1956 Topps switch-hitters and predictable inconsistency

This week, a wolf in sheep's Orioles clothing arrived at my front door.

A friend of mine sent 1956 Topps #103 Willie Miranda to help chip away at my variations wantlist. I added 1956's white and grey backs this year to inject some life into my postwar collection and Miranda's white back fits the bill. Let's check it out.

Always fun to examine stats and cartoons, right? "Upsy daisy!" There's one you don't hear in baseball. And then...

Huh, "L. & R." looks odd. Shouldn't that say "both" or "switch" or something? Let's check 1956's best-known switch-hitter.

The Mick shows a "both" like we expect. This is discomfiting. Did Topps let something simple like switch-hitting consistency fall between the cracks? There's one way to find out. Let's run through them in order.

#51 Oravetz agrees with Willie Miranda, left and right.

#165 matches Mantle. Now we have multiples of each.

Robin Roberts, our first "both" switch-hitting pitcher! (And as for variations, Roberts marks 1956's "end" of #1-180 white/grey backs.)

Dave Philley gives me a growing sense of "both" consistency. Perhaps "L. & R." ended with Oravetz and Miranda.

Another "both" switch-hitting pitcher! There's a book waiting to be written about these multitalented gentlemen.

1956's second-best-known "both" switch-hitter, Flash Gilliam.

Our third both-hitting pitcher, Steve Gromek, would've been 100 this year. I have to ask about that middle cartoon. Is 18-16 a brilliant record? His stat sheet shows a solid year, but 1955 Gromek also led the AL in homers allowed, the majors in balks, and struck out just 102. I'm glad we're focused on how he hits.

One to go!

Whaaaaa--Topps throws me their best curve with an "L. & R." switch-hitting pitcher to cap the set. After hitting a nice groove, 1956 Topps fell back into its Oravetz-Miranda ways right at the end. What a Wiesler.

For a set I thought we knew inside and out, finding this nugget makes our hobby's best designers seem more human. Seeing amazing card...

...after amazing card...

...and yet with Easter eggs for us to enjoy decades later. (My standards for "amazing" are, "Is a player leaping? Are there outfield billboard ads?")

In search of an explanation, let's check how Topps treated these guys in 1955.

• #51 Oravetz: No 1955 Topps
• #103 Miranda: "L. & R." on 1955 #154
• #135 Mantle: No 1955 Topps
• #165 Schoendienst: No 1955 Topps
• #180 Roberts: No 1955 Topps
• #222 Philley: No 1955 Topps
• #227 Meyer: No 1955 Topps
• #280 Gilliam: "R & L" on 1955 #5
• #310 Gromek: No 1955 Topps
• #327 Wiesler: No 1955 Topps

Thanks to their Bowman licensing battle, just two of these players appeared in each Topps set. While Willie Miranda looks the same, Gilliam found yet another way to switch-hit. So much for predictable inconsistency!

Thanks for following this unusual path with me. I will be sure to think about it the next several times I flip a card over to read the cartoons.

1974 Bra-Mac 1931 Philadelphia Athletics baseball #5, Al Simmons

George Brace spent sixty-five years of his life behind the camera lens at Chicago ballparks. He shot players at almost every Cubs and White Sox home series, often visiting each park on the same day. His work, both before and after colleague George Burke died in 1951, built an archive of a million-plus baseball photos that continue offering insight to many eras of our national game.

1930s George Burke/Brace photo, Lou Gehrig

That the same guy photographed Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken is jaw-dropping in baseball scale.

1980s George Brace photo, Cal Ripken Sr.

Oh and also the other Cal Ripken. This was the one I could tie to Brace. :-)

While MLB teams and players purchased many of Brace's photos for their own use, evolving technology allowed Brace himself to create direct-to-collector sets in 1974. He and Bill McAlister formed The Card Collector Company to sell batches of colorized photos from his extensive archive of negatives under the name Bra-Mac.

Ad for first series of 1930s Bra-Mac cards

This first group of eight grew into 288 total, all with a design that's unique to Bra-Mac. Note these colorized photos are distinct from the black-and-white Bra-Mac NL All-Stars set, which profiled National League players from 1933's All-Star Game.

1974 Bra-Mac 1933 NL All-Stars #5, Tony Cuccinello

After releasing their largest set of 288 colorized 1930s photos, Bra-Mac made several smaller, team-specific sets. Today's #5 hails from their "1931 Philadelphia Athletics" series.

