential counterfeits.

The 1964 Topps Giant baseball card set remains one of the true crown jewels of vintage sports card collecting. As one of the earliest true “premium” issues ever made, they set the standard for the giant-sized cards that became a mainstay of the modern era. Their novelty, rarity, and association with some of the game’s all-time greats ensures the 1964 Giants will retain their mystique and strong collector demand for years to come. In top condition, these oversized cards from a bygone era can possess tremendous value and represent the pinnacle of the vintage sports card market.

1981 TOPPS BASEBALL GIANT PHOTO CARDS

Leave a reply

The 1981 Topps baseball card set is best remembered for featuring large square “giant photo” cards of the game’s greatest stars. At a time when most cards had small horizontal photos, the 1981 Topps giants stood out with their oversized images that truly spotlighted the players. The giant photo cards were a huge hit with collectors and have gone on to become some of the most sought-after and valuable cards from the early 1980s.

Topps released the standard 660-card 1981 set in May of that year using the standard 3.5″ x 2.5″ card format that had been the norm since the late 1950s. However, Topps also included giant photo cards of 11 elite players sprinkled throughout the base set. The giant cards measured an massive 5.5″ x 7″ and featured full front coverage photos of such superstars as Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Keith Hernandez, Steve Carlton, Dave Winfield, and Nolan Ryan among others.

While some earlier sets dating back to the 1950s had utilized larger card sizes for certain subsets, nothing had been done on the scale of the 1981 giants. Topps pulled out all the stops, using high quality photos in sharp focus that truly allowed collectors to admire every detail of these all-time great players. Rather than cropping the photos to fit traditional card dimensions, Topps let the images spill out to the edges of the giant cards.

Instantly, the 1981 giant photo cards became the most sought-after and valuable cards in the set. Being nearly 3 times larger than a standard card and spotlighting only the very best MLB players, they created a frenzy among collectors. Today, graded mint condition copies of the 1981 Mike Schmidt giant photo regularly sell for over $1,000, showing just how iconic these oversized cards have become.

Part of what made the 1981 giants so special was the unprecedented nature of their large size at the time. Baseball cards had always been pocket-sized up to that point. Suddenly seeing these players nearly life-sized on a card stopped collectors in their tracks. Also notable was how Topps included the giants throughout the base set randomly through the checklist, rather than grouping them all together at the front or back. This created both surprise and a hunt to find them all.

While the giant photo cards were a one-year experiment by Topps in 1981, their success paved the way for future sets to build upon the concept. Starting in 1982, Topps began including smaller-sized but still oversized “photo stars” cards in its regular issues. Other manufacturers like Fleer and Donruss soon followed suit with their own larger highlighted cards. Throughout the 1980s and beyond, variation insert cards spotlighting individual stars with bigger photos became an annual tradition. But the original 1981 Topps giants remain the gold standard among collectors as the set that started it all.

In the 35-plus years since their release, appreciation for the 1981 Topps giant photo cards has only grown exponentially. They are now amongst the most iconic cards produced by Topps during their peak 1970s-80s era and remain incredibly popular with both vintage collectors and today’s investors. Part of why they maintain such staying power is the elite level of talent that was featured, including eventual Hall of Famers like Schmidt, Brett, Carlton, Ryan and Hernandez. But mostly it was the unparalleled, immense photo size on a baseball card that shocked and amazed consumers in 1981. For collectors, the giants represented the pinnacle of what a sports card could be.

In recent years, as card values across the entire vintage collecting hobby have skyrocketed, the 1981 Topps giants have followed suit. Now with population reports showing fewer than 10 PSA/BGS graded copies exist of several of the cards, condition has become everything. Even very nicely centered but lower graded giants can sell for thousands. And as the players age and pass away, the historical significance attached to a complete 1981 giant photo set will only increase further down the road. For these reasons, the Topps giants of ’81 are assured of retaining their iconic status and staggering collectability for future generations to admire and discover. They truly changed the face of the entire baseball card industry forever.

1964 TOPPS GIANT BASEBALL CARDS

Leave a reply

The 1964 Topps Giant baseball card set was unique for its large card size and its focus on highlighting individual players rather than the traditional team cards of the time. Standing out from standard sized 1954 Topps cards which measured 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, the 1964 Giants were nearly four times the size at a massive 6.5 inches by 8 inches. It was the first and only set produced in this oversized format by Topps.

Containing just 26 total cards, the 1964 Giant set highlighted some of baseball’s biggest stars of the era including Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Roger Maris, and Mickey Mantle. Unlike typical sets which included cards for every player on a major league roster, the 1964 Giants took a more selective approach by choosing to feature only the game’s elite superstar talent. This allowed for more design elements and stats to be included on the increased card surface area compared to standard sized issues.

