How do you determain what date a card was made?

loanshark

I am new to this forum but my young son, Loan Shark Jr., is interested in sending in some of his baseball cards for grading. He has a Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox outfielder card, Topps #319 that we are trying to date.

Anybody got a clue when it was made and what it might be worth?

Loan Shark

wallst32

That's from the 1991 Topps Archive set; no idea on the value.

helionaut

In general, the stats shown on the back are from the year before, so add one and you've got the year of the card. If you've got a card showing stats for the year 1952, then its a 1953 card. The copyright date also usually works, too, but not always, especially for more recent sets. In the case of your Ted Williams card, yes, wallst is correct. Does it look like the card in this auction? If so, then the value is about a buck or so. It's from the 1993 Topps Archives set which reprinted almost every card in the 1953 Topps set, and added some players who weren't included in it, such as Teddy Ballgame. It's not a rare set by any means, and not very popular either, so the price is low, even for an elite player.

You named your son Loan? With a cool surname like Shark, I would've gone with Tiger, or Mako, or something along those lines.