1974 Bra-Mac "1931 Philadelphia A's" #5, Al Simmons (3"x5")

Each of Bra-Mac's colorized cards use photo paper and show what appear to be Dymo label nameplates and two pinholes.

Everyone else remember Dymo labels? If you don't, see this retro write-up.

That's not a real Dymo label on my Al Simmons, it's a photo of a Dymo label. I believe Bra-Mac followed this process creating each card.

1. Develop a source photo from its original negative
2. Add color to the developed photo, using the "new color technique" George mentions in his ad
3. Let the source photo dry (I think those two pinholes are the hanging points)
4. Create a Dymo label with name and number and stick it to the photo
5. Take a new photo of this marked-up photo
6. Develop the new photo for inclusion in the 8-card set & print sets to meet demand

All this handwork explains why he charged $3 for eight photos when Topps sold packs for a nickel. If Bra-Mac moved enough sets, they'd make a profit at some point. You just need patience, developing materials, and sufficient collector demand.

George Brace wrote a short article in The Collector Talks newsletter about these colorized Bra-Mac sets and some of his history working with George Burke and MLB players.

I found these ad and article scans in a Net54 discussion of Brace and his Bra-Mac work. As mentioned in that thread, nailing down a checklist for these cards proves tough, even today. I know of these via catalogs and other collectors.

• 1974 Bra-Mac "Players of the 1930s" (numbered to 288 + several "bonus" multiplayer cards)
• 1974 Bra-Mac "Players of the 1940s" (unnumbered, perhaps 50 total?)
• 1974 Bra-Mac 1931 St. Louis Cardinals (20 cards)
• 1974 Bra-Mac 1931 Philadelphia A's (20? cards)
• 1974 Bra-Mac 1939-40 Cincinnati Reds (48 cards)
• 1974 Bra-Mac 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates (26 cards)
• 1974 Bra-Mac 1938 Chicago Cubs (29 cards)
• 1974 Bra-Mac 1930s-40s Browns (? cards)
• 1974 (?) Hall of Famers (37 cards, 3"x5" or 5"x7")
• 1974 (?) team photos: 1889 Boston, 1889 Philadelphia, 1898 New York, 1898 Louisville, 1914 Braves and 1915 Red Sox (all 5"x7")
• 1974 (?) multiplayer cards in postcard or 5"x7" format (30 cards)

Max Lanier shows relative size for some of Brace's formats and his large photos appear to be scarcer.

As of this writing, I own about 20 of the 3"x5" "Players of the 1930s" and type cards from a couple of other sets. When (and if) in-person card shows come back from COVID, I look forward to hunting oddball and photo dealers for more.

Has anyone made a serious run at completing these sets in the 21st century? Let me know if you have! Check out George Brace's obituary for a bit more on his life.

UPDATE: Found a card of George Brace himself! He caps the 149-card, 2003 set of Jewish Major Leaguers, a comprehensive direct-to-collector issue of Jewish baseball players and figures important to the game. Brace's daughter contributed a number of its images from their archive.

Value: You can find common players for under $10 on eBay and other card sites. I bought #5 Al Simmons for $40 and another #5 type for $10 from Larry Fritsch Cards, who I believe purchased Bra-Mac leftovers from George Brace decades ago and continue to sell them one-by-one. Search their downloadable catalog for "Bra-Mac" to see those listings.

Fakes/reprints: Bra-Mac photos are so unusual and little-known that it would be tough to find willing buyers for reprints. That said, there's always a chance where Gehrig or Ruth are concerned. Based on the cards I own, look for real photo paper and glossy finish. I haven't seen any Bra-Macs that used card stock.

Baseball for Halloween

Thanks to COVID and an October 30 snowstorm in New England, Halloween didn't happen this year for us. Our neighborhood did its best to decorate yards and we carved a pumpkin, but I didn't see any kids trick-or-treating. Our city also canceled outdoor event permits for the remainder of 2020, so we knew in advance the traditional neighborhood block party would wait a year.

For lack of excitement, I searched bygone Halloweens for baseball inspiration. I remember dressing up as a Chicago Cub at least once around age 11 and wish I still owned the photos to prove it. If that happened again, count on me to be this guy.