Another hallmark of the 1964 Topps Giants was the creative photographic concepts utilized on each card. Rather than straight action shots, the set portrayed its subjects in more imaginative poses that helped their larger-than-life personalities truly stand out. For example, Willie Mays’ card shows him swinging while being showered by baseballs, symbolizing his prolific hitting abilities. Others like Roberto Clemente are depicted in feats of raw athleticism like leaping or diving for catches to highlight their defensive prowess.

The creative behind-the-scenes stories of how some of these iconic photos were captured also add to the mystique of the 1964 Giants. For Sandy Koufax’s card, the photo shoot required him to repeatedly throw fastballs directly at the camera lens until they were able to catch the perfect image of the ball right as it crossed the plate. Koufax was allegedly able to hit the lens on the first attempt.

In addition to drawing more attention to each player through visual interest, the increased size afforded more detailed statistical and biographical information to be included on the back of the cards compared to standard issues. Career stats and highlights up to that point were provided for handy player reference. Basic uniform information was also included along with physical attributes like height, weight and batting handedness.

While large and attention-grabbing on store shelves in 1964, the oversized cards proved difficult for collectors to store and display compared to the more easily organized standard sizes. As a result, they never caught on long term as a sustainable product category for the baseball card market. Topps only produced the one year of Giants before standard sizing continued as the norm. Still, the creative approach and superstar subjects cemented the 1964 issue in collectors’ minds as a true one-of-a-kind gem highlighting some of the sport’s greatest talents of that era.

Even over 50 years later, the 26 cards of the 1964 Topps Giant set remain incredibly scarce and valuable. In top graded condition with the hard-to-find acetate protective coating still intact, individual cards can sell for tens of thousands of dollars given their elite rarity and historical significance. For collectors and fans, they serve as almost scrapbook-style snapshots into baseball’s past, showing the period’s most iconic players in unique photographic portraits that pop off the oversized cardboard. While short-lived as a mainstream product, the innovation and larger-than-life quality of the 1964 Topps Giants ensured this singular experiment left an impact that still excites collectors today.

With just 26 cards produced only once in 1964, the Topps Giant set stands apart as one of the hobby’s true one-hits wonders deserving of its lofty status among the most coveted and important issues in the entire history of baseball cards. Even decades later, the outsized photographic presentations and statistical insight allow these rare treasures to bring fans up close with some of the sport’s true living legends in a unique vintage format like no other.

TOPPS GIANT BASEBALL CARDS

Leave a reply

In the 1950s and 1960s, Topps Chewing Gum Company produced a line of large baseball trading cards known as “Giant Baseball Cards” or “Jumbo Baseball Cards” that stood out from the standard size cards also issued during that era. Measuring approximately twice the size of a standard card at around 5″ x 7″, these oversized cards captured the imagination of young baseball fans and collectors.

Topps had been producing their successful smaller baseball cards in sets of over 500 cards annually since 1951. Seeing an opportunity to further excite consumers and generate additional sales, in 1957 Topps issued their first series of Giant Baseball Cards starring some of the game’s biggest stars of the day like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron. The giant-sized cards featured the same player images and basic stats found on the standard cards, only blown up to fill their much larger real estate.

Collectors ate them up, finding the jumbo cards a real novelty compared to the regular trading cards they were used to. The increased visual size allowed for more detailed portraits and action shots of players, transporting fans even closer to the on-field action through larger-than-life card images. Topps saw the success of their 1957 Giant Baseball Card trial run and decided to continue producing limited runs of the oversized cards in subsequent seasons.

Across the late 1950s and 1960s, Topps issued over a dozen different numbered series of Giant Baseball Cards spotlighting that year’s top sluggers and hurlers. Themes included “Year in Review” highlights from the previous season, All-Star rosters, World Series participants, league leaders, and rookie sensations. Topps limited print runs ensured the jumbos remained a special and scarce subset for avid collectors to seek out. Rarity also drove demand higher, with unopened packs of Giant Cards fetching premium prices above standard wax packs on the collecting market.

On the giant-sized cards, players truly seemed to leap off the cardboard. Close-up headshots provided unprecedented views of ballplayers’ faces, expressions, and facial features. Action photos burst with kinetic energy, immersing fans in the white-knuckle moments of each batter’s swing or pitcher’s windup frozen in time. Meanwhile, career stats and accolades printed in larger text filled the outsized cards.

Alongside familiar Topps design elements like color team logos, borders and banners touting achievements popped with vivid hues that popped dramatically against the whiteness of the oversized stock. This allowed personalities and stats to really shine through for fans. Some sheets even featured colorful airbrushed illustrations alongside photos, heightening the artistic flair and nostalgia of the baseball collectibles.

