For its combination of popularity, scarcity, beauty, and utter unfathomability, no 19th-century set – maybe no other card set ever – exceeds Kalamazoo Bats, which appears to have been a two-year issue produced by Charles Gross & Co. of Philadelphia in 1886 and 1887. Extraordinarily, 12 of the 62 known player cards have been discovered since 1980, one was uncovered in 2005, another early in 2006. Some of the long-known cards are so scarce as to exist in mere handfuls; some of the recent discoveries are comparatively common.

Mention Topps 3-D to any collector and as likely as not the conversation will begin and end with one card: the Bob Clemente from the company’s 1968 test set, always in high demand and always high priced.