Cubs fan in McCovey Cove, circa 2016

I did come across some baseball costumes from my 2004 trip to New York City's Halloween Parade. You might remember that was the same week Boston won their first World Series title since 1918 and parade-goers did not waste their opportunity. This couple went as two inspirational characters.

Wonder Woman & Johnny Damon

For the all personalities the Red Sox put on the field that year, from Manny Ramirez to Pedro Martinez to Curt Schilling, I think more fans identified with Johnny Damon. His shaggy hair and hey-that-guy's-better-than-you'd-think performances clicked with a lot of people.

The early 2000s brought a lot of Curse of the Bambino back to our cultural conversation. Boston vandals turned a local thoroughfare's "Reverse Curve" caution into a "Reverse The Curse" stump speech. Each time city officials painted over the scrawl, it was back to the Red Sox version with a day or two.

Boston's Storrow Drive, circa 2003-4

I'm sure this New York couple was one of many who put the curse to rest that Halloween. Perhaps he also lost a bet that involved doing all the household chores for 80+ years.

Curt Schilling's bloody sock exorcises the Babe's ghost

Here's former Governor Mitt Romney helping take down Boston's "Reversed The Curse" sign that year. (While I don't know what became of this original, you can buy recreations on etsy and elsewhere.)

Despite all of New York and Boston's bad blood, there's one Yankee costume I'd consider wearing in future years, best personified by this 1973 Topps custom card.

Anyone add some baseball flair to their Halloween?

Where did 1933 Big League Gum #106 Nap Lajoie come from?

Introduction

Welcome to another article about Goudey Gum and its 1930s business choices! They continue to fascinate me as an American company (born from Canadian roots) that used chewing gum innovations to succeed during the Great Depression, one of history's toughest times to make a buck.

We often think of card makers like Goudey and Topps as driving the hobby forward by injecting "fun" into packs of cardboard and gum. While those companies mean a lot to those end products, they share the road with us, the collectors who buy their stuff. When I think of what we contribute, I think of Nap Lajoie.

1933 Goudey Big League Gum #106, Napoleon Lajoie

If you know #106 at all, you know it as one of our hobby's treasured rarities. When we fantasize about "owning a Lajoie," most of us mean this one. He's a prize, in part, because collectors demanded his creation. If you don't know that origin story, I recommend starting with Anson Whaley's 7 fun facts about the Nap Lajoie 1933 Goudey card. Today's article covers that card's larger context and a "deadline trade" that I believe made him so hard to find.

1933's best-laid plans

Leo "The Lip" Durocher first served as the Big League Gum #106 proof card, but just at first. Prior to final printing, Goudey removed #106 from its 24-card sheet and added a second #144 Ruth, seeking to satisfy buyer demand for the Babe. Durocher's own number changed to #147, leaving a new hole in the checklist.

Keith Olbermann, owner of this #106 proof, shared these images in a 2019 Twitter thread.

Note #106 Durocher's uneven edges, hand-cut from the proof sheet

By 1934, enough frustrated collectors complained to Goudey about a missing #106 that they created a real one, featuring Napoleon Lajoie, to hold and enjoy. There's our man alongside 1934 Big League Gum's fourth series, its scarcer "high numbers" (#73-96).

While this means Goudey printed as many 1933 #106 cards as they did 1934 Bill Werbers, Lajoie never went into wax packs. We can assume all copies available today came from 1930s mail-in requests or from Goudey's leftover stock sale in the 1960s. It's a good bet they discarded or destroyed the remainder. (Ouch, babe.)

Designing a white whale

When Goudey yielded to demand and decided to create the missing #106, they assembled it from a melange of 1933 and 1934 Big League Gum elements. On the front, Larry's sliding silhouette mimicked 1934 #65 Cliff Bolton.

Lajoie's back bio uses quote marks, as seen on 1934 "Lou Gehrig says..." cards. While the "G. G. Co © 1934" stamp also carried over, Goudey put it below 1933's "series of 240" footer, since #106 filled a gap in that set.

So that's why #106, you say. But why Lajoie, you ask? Check out that front again.

There's our Cliff Bolton slide alongside slimmer-than-1933 name lettering and a big empty shirt space where something else could be. That big jersey space reminded me of a different Goudey set: 1933-34 Sport Kings Gum.

