Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
Here’s a Hobby Libary pick-up I made at the 2024 National, a 1952 All-Star Game program.
Why? Oh, there’s an ad for a baseball card set you may have heard of in it: 1952 Topps.
PS: The NL beat the AL in the game 3-2 behind Jackie Robinson and Hank Sauer’s home runs.
Check out The Unopened Archive for more!
The other day, I published a piece about the 1952 Topps baseball progressive proof uncut sheets. I shared that, after buying all seven of them from Sotheby’s in 1992, it looked like the owner trimmed the full-color process proof sheet before reselling the full series of seven sheets at REA in 2006 (they very well could have changed hands a few more times over the years, I have no idea). The next owner saved the final color-process proof sheet but cut up the other six progressive proof sheets and slabbed each card with SGC before reselling them all with REA again in 2009.
The final color-process proof sheet sold for $18,800 in that 2009 REA auction. In the description, REA wrote “The final sheet was originally accompanied by six color process proof sheets, which have since been perfectly cut and organized by player, and are represented by the twenty lots that follow this one.”
Each of the twenty 1952 Topps proof card groups included the following color processes: 1) Red, yellow, and blue printing. A card which is very close in appearance to a final process card, but with the black printing missing. 2) Yellow and red printing. 3) Yellow printing. 4) Red printing. 5) Blue printing. 6) Black printing.
The two priciest groups of six color-process proof cards sold belonged to Andy Pafko ($3,819) and Warren Spahn ($2,644).
The other 18 lots of six cards sold for between $470 and $1,763.
If you search other auction house archives, you’ll find that many have been resold over the years. For example, MHCC sold the Runnels cards for $840 in March 2019, Brockelman sold the DiMaggio cards for $2,085 in June 2018, and REA re-sold the Pafko cards for $3,120 in their 2023 spring auction.
Sotheby’s offered an incredible series of 7 1952 Topps Progressive Proof Uncut Sheets in their 1992 Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia Auction…But I have a bad feeling the buyer trimmed this one.
First, here’s the lot’s description from the ’92 catalog. They mentioned the series of sheet colors and conditions and that it was the only known series of progressive sheets of this series.
Things get interesting in 2006 when REA auctioned off a lot, which sold for $16,240, of “1952 Topps Series 1A Uncut Color Process Proof Sheets (7), The First 1952 Topps Ever Printed!” They included photos of each sheet; here are a few of them:
But do you notice anything about the full-color one? The more extensive borders from the one pictured in the Sotheby’s auction are missing!
REA re-sold the final color process sheet in May 2009 for $18,800, however they noted that, “The final sheet was originally accompanied by six color process proof sheets, which have since been perfectly cut and organized by player, and are represented by the twenty lots that follow this one.”
In both auctions, REA wrote, “The offered sheets are the only 1952 Topps color process sheets known to exist.”
I reached out to The Topps Archives (my favorite hobby blog) since he wrote a great piece inspired by the second REA auction, sharing my concerns. He wrote that the line between Pesky and Groth is on all the examples, so they could be the same. He also hoped there was no cut-down but acknowledged it seemed like there was.
Considering that it was unlikely Topps would need multiple printings of these proofs, the visual similarities, and auction descriptions, it seems likely someone trimmed (and cut up individual cards from) a true hobby one-of-one.
Please let me know if you have any more intel on this one.
Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!
I’m a huge fan of salesman samples, and here’s a unique one from the 1952 Topps release that I found in Ron Oser Enterprises’ April 2000 catalog.
This one is interesting because it was once complete, but the owner cut the three cards into “singles” a long time ago. The fronts include Eddie Joost, Willie Jones, and Gordon Goldsberry. When the cards are fitted together, you can see the copy on the back pretty clearly.
It wasn’t uncommon for folks to cut up salesman samples, as someone just (May 23, 2024) sold this salesman sample single of Mel Parnell on eBay for $173.26.
I know I’ve been promising it for a while, but I am still working on a long-form (magazine-like) piece on salesman samples. But it might now be the second one I release. Stand by!
The following scan is from Sotheby’s March 1991 catalog that featured James Copeland’s incredible collection.
Apart from its scope, the collection was known for every item’s superb condition and quality, including his 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle.
Sotheby’s described the card as being in mint condition, coming from Alan “Mr. Mint” Rosen’s 1952 Topps discovery of cards, and being the best of the Mantle cards from this discovery (the finest copy known to exist).
Interestingly, in August 2022, Heritage sold the “Finest Known Example” 1952 Topps Mantle for $12.6M, and it was accompanied by a letter from Rosen, dated June 17th, 1991, to the consignor explaining that this copy was the nicest one…
Mastro offered these four signed 1952 Topps monsters from the Mark Friedland Autographed Card Collection in their August 2006 catalog.
The complete collection was described to have been amassed in just a year and a half, as Mark acquired several prominent private holdings, like the McAllister Collection. Most of the collection’s 10k+ cards were authenticated by PSA/DNA, with the remainder by SGC and James Spence.
The next lot in the auction, 1103, was for 210 different signed 1952 Topps cards!
Check out this advertisement from Kit Young from the September 1991 issue of Baseball Cards magazine.
At the time, a complete case of 1989 Upper Deck High Number Factory Sets was $1,495, and a 1952 Topps Willie Mays card in Vg-Ex condition was $575.
For context, REA sold this PSA 4 graded 1952 Topps #261 Willie Mays card for $8700 in December 2023.
And those 1989 Upper Deck High Number Factory Set cases? Well, Steel City Collectibles sold one on eBay for $659 in January 2024.
Check out The Unopened Archive for more!