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Collecting Tips: Old versus New Cards
Should I buy old or new cards? When the card market turned down in the late 1980s and 1990s � exacerbated by the baseball strike of
1994 � cards issued prior to 1980 held their value far better than newer products. One of the major concerns for many was the abundance
of sets and the quantity of cards produced at the height of the card craze. It was often difficult to decide on what cards or sets to
buy. In the "old" days of the 40s, 50s and the 60s, for instance, sets were smaller in number (the 1948 Bowman set was only 48 cards
and the 1960 Topps set was 572 cards); and far fewer were produced. For many of those years, there was only one national card
manufacturer, although other companies occasionally produced "regional" issues. Thanks to moms who trashed thousands and thousands
of cards, fewer collections survived. The same is true, of course, for cards that go back into the 1930s and to the wonderful era of
the tobacco cards in the early 1900s. Consequently, a growing number of collectors elect to focus on cards of Jackie Robinson, Hank
Aaron, Mickey Mantle and other stars and common players from the "older" days.
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