The Dog Days of Summer - 1954 Red Heart Dog Food Set

 Although the 1954 Red Heart Dog Food baseball card set is not as popular as many of the Topps and Bowman sets of the same era, it's certainly nothing to bark at.  Despite only boasting 33 cards, the 1954 Red Heart Dog Food set is packed with Hall of Fame players; including #1 Richie Ashburn, #9 Nellie Fox, #12 George Kell, #13 Ralph Kiner, #18 Mickey Mantle, #23 Stan Musial, #27 Red Schoendienst, #28 Enos Slaughter, #29 Duke Snider and #30 Warren Spahn.  In fact, both Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial did not appear in the 1954 Topps baseball set. 

Back in 1954, if your dog ate Red Heart Dog Food, then acquiring these baseball cards was easy.  As a premium for serving your dog Red Heart, kids could mail two Red Heart Dog Food labels along with 10 cents to the John Morrell & Company in exchange for one eleven-card series. Each series can be identified by the background color on the front of the card, either red, blue or green; however, cards with a red background do exist in smaller populations.     

In keeping with the dog days of summer, Dean's Cards recently added abeautiful 1954 Red Heart Dog Food complete set  that grades out in Excellent Plus condition.  The cards in this impressive set have very little wear and very nice centering, especially the signature card in the set, #18 Mickey Mantle, which grades out in Excellent/Mint condition.



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Three of a Kind: Baseball Card Sets of the 1950's

1950's Sets in binders at DeansCards.com

What are the odds of coming across 1953 Topps, 1954 Topps, and 1953 Bowman Sets all in the same week? Highly unlikely, but as January comes to a close, the first month of 2011 has set the bar high here at DeansCards.com for the coming months. Within the past few days we've seen three very rare sets come through our front door.


1953 Topps Complete Set

The 1953 Topps Baseball Card Set consists of 274 vintage size cards. Collectors note that this set is nearly impossible to find in pristine condition, as the players name and team panel are easily damaged due to their location near the edge of the card. The set we have on our site proves to be no different, as nearly every card in the set (stars and commons alike) averages somewhere around Good Plus in condition. On the "Up Side", this makes this particular set increasingly affordable.

1954 Topps Complete Set

Containing Rookie Cards of the famed Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Al Kaline, as well as two separate Ted Williams cards, it's safe to say that the 1954 Topps Baseball Set is one of a kind. However which Hall of Famer is oddly absent? Mickey Mantle. Mantle signed an exclusive contract with Bowman for both 1954 and 1955, thus he does not appear in Topps sets for either year. Despite the missing Mantle, as stated before, the 1954 set is still home to a fair share of Stars and Hall of Famers.

1953 Bowman Complete Set

In constant competition with Topps, Bowman really stepped up their game in 1953 when they issued what many collectors feel is the "best looking set of the modern era". This set in particular sets a precedence for all sets to follow, by issuing the first ever "action photo" of a player-- #33 Pee Wee Reese.

Regardless of whether you are an avid set collector, or just take an interest in browsing vintage collectibles, we encourage you to stop by DeansCards.com and check out these three sets.