1933 Goudey Sport Kings Gum #3, Babe Ruth

Sport Kings Gum covered a range of "Stars and Champs of Today and Yesterday" across two series, one released in late 1933 and the other in early 1934. Two baseball players appear in series one (Ruth, Cobb) and one in series two (Carl Hubbell). A few Sport Kings, like the Babe and Hubbell, were still active and doing their thing. Many others, like Cobb, were years removed from their famous professions or achievements.

1933 Sport Kings Gum series one window advertisement

I see Sport Kings Gum as a nostalgia pitch to older fans who remembered the 1910s and 1920s. Goudey also used it to sneak another Babe Ruth into 1933 before their license to use his image expired. That makes six different 1933 Goudey Ruths, if you count four Big League Gum cards and this mail-in premium.

1933 Goudey R309-1 premium, Babe Ruth

Pulled from the cold case files

While Big League Gum focused on active ballplayers, Sport Kings Gum covered people foundational to sports and culture in general, like Duke Kahanamoku, Babe Didrickson, and Jim Thorpe. Seeing how Lajoie's career lasted from 1896 to 1916, that's the mold he fits. Back in 1933, Nap's last on-card appearance was already a dozen years old and described him as "former 2nd base."

1919-21 W514, Nap Lajoie

So if Lajoie should've been in Sport Kings, why wasn't he? I suspect Big League Gum proved so popular that it changed Goudey's original plans.

Trading at the deadline

Jason Schwartz's "An alternate history of 1933 Goudey" describes the midseason scramble surrounding Big League Gum in great detail. While I recommend reading the whole thing, focus on three points.

• Goudey's first five series cover 120 cards, half of their promised "series of 240," with no duplicate players
• Thanks to baseball mania surrounding Chicago's "Century of Progress" exposition and MLB's first All-Star Game, Goudey sold more gum cards in 1933 than in any other year
• Big League Gum's art style changed in late 1933 and became close to that seen on 1934, implying cards released a year ahead of plan

Sport Kings Gum's first series (#1-24) came out in late 1933, at about the same time Big League Gum's final series, allowing Goudey to compare results. Since Big League Gum's final series included all World Series players, 12 each Giants and Senators, they also gave New York ace Carl Hubbell his second card in the set.

1933 Big League Gum #234, Carl Hubbell

It's easy to imagine strong sales for a series of World Series players, King Carl included. If so, you can guess what came next.

Card Hubbell, circa 1933 World Series

1934 Sport Kings Gum #42, Carl Hubbell

I think Goudey had Sport Kings Gum series two (#25-48) ready to go with Lajoie at #42 and just bumped him in favor of New York's new World Champion and 1933 NL MVP. After all, Lajoie hadn't played baseball in 17 years. Give kids more of what they want!

That move left orphaned Lajoie art available for other purposes, like filling the gap at #106. While I doubt they predicted needing it later, Goudey's opportunism allowed them to avoid wasting completed work. Add some bits of 1933-34 design, slip it onto a Big League Gum print sheet, and move on to the next thing.

I can do more than just argue for Lajoie with words and phrases. Let's take him all the way home with some custom card work.

Now that's a Sport King we can root for. Slide, Larry, slide!

Conclusion

I never felt at ease with the idea of Lajoie dropping unexplained into a set otherwise full of active -- or at least recent -- players. It fails the sniff test for a company that made decisions with the bottom line in mind.

Knowing what we know about Goudey's business practices, set construction, and 1933 sales, I believe this series of events explains Napoleon Lajoie's appearance on 1933 Big League Gum #106. Other collectors and historians may disagree and alternative ideas are welcome. Either way, loving that look of Nap under a Sport Kings Gum banner.

1933 World Wide Gum Sea Raider Gum #5, Fight For Supremacy

Yarrrrrrrrrr!

Sea Raider Gum, a 48-card set of pirates and the seafaring life, fits into a family with three siblings from 1932 and 1933: World Wide Gum's Jungle Gum (wildlife), Goudey's Big League Gum (baseball), and Indian Gum (western). All use similar layouts and art style, which implies a design approach shared across two companies: World Wide Gum (pirates and wildlife) and Goudey Gum (western and baseball).