While short-printed compared to standard issues, the Giant Cards series still provided coverage of over 100 different players each year. This meant young collectors could easily assemble full rosters of jumbo stars without missing key members of their favorite teams or leagues. Multi-player cards spotlighting standings leaders or award winners also satisfied fans’ appetite for action and competition on an enlarged scale.

By making players appear larger than life through these supersized trading cards, Topps helped fuel the myths and legends surrounding some of baseball’s true icons from Mickey, The Duke, and The Say Hey Kid to The Hammer and The Franchise. Towering over fans in oversized form on a card, these greats truly seemed superhuman in a way that standardsize cards couldn’t accomplish alone. Giant Cards amplified the awe and wonder fans felt for their most treasured athletes of the national pastime.

Besides player cards, Topps also created Giant Cards saluting moments both great and small throughout MLB history. These included milestone home runs, no-hitters, World Series highlights, and more, once again allowing fans to relive magic from seasons past on an even grand scale. Manager and owner profiles as well as team cards showing stacked lineups also let collectors complete comprehensive oversized sets chronicling the state of the sport season to season.

While production of Topps Giant Baseball Cards ended by the late 1960s, their larger-than-life impact lives on today. Among collectors, a complete mint set of Topps Giant Cards from the company’s multi-year run is one of the most desirable finds in the hobby. Even single vintage jumbos in top condition command prices well above their standard-sized contemporaries due to their superior scope and nostalgia inducing qualities. On auction sites, rare Topps Giant Cards continue setting sales records that attest to their enduring fan appeal and collection significance decades after their print runs.

A true slice of Americana, Topps Giant Baseball Cards were a childhood thrill for Baby Boomers who first encountered the oversized collectibles as youths. By paying tribute to MLB’s biggest names and moments on an enlarged playing field of cardboard, the jumbos sparked imaginations and fueled daydreams of future World Series heroics on the mound or at the plate. Topps giant-sized the entire experience of collecting around beloved ballplayers, creating a coveted limited series that remains legendary among fans and memorabilia connoisseurs to this day. Through bolder cards that magnified action, players took on mythic new dimensions that are still fondly remembered generations later.

GIANT BASEBALL CARDS

Leave a reply

Giant baseball cards are just as their name implies – standard trading cards for baseball players and teams that have been enlarged to much larger than normal size. While everyday baseball cards are typically around 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, giant baseball cards can range in size from poster-sized all the way up to floor-to-ceiling murals. These supersized versions of the classic sports collectibles have become a unique art form enjoyed by die-hard fans and casual observers alike.

Some key things to know about giant baseball cards include their origins, popular sizes, creative designs, and displays. One of the earliest known giant baseball cards was created in the late 1950s by Topps, the iconic manufacturer of standard trading cards. For promotional purposes, they produced an 8 foot by 4 foot cardboard display of their entire 1958 roster that was meant to be hung in retail stores. While large, this was simply an advertisement rather than an artistic expression.

Most historians point to the late 1980s as when the true giant baseball card trend began to take shape. Independent artists started blow torching and airbrushing favorite players onto sheets of corrugated plastic or wood as wall hangings. Size-wise, the most common formats seem to be poster-sized at 24 inches by 36 inches, banner-sized at 3 to 4 feet wide, and mural-sized covering entire walls from 4 feet to 12 feet tall. More ambitious examples have ranged up to billboard dimensions of 20 feet tall by 60 feet wide.

In terms of creative designs, giant baseball cards offer a blank canvas for virtually any style. Many stick to standard frontal headshots just enlarged, but others feature action poses, illustration-style drawings, collages incorporating other memorabilia, and abstract interpretive art. Airbrushing remains a popular technique given its ability to create sharp, vibrant images on an array of unusual surfaces from aluminum panels to hot rod hoods. With the advanced digital printing capabilities of today, some artists even digitally modify cards to completely reimagine players or historical scenarios.

As for where giant baseball cards end up on display, the options are just as varied as their designs. Private homes showcase them prominently hung on walls alongside other sports memorabilia. Some restaurants, bars, and baseball parks commission local artists to adorn their interiors with extra large depictions of hometown heroes. Public art walks and gallery shows periodically feature the works of Giant Baseball Card artists. Perhaps most impressively, full size murals have appeared on the sides of buildings and occasionally as center field wall wraps inside minor league stadiums.

The costs associated with giant baseball cards scale up proportionally with their increased production materials and labor. Small to mid-sized posters run $100-$500, banner sizes reach $500-$1000, and the largest murals commanding thousands depending on size, artist, and level of customization. Most agree the jaw-dropping final products are well worth the investment for serious collectors and fans looking to make a permanent impactful statement of their team pride. Some artists have even turned giant card creations into successful small businesses by taking custom commission orders.

