Jackie Robinson Vintage Baseball Cards & Memorabilia

As you know, today is the official release date of the Jackie Robinson biopic "42".  So, if you are True Blue then I suggest making some time available to watch it soon.  Overall, I found it entertaining, but it's hardly a masterpiece.  That being said, I'll leave my detailed comments for my review that will come this weekend.

For this post, I wanted to highlight some collectibles featuring Jackie Robinson from my collection, as well as a look at his more well known vintage Baseball cards.

Since the start of this blog in 2006 I have always made it known how much of a "homer" I am for Jackie, and since I am an admitted compulsive collector it is only natural that I would seek out collectibles featuring the Hall of Famer.  My collection is wide and varied, but over the years I had already posted up many of them.  So, instead of reposting pics from my collection to share with you, I figured I would provide links to many of those old blog post.  See them below.

• Jackie Robinson cards including a Venezuelan Retirado card, an Old Gold advertising card and 1947 Bond Bread card.
• Some oddball magazines and postcard.
• Jackie related advertising blotters and a novelty game.
• The complete run of Jackie Robinson comic books.

Now, let's take a look at his more well known Baseball cards.  I figured there were a lot of folks out there who have never seen these vintage wonders.  FYI, there is one set of 13 cards featuring Jackie Robinson that I do not show below.  They are the 1947 Bond Bread set that shows Jackie in 13 different poses.  They are exceptionally rare and very costly, in any condition.  You can see the one card I have in the top link above and see some of those other cards from a past post here.

As for his rookie card, I think it is clearly his 1948 Leaf card.  It is his first card to be made widely available to all.

1948 Leaf

Before Topps there was Bowman, and for several years they were the only game in town.  As a result, they created a couple of Jackie Robinson cards that remain highly sought after.

1949 Bowman                                           1950 Bowman

The Berk Ross card has quietly increased in value over the years, after once being considered a lesser set relegated to oddball collectors.  Now, it stands as one of the marquee sets of the decade.  His first Topps cards came in 1952.  It is clearly the most costly of all his cards on the market, but that has more to do (in my opinion) with this card being a part of the extremely rare "high-number" series of the set. 

1952 Berk Ross                                          1952 Topps

1953 Topps                                              1954 Topps

 1955 Topps

 1956 Topps

This may be one of the more plentiful Jackie cards on the market.  These are postcard sized and were distributed through vending machines throughout the country.  Furthermore, Jackie's were printed over a period of several years, likely starting near the beginning of his career til the day he retired from the game.

1947-1966 Exhibit

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