1933 World Wide Gum Sea Raider Gum #5, Fight For Supremacy

1932 World Wide Gum Jungle Gum #13, Hooded Cobra

1932 - 1940 Goudey Indian Gum #87, Kichai Tribe

1933 Goudey Big League Gum #155, Joe Judge

Placing all four sets in order proves tricky. Sea Raider Gum bears a © 1933 seal on the front, as does Big League Gum and some Indian Gum cards. Jungle Gum omits © and any dates. Some catalogs place Jungle Gum in 1930, which seems an obvious error, as chewing gum recipes suitable for packing with cards came along two years later. 1932 or 1933 makes better sense, given its similarity to those three dated sets.

1933 Goudey Big League Gum (back detail)

Big League Gum card backs declare "made by the originators of Indian Gum," so we know Goudey released their western life cards before baseball. I think Indian Gum debuted in late 1932, thanks to this on-card reference and 1970 memories of an original 1933 collector.

Most 1930s gum companies distributed groups of 24 cards at a time, giving them flexibility to end production and avoid piling up excess inventory when kids stopped buying. It feels logical that Goudey and WWG released their four sets in this order.

1. 1932 Jungle Gum: Two series of 24 cards (48 total) by World Wide Gum in Boston. Never appeared under Goudey name.
2. 1932 - 1940 Indian Gum: Multi-year set distributed in groups of 24 (216 total) by Goudey. Never appeared under World Wide Gum name.
3. 1933 Sea Raider Gum: Two series of 24 cards (48 total) by World Wide Gum, printed in Boston (#1-24) and Montreal (#1-48). Never appeared under Goudey name.
4. 1933 Big League Gum: Ten series of 24 cards (#1-240) by Goudey. World Wide Gum printed 94 of these cards in Montreal under their name for Canadian distribution and did more or less the same in 1934 (using a mix of 1933 & 1934 designs).

Links between Indian and Sea Raider Gum

Indian Gum and Sea Raider Gum share commonalities beyond their nostalgic (and often bloody) themes. One group of Indian Gum (#25-48) appeared with either blue or red banners, an exception to the red banner seen on all other series.

1932 - 1940 Goudey Indian Gum (blue front)

These blue Indian Gum fronts lack © 1933 insignia and could well come from a simultaneous print run with Sea Raiders, which itself went through four variations. Kevin Glew's PSA set profile includes this handy breakdown.

World Wide Gum printed Sea Raider Gum's first series in Boston and Montreal, followed by #25-48 just in Montreal. Their unusual combo of "Printed in U.S.A." and "Montreal" tells us WWG made a significant move during production.

Origins of World Wide Gum

Hobby tradition calls World Wide Gum "Canadian Goudey" as an assumed north-of-the-border subsidiary. Was it? I investigated that question in "What we call 'Canadian Goudey'" and found more nuance.

If World Wide Gum behaved as a subsidiary, you'd expect Goudey sets to appear in Canada. World Wide Gum seems more like the 1960s-90s Topps and O-Pee-Chee relationship. WWG created their own stuff, licensed what they wanted from Goudey, and left behind what they didn't.

Recall that Goudey Gum founder (and Canadian native) Enos Goudey sold his gum company to a larger manufacturer in 1932. Companies going through this kind of transition often lose employees that don't want to work under new owners. My Canadian Goudey article described how a group of former Goudey Gum staffers, led by Alvin Livingstone, launched card competitor National Chicle in late 1933. DeLong Gum, founded by Goudey Gum's ex-treasurer, followed the same path.

I think this 1932 sale also kicked off World Wide Gum and plans for card production in Quebec to take advantage of Enos Goudey's Canadian connections. As shown above, Sea Raider Gum headed north mid-production. I find it interesting WWG licensed Big League Gum for 1933 and not Indian Gum, given that set's American success, and posit a theory why later in this post.

Yo ho ho and barrel of numbers

Cards printed in Montreal appear in English or English/French, as on this Pirate's Legacy treasure map. (Whether pirates ever made maps remains a separate issue.)

Sea Raiders #45, Pirate's Legacy (Bilingual)

Look close at that text footer. Sea Raider Gum claimed "a series of 192," a common overstatement of set size used by Goudey and World Wide Gum in the 1930s. Its Boston wrapper claimed "series of 240." Was that indeed what they had in mind?

1933 World Wide Gum Sea Raider(s) Gum wrapper (Boston)

Indian Gum provides a comparison. As it sold more cards, Goudey accelerated set sizes throughout the decade, adding new groups of 24 cards with updated "series of" text on their card back footers.