In the future, it’s likely new technologies will further expand the expression potential for giant baseball cards. For instance, the introduction of affordable large format digital printers and UV resistant printable wraps/banners opens many more outdoor display opportunities. Augmented reality apps could one day overlay historic game footage, stats, or movement onto static giant card images. Whatever creative directions they take, giant baseball cards demonstrate how even the most mundane collectibles can evolve into dynamic works of visual art when magnified to monumental proportions. Fans will surely continue finding innovative new ways to showcase their baseball passions on an ever-grander giant card scale.

Giant baseball cards take the nostalgia of childhood sports memorabilia to an exaggerated new level. Starting from basic enlarged renditions, they have grown into a vibrant artistic genre spanning myriad styles, surfaces, and gigantic formats. Whether proudly hanging in private homes or commanding public spaces, these supersized tributes reinforce the magic between athletes and their most dedicated admirers. They represent an ongoing celebration of America’s favorite pastime for all to admire from rookie prospect all the way up to ten-story titan.

64 TOPPS BASEBALL GIANT CARDS

Leave a reply

The 1964 Topps baseball card set is one of the most iconic and valuable issues in the history of the hobby. While the standard size cards of the era are certainly collectible in their own right, it is the giant-sized cards from that same 1964 Topps release that have truly captured the imagination of fans and fueled their desire to own a piece of history. Standing at an oversized 8 inches tall by 11 inches wide, these 16 large format cards offer collectors a one-of-a-kind opportunity to admire the game’s greatest stars of that era in unprecedented scale.

The idea for the giant cards came about as Topps sought new ways to market their flagship baseball product and drive sales higher still. With the standard size cards being produced in the billions each year, they knew they needed a truly unique premium product to entice collectors. Topps’ creative director Sy Berger had the vision to produce these outsized cards that would make an immediate visual impact on the hobby landscape. The giant cards were inserted randomly in wax packs at an extremely low ratio, estimated around only 1 in 24,000 packs. This ensured their rarity and collectibility from the very start.

Each of the 16 giant cards features a true icon of the era, with legends like Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Hank Aaron among those selected for the oversized treatment. The photos are of much higher quality than typical for the time, showing the players in vibrant color with sharp detail. The giant size allows fans to appreciate every nuance of the action shots and really connect with their favorite stars. The reverse side stats tables are massively enlarged as well for easy readability.

Perhaps most impressively, Topps was able to procure autographs from each of the 16 players featured on the giant cards. At the time, player autographs were not a standard inclusion on cards the way they are today. Topps knew obtaining autographed versions of these rare oversized pieces would make them even more coveted among collectors. The signatures are elegantly displayed in gold or silver ink against the vibrant color photographs. Having these true “game-used” autographs of the game’s greatest from that era places the 1964 Topps giants among the most historically significant cards ever produced.

Naturally, with such a small original print run and inclusion of coveted autographs, the 1964 Topps giant cards became some of the rarest and most valuable in the entire hobby within just a few short years. While a typical ’64 Topps card in good condition might sell for $10-20, a giant in similar condition could easily fetch thousands due to their scarcity. But as the decades passed and the player autographs continued to gain importance, prices skyrocketed. Today, a giant card in excellent “gem mint” condition could sell at auction for well over $100,000.

The astronomical prices are a direct result of the cards’ perfect combination of rarity, iconic imagery, autographed content, and historical significance. They represent one of the earliest examples of a true “premium” product in the sports card world. While the standard cards captured the imagination of children at the time, the giants were clearly aimed at the burgeoning adult collector market. Their massive size and premium extras like signatures set the standard for what high-end memorabilia could be. In many ways, the 1964 Topps giants laid the foundation for the entire high-end memorabilia marketplace that exists today.

Even among the most well-known and valuable vintage sets, the 1964 Topps giants remain some of the toughest cards to acquire in collectible condition. Part of their allure is that they still seem to represent the unobtainable “holy grail” for many dedicated collectors. While reproductions and reprints exist, only the original 16 giant cards signed by the players themselves hold the true historical importance. For fans and investors alike, owning an authentic 1964 Topps giant in high grade is seen as obtaining a true piece of the origins of the modern sports collecting phenomenon. Over 50 years later, their mystique endures and their prices continue climbing steadily higher.

The 1964 Topps giant cards were a true innovation that helped propel the entire sports memorabilia industry forward. By showcasing the era’s greatest stars in unprecedented oversized glory, and including their actual autographed signatures, Topps created 16 veritable “works of art” that have only grown in rarity, value and importance over the decades. They defined what a premium memorabilia product could be and set in motion a multi-billion dollar industry. For collectors, the giants remain the unsung heroes of the hobby – icons in their own right that continue to captivate both casual and die-hard fans alike with their impressive combination of historical significance, rarity and visual impact. Their legacy is cemented as perhaps the most coveted collectibles in the entire sports card realm.