This is my attempt to catalog vintage basketball cards. Most of the cards listed are oddball, but if you notice there are a tremendous amount of sets out there. Sure there are sets that are almost impossible to obtain, but there are tons of undervalued sets out there.
Basketball was in its infancy during the early years. Baseball dominated the sports scene, and as you can guess basketball cards were far and few between. This is evident as the only national issues were in 1948, 1957, 1962, and after 1969 Topps started annual production. I would argue that Kahn's were "regular issues" because they were not limited to a specific region, and included cards from across the league. Limited products, limited print runs, and limited quality make vintage basketball cards are a true value if you collect vintage cards.
I would like to introduce the average collector to vintage basketball, and maybe even throw a nugget of information to the veteran within the pages of this website. I believe I have every card in the checklists, but if you see a missing card let me know!
Also a small note on my particular definition of a basketball card. To me if the card is the size of a piece of paper, it is vintage memoribilia and not a vintage card. This memoribilia is fun and collected by vintage collectors, but I don't consider cut out advertisements as cards. Great pieces like the ever popular Enamaline Boy, early post cards, bread issues, discs, etc. are great, but I have excluded them from the checklists.
Click on a link to one of the sets below for more information:
1909-1911 Murad Cigarettes College Series
1924 Willard Chocolates Card (Candian)
1925 Dominion Chocolates Card (Candian)
1932 C.A. Briggs Chocolate Basketball Card
1933 Sports Kings
1935 Wheaties
1948 Kellogg's
1948 Kellogg's PEP Card
1948 & 1949 Exhibits Sports Champions
1948 Topps Magic Photos
1950 Scott's Potato Chips
1951 Berk Ross
1952 Royal Desserts
1952 Wheaties
1954 Gunther Beer
1954 Quaker Sports Oddities
1955 Ashland / Aetna Oil
1956 Topps Adventure Basketball Card
1959 Hawks Busch Bavarian
1959 Comet Sweets Olympic Achievments Card
1960 Post Cereal
1960 & 1961 Bell Brand
1961 Hawks Essex Meats
1968 Jewish Sports Champions
1968 - 1972 Suns Carnation Milk
1968 Partridge Meats
1968/69 Jack in the Box
1968 Topps Test
1969 Converse Staff
There were team issues released pre-1970, and I have attempted to list the checklists here.
After 1970 there were numberous team issues released, and I am going to attempt to list the major issues. If you have any information or scans from other issues in the 1970's I will research them and post them.
1970 A-1 Beer Cards
1971 Harleem Globetrotters Cocca Puffs
1971 Keds KedKards
1971 Topps Trios
1972/73 Comspec
1972/73 Icee Bear
1974 and 1975 Nabisco Sugar Daddy
1977 Sportscaster
1978 RC Cola
Kahn's is probably the most collected vintage basketball series. They have sets from 1957 to 1965, and I think these can be considered mainstream cards. I have their lists seperatly because I don't think they meet the definition of "oddball".
1957/58 Kahn's
1958/59 Kahn's
1959/60 Kahn's
1960/61 Kahn's
1961/62 Kahn's
1962/63 Kahn's
1963/64 Kahn's
1964/65 Kahn's
1965/66 Kahn's
These are considered "mainstream" sets. These sets are more common than the oddball pieces, but are still rarer than baseball or even football sets from that era. I am even going to keep my comments to myself on these (mostly!).
1948 Bowman
1957/58 Topps
1961 Fleer
1969/70 Topps
If you have any questions, comments, or stories please e-mail me. If you have a story please let me know and I will post it on this site!
Here are a list of sites that might be helpful for more information. Also listed are links to thank people for sending me scans of cards. If you send me some good information, a story, or a scan of a card I do not have I will list your site here.
Back to the main page Click Here
