collected over the past 20+ years, many from the collection of Steinbach who travelled to venezuela yearly to uncover these gems in the 1980s and 1990s.
1959 Topps venezuelan (198) the premier issue of topps cards in venezuela. using the same images and design, these cards were printed in venezuela on cheaper cardboard stock. all cards can be found on both gray stock and cream color stock. some cards have english copyright while others have spanish copyright (no cards have both). High numbers (111-198) are especially difficult to find.
1960 Topps venezuelan (198) cards were printed on cheaper stock with variations in color/quality. design is the same as regular issue and cards can be difficult to tell apart. venezuelan issue is limited to 198 cards and surfaces have no gloss. The last two pics show some print error, including rare wrongback. This partial set of 178/198 was sold at REA 2014 spring auction for $1778 (excluding the printing errors).
1962 Topps venezuelan (198, including #1-#196, #199, #200) Again the same design on front, but backs are all in spanish, making the set very sought after. again, hard to find in nice condition due to low quality cardboard. many cards hampered by glue on back from packaging. locally, they started pasting in albums, further creating condition challenges. Cards #197 and #198 were replaced with elio chacon (#199) and luis aparacio (#200), two popular VENEZUELAN major leaguers. this partial set of 180/198 was sold at rea 2014 spring auction for $2015.
1964 Topps venezuelan (370) Printed on low quality cardboard, this set may be the most difficult to put together in high condition. an album was distributed to house the cards, and kids dutifully taped and glued them in. Cards from this set are being sold individually. About 1/4 remain.
1966 Topps venezuelan (370) this set looks much like the US issue, but the backs are darker red-orange (salmon) color. the fronts do not have gloss. cards were typically taped and/or glued into albums made specifically for these cards. finding in good shape without back damage is especially difficult.
1966 topps venezuelan (303/370) in album shown here is a partial album of 303/370 with the cards pasted in. a few are even autographed, including luis aparicio and pete Rose. Sold for $2133 in 2014 REA spring auction.
1967 Venezuelan winter league set (SPORT GRAFICO) similar in design to the 1967 Topps, this set contains winter league players, including many mLB players, some long before they played in the MaJORS. backs are written in spanish; typically red backs, one card #60 Fernandez has a blue back like the 1967 topps venezuelan cards.
1967 Topps venezuelan and Retirado (Sport Grafico) these cards are the same photos and front design as us counterparts, but very little border; therefore, slightly smaller. backs are totally different design, text written in spanish with no statistics. numbers differ as well. some suggest these were not even produced by topps. Still great cards, if you can find them! As noted below, many were dutifully glue and/or taped into albums making clean backs difficult to find. Retirado set was produced for former star players. NUMBERING CONTINUES FROM THE WINTER LEAGUE SET, FOLLOWED BY THE RETIRADO SET.
1968 Topps venezuelan (370) 1968 is the last year of topps venezuelan issues. front and back of cards are the same except for slightly different colored backs and copyright in spanish. very tough to find in nice shape without back damage.