A CURATED SELECTION OF GREAT CARDS
76. 1950-51 Toleteros Willard Brown (HOF) - SGC EX 5
78. Gorgeous 1952 Topps #407 Eddie Mathews (HOF RC) - PSA A
Latin Americanissues are seeing a bit of a rise in popularity ascollectors realize their scarcity and wide-ranging array of subjects. Issued during the Puerto Rican Winter League season of 1950-51 and sold in packs, this Toleteros series consists of 178cards each measuring 1-3/4" by 2-1/2”. Each card front features a colorplayer image with a large white border area and his name in black printalong the bottom edge, while the backs are blank. Renowned for its exquisitephotography, this Toleteros offering hosts various Negro League starsand Major League players. Willard Brown was a centerpiece of the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues during the 1930s and1940s, but he dominated the Puerto RicanLeague where he is widely considered one of the greatest players in the historyof the league. The card is centered slightly left, and exhibits some light diamond cutting with a soft bottom left corner and a small smudge near his last name on the front. Only three cards have ever achieved a higher grade through SGC, which deemedthis example a 60 EX 5, and only three examples of this card have ever beengraded by PSA at all.
The 1952 Topps Eddie Mathews is an absolute “perfect storm” for card collectors: it represents the rookie card of a Hall of Fame player that is part of the hobby’s most desirable gum card set. Adding to its desirability, it is part of the tougher “high number” series, and the 1952 Topps high numbers are the stuff of hobby legend. Lastly, it is the final card in the set, which carries the dubious legend of being more condition- sensitive due to living its life at the bottom of a stack of cards - as a result of this legend, the first and
last cards in a set generally are valued higher.
This card is all those things, making it one of the most desirable cards in all of rookie card collecting. And in the case of this particular card, it is remarkably sharp, clean, and well-centered, all incredibly desirable characteristics of any card, much less one of the key cards in the most important postwar baseball issue. It has the eye appeal of a NM-MT or perhaps even MINT example, however, it resides in a PSA AUTHENTIC “Altered” holder. We are aware that the card has been resubmitted to PSA and given the same grade, however, it measures properly and shows no sign of alteration that we can see. At some point, we need to buy the card and not the holder it’s in, and in this case, we would be hard-pressed to find a finer example of this card, one of the three keys to this important issue.
MINIMUM BID: $1,000
MINIMUM BID: $2,000
77. 1953 Topps #82 Mickey Mantle (HOF) - PSA VG+ 3.5
When it comes to Mickey Mantle, the old saying “A rising tide lifts all boats” is certainly the case. As prices realized for his 1952 Topps issue continue to rise to the stratosphere, prices for Mantle’s subsequent issues are rising alongside it. Mantle’s 1953 issue, once an affordable alternative to the 1952, has risen at an exponential rate. Our record-breaking 2015 sale of a PSA NM 7 example at $8,775 has been left in the dust, with NM examples routinely surpassing $25,000. Indeed, strong midgrade examples such as this continue to experience increasing demand. This example, graded VG+ 3.5 by PSA, is reasonably well-centered for the grade, with minimal chipping along the red bordered edge, and honest corner wear the result of years of careful handling. A small smudge of some sort appears in the right border near the top third of the card. One of Mantle’s most attractive cards, from the early days of Topps rise to prominence as the baseball card giant it would become.
MINIMUM BID: $1,000
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