Card files index

Each card file on this site covers one card: its set and card number, why collectors care about it, a dated PSA population snapshot and public auction results, with every figure linked to its source. This index lists all of them. It is generated from the card pages themselves each time the site is built, so a card appears here only once its page is published — there are no placeholder entries for cards still being researched.

All card files by sport and year

Baseball

Basketball

The year is the issue year shown in each card's fact box. A form such as 2019-20 is a season, and “c. 1919–1921” marks a set whose exact issue year is not fixed. The set column gives the card count and, for prewar issues, the catalog code collectors use (explained below).

A century of cards on one line

The timeline places each card file by issue year against a few dates from card-collecting history. It is redrawn automatically when a new card file is added.

Card files (red circles):

1. 1919-21 W514 strip cards & Joe Jackson — c. 1919–1921
2. 1934 Goudey Lou Gehrig #61 — 1934
3. 1939 Play Ball Mel Ott #51 — 1939
4. 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 — 1952
5. 1956 Topps Hank Aaron #31 — 1956
6. 1956 Topps Willie Mays #130 — 1956
7. 1959 Topps Willie Mays #50 — 1959
8. 1961 Topps Mickey Mantle #300 — 1961
9. 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan #57 — 1986-87
10. 2019-20 Hoops Zion Williamson #296 Purple — 2019-20

Events (lettered squares):

1. 1880s — tobacco companies issue baseball trade cards; the cards also stiffen soft cigarette packs (The Met).
2. 1890 — the American Tobacco Company forms and essentially stops making trade cards until 1909 (The Met).
3. 1909–11 — the American Tobacco Company's White Border series, catalogued T206, with more than 500 baseball cards (The Met).
4. 1930s — gum companies overtake tobacco makers as the leading producers of baseball cards (The Met).
5. 1939 — first edition of Jefferson Burdick's American Card Catalog, 500 copies (cllct).
6. 1948 — Burdick begins giving his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (cllct; the Met says the late 1940s).

Shading: left band, before about 1930 — tobacco, early candy/caramel and strip issues (American Card Catalog letters N, T, E, W); right band, from about 1930 — candy and gum issues (letter R), per Pre-War Cards' summary of the catalog.

How to read a card file

Every card file opens with the same “Card file” box, styled like the back of a vintage card. Its fields mean:

Below the box, each card file has a population table read in a stated month (see how to read a population report) and a table of notable public sales, with prices as reported and generally including buyer's premium (see how card auctions work).

Terms the card files use

• Series. Some sets went out in batches during the year, and a late batch can be much scarcer than the rest. PSA's CardFacts page for 1952 Topps calls the sixth and final series, #311–407, rare: it was only minimally distributed because retailers scaled back orders in expectation of weaker late-season sales.
• Variation. The same card printed two ways. T206Cards.com notes that every 1956 Topps card from #1 to #180 exists with its back printed on white/cream stock or on gray stock, and that for #1–100 the gray back is slightly scarcer. Graders track the two separately.
• Subset. A themed run inside a set. Checklist Center lists 2019-20 Panini NBA Hoops at 300 cards, with #281–300 headed “Hoops Tribute”; Zion Williamson appears at #258 in the base checklist and at #296 in the tribute run.
• Parallel. A recoloured version of a base card. The same checklist lists a Purple parallel for that Hoops set without a print run, while it gives print runs for some other parallels.
• Strip card. According to Just Collect, strip cards were usually handed out with candy purchases at drug and grocery stores, in strips of ten that children cut apart; the W514 set had 120 cards.

Catalog codes on prewar cards

Codes such as T206, R320 and W514 come from the American Card Catalog, compiled by Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963), a Syracuse-based electrician. cllct reports that the first edition appeared in 1939 in a run of 500 copies. Burdick gave his own collection — more than 300,000 items of printed ephemera, according to The Met — to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, beginning in 1948 (cllct; the Met's essay says the late 1940s). The museum required him to organize it into albums himself, a task that took about fifteen years. The Met's essay notes that collectors still use the cataloguing system he devised, and the museum's own records use it: its 1934 Goudey Hank Greenberg card is catalogued in the R320 series.

The number after the letter is a catalog sequence, not a year: Pre-War Cards notes that Burdick numbered issues as he found them (T1, T2 and so on), not by date. The letters also follow a change The Met describes. Tobacco companies issued baseball trade cards from the 1880s; after the American Tobacco Company formed in 1890 it essentially stopped making them until 1909; and by the 1930s gum companies had overtaken tobacco makers as the leading producers of baseball cards.

Using a card file well

1. Match the exact card — year, set, number and any variation or parallel. A gray back and a white back are different entries.
2. Note the month on any population figure, then re-check the grader's live report before relying on it.
3. Read sale prices as reported and check whether they include buyer's premium; compare the same grader and grade.
4. Before buying a slab, verify the cert number and check the holder against the fake-slab red flags.
5. Open the sources at the bottom of the card file. Every figure is a dated snapshot and may have changed since it was read.