Starting with "series of 192," which could well have hit stores in mid-1933, Goudey overstated the amount of available cards by a considerable margin. They also changed its approach to numbering, as "Series of 192" contains just 48 skip-numbered cards from #25 to #141, a clear attempt to imply kids could fill gaps that didn't exist.

Even after promising a "series of 312" by its last series, released around 1940, Indian Gum contains just 216 different cards. If you pursue a master set, many numbers include multiple back variations thanks to those series sizes.

While shorter at just 48 cards, Sea Raider Gum took the same approach. I bet this "series of 192 cards" coincided with an Indian Gum run of similar advertised size.

So why just 48 cards?

Kids like pirates and seafaring stuff, so I doubt Sea Raiders failed to sell. They're exciting just to look at!

Sea Raiders Gum #3, Pirate Galleon

Earlier, we asked why World Wide Gum didn't release Indian Gum in Canada, given its ongoing sales and growth in America. I think they lacked resources for multiple sets and ran into a unique situation that year. Their move from Boston to Montreal implies significant work getting a new location off the ground. I propose this 1933 timeline, based on Goudey and WWG sets released that year.

• Jan/Feb: Start printing Sea Raiders Gum #1-24 in Boston
• Mar/Apr: Move to Montreal underway, #1-24 printing in each location
• May: Print #25-48 in Montreal with English and bilingual backs
• May/June: WWG sees high American demand for Big League Gum and licenses four of Goudey's sheets for printing in Montreal, which halts work on Sea Raiders Gum
• June/July/Aug: Print and distribute Big League Gum #1-94 with English and bilingual backs
• Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec: Design, print, and distribute Ice Kings Gum #1-72, a WWG-made hockey set

That fall transition to hockey would occupy World Wide Gum until they licensed more of Goudey's Big League Gum cards for springtime 1934. (Check out "Clue 7" in Jason Schwartz's An alternative history of 1933 Goudey for details of WWG's hybrid 1934 baseball set.)

I find it reasonable that 1933's baseball hype machine, driven by Chicago's "Game of the Century," kept Sea Raider Gum from going further. If Big League Gum sold at a more modest rate, we might've seen no WWG baseball and instead enjoy many more pirate cards today.

What about the set itself?

Like Jungle Gum, Indian Gum, and Big League Gum, Sea Raider Gum contains colorful and exciting poses, some of the best in prewar collecting.

Sea Raiders Gum #13, Walking The Plank

Most conceptions of pirate dress came from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates, a posthumous collection of the prolific artist's seafaring art. Some Sea Raiders cards approximate Pyle's sophisticated scenes and others, like #13, copied him without hesitation.

Walking The Plank, Howard Pyle (1887)

It helps that Pyle's work remained popular across generations and you can flip through scanned editions of his Book of Pirates online. Much of WWG's art copied Pyle and others borrowed from 19th century etchings.

Sea Raider Gum #42, Alwilda

I use a Google spreadsheet to track Sea Raiders card art and welcome your help matching them to sources. Much of Sea Raider Gum's second series art could be inventions of WWG artists to make up for lack of available pictures by Howard Pyle. Many pirates exist as mythic or puffed-up figures, making their caricatures hard to verify as legitimate. Alwilda, for example, fares better as legend than pirate.

Stars of the set

Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, and other pirates of renown rank high with collectors. Kidd's own story runs thick with international and personal complications well beyond what a single card back can describe.

Sea Raiders Gum #2, Captain Kidd (Boston)

My #5 proved cheaper than a "star" like Kidd because it talks about pirate behavior and not an infamous character.

Sea Raider Gum #5, Fight For Supremacy (Boston, with ghosted front ink)

I think World Wide Gum's short run of Sea Raiders produced perhaps one-hundredth of Goudey's seven years of Indian Gum, based on what remains in the market today. A deep-pocketed buyer could acquire thousands of Indian Gum cards, some in large auction lots, yet collectors struggle to finish one series of Sea Raiders. Unless you enjoy years of hunting, I recommend sticking to a type card that appeals to you.

Value: Low-grade commons fetch $20 and higher, depending on its subject. Due to hobby scarcity and competition from map collectors, #45 Pirate's Legacy will run you hundreds for even a low-grade example.

Fakes/reprints: No set reprints exist that I know of. Some cards (like the map) fetch high dollar amounts, so could be vulnerable to counterfeiting. Stick to dealers you trust when looking for its pricier cards.