The Post War Cards Newsletter #38
Muary Povich With A '52 Topps Uncut Sheet, A '68 Topps Venezuelan Album, Rare Penny Packs, An '81 Topps BK Set, And 10 1952 Topps Sales
Happy Thursday!
📺 Maury Povich, Pete Rose, And 1952 Topps Baseball
In the Spring 1982 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine (Vol 2 No 1), Bill Bossert wrote an incredible piece called Uncut Sheets Tell The Untold Story, which closed with a note that he thought the ability to display your cards is what would help make the hobby the number one collecting pastime in America. To illustrate that point, he mounted all 19 regular-issue Topps Pete Rose cards in a display, which he was able to show Rose on the Philadelphia-based “People Are Talking” TV program, hosted by Maury Povich.
And while that display looks cool in the photo, and the fact that they were looking at a 1952 Topps Mantle card was interesting, notice the 1952 Topps uncut sheet on the left. It looks a lot like the high number sheet featuring Ed Mathews that I highlighted on the blog in April 2024!
⚾️ A 1968 Topps Venezuelan Album
One of the rarest hobby albums appeared for sale on Facebook on June 2nd. A 1968 Topps Venezuelan album including the cards of Mays, Clemente, Seaver, Gibson, Carea, Aaron (AS), and Banks! Unfortunately, the really big cards (Ryan, Bench, and Mantle) were missing. Otherwise, I suspect the seller would have been asking for more than $4,200!
Venezuelan albums are already tough to track down (and this one is tougher than the 1964, 1966, and 1967 albums), and this one is in really great shape (for a Venezuelan album). The cover has great color, although it is worn, but not tattered. Unfortunately, it’s not attached to the rest of the pages, which are all still bound together.
All told, 207 cards with a few duplicate checklists glued in random places were included; the Clemente looked particularly nice.
P.S., if you need a primer on identifying Venezuela Topps Baseball cards, check out my basic guide.
✍️ Great Hobby Writing
The Shlabotnik Report: Much To My Surprise, 25B > 25T
Night Owl Cards: A card flaw I don't mind
Topps Ripped: Celebrating 40 Years of the 1985 Topps Goonies Trading Card Set
The Topps Archives: Superhombre
Collecting This 'n' That: Grease is the word
Sports Collectors Daily: The “N” Error? P. H. Mayo’s 302 Football Set and the 1994 Dunlop Discovery
SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee: Ball Haul
TanManBaseballFan: If you had a chance to sell your entire collection, and start over, what would you shoot for?
Sports Collectors Daily: Does a Vintage Parker Brothers Baseball Game Offer a Hidden Ted Williams Card?
⚾️ Unopened Items Of The Week - 1962 And 1963 Topps Baseball Penny Packs
Godlin’s May 2025 Elite Auction, which closed on May 31st, featured two rarely seen high-grade baseball packs: a 1962 Topps and a 1963 Topps penny pack, both graded PSA 9. The ‘62 sold for $2,217, and the ‘63 sold for $1,831.
There are just 10 PSA-graded 1962 Topps Penny Packs (none graded higher with six Mint 9s), while there are 67 from the 1963 release (but also none graded higher than this Mint 9, which is a Pop 25 pack).
Enjoying the newsletter? Considering upgrading for the weekly Unopened Market Report! Monday’s highlighted 1935 Gum Inc. Mickey Mouse Wax Packs (including the sale of a box), shared a comparison between 1985 OPC & Topps hockey prices, showed where so many of the 1975 Topps Mini boxes came from, and accentuated a particularly cool 1971 OPC baseball pack.
📝 On The Blog
June 5, 2025: The Trader Speaks, January 1976
June 6, 2025: A Stunning 1952 Topps Semi-High Number Panel
June 7, 2025: A Cardboard Farewell: Sy Berger Presents Willie Mays His Cards at Shea Stadium in 1973
June 8, 2025: Topps Remembers The People’s Choice Roberto Clemente
June 9, 2025: The Trader Speaks, Vol 4 No 3 February 1972
June 10, 2025: The Rarest Joe Louis Card
June 10, 2025: Classic Auctions’ June 2025 Hockey Sale Has a Surprise for Ephemera Collectors
🏀 A PSA Graded 1981 Topps Basketball Set
A couple of weeks ago, in Newsletter #31, I highlighted a complete PSA-graded 1969 Topps Basketball set that was listed on Facebook. Now, another impressive set has surfaced, this time in a different Vintage Basketball Card group. Someone recently offered the #12 ranked 1981 Topps Basketball set (described as all PSA 9s, 198 cards total, but the registry link shows a few 10s) for $11,000.
It’s a nice discount from his eBay listing for the set, where it’s being offered for $15,500 (or Best Offer). It’s a good deal when you consider that Heritage recently sold (in January 2024) the #5 set on the registry for $51,600, although it had 151 PSA 10s.
⚾️ Pricey ‘52s
A bit of a 1952 Topps Baseball sandwich today! Honestly, I could probably write 52 straight newsletters on nothing but the iconic ’52 set, but for now, I’m focusing on just one angle. I pulled together the ten highest-priced individual player sales of PSA-graded 1952 Topps cards on eBay auctions from the past three-ish months. To keep things interesting, each player only gets one spot on the list. Otherwise, Mantle would dominate the top tier (he still claims the crown, of course).
$153,100 - Mickey Mantle #311 PSA 6 - March 7th
$7,102 - Gil Hodges #36 PSA 8 - May 11th
$6,900 - Willie Mays #261 PSA 4 - April 17th
$5,000 - Jackie Robinson #312 PSA 1.5 - March 12th
$3,300 - Tony Bartirome #332 PSA 6 - March 24th
$2,834 - Roy Campanella #312 PSA 5 - April 6th
$2,663 - Carl Erskine #250 PSA 8 - May 25th
$2,380 - Orestes Minoso #195 PSA 7 - April 6th
$2,222 - Bobby Hogue #9 Black Back PSA 7 - April 6th
$2,151 - Cookie Lavagetto #365 PSA 2 Auto 9 - March 18th
Happy collecting!