The Post War Cards Newsletter #7
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In case you have been trapped in your hobby cave without internet access until reading this newsletter, the “Finest Known Example” of a 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle is for sale at Heritage Auctions. The card has a great story and Heritage wrote it up really well. How high will the auction go? We’ll know at the end of the month; the estimate is >$10M.
Also, Sports Collectors Digest has a great article in which the card owner explains why he’s selling it.
1967 Topps Venezuela Retirado Set
While they’re actually a subset within a three-part set, the 50 1967 Venezuela Retirado baseball cards stand alone as an incredibly eye-catching tribute set. The cards, numbered 139-188, highlight Hall of Famers of the time and potential inductees. The sepia-toned photos, the blue background, and red “RETIRADO” lettering make for an incredibly attractive and unique design.
The thing that Venezuela Topps collectors know is that they’re really hard to find in decent condition since they were printed on crude material and usually pasted into books. When you couple that with the star power of the Retirado set and Venezuela Topps’ smaller print runs you get an incredibly pricey set. The lot of nine cards pictured above is from a complete SGC Graded set for sale on eBay which is listed for $250k (the PSA Set Registry shows only two complete sets).
If you want to know more about Venezuela Topps cards, @VenezuelaTopps is a great follow on Twitter.
Great Hobby Writing
Pre-War Cards: Max Schmeling and the Rise of German Cigarette Cards Created a Perfect Storm
Baseball Cards Come to Life!: Art on the back: 1977
CrazieJoe’s Card Corner: Early 90s Doesn’t Mean Junk
Droidtrader’s Sports Memorabilia: Mike Shannon - 1965 Topps World Series
Junk Wax Jay: 1986 Pittsburgh Pirates and Transitional Team Sets or Where Have You Gone, Sixto Lezcano
Collectors Dashboard: The Ultimate Roberto Clemente Grail Card ISn’t Just His Rookie
Sports Collectors Digest: Touring the Baseball Hall
SABR Baseball Cards Research Committee: Thinning out our collections
The Topps Archives: Bazooka Bonus Blast
1972 Topps Dr. J
A card that I have been seeing talked about more and more around the hobby is Dr. J’s 1972 Topps basketball rookie card. It’s funny that back in October 2020 we were already seeing the card’s “re”-emergence as PSA 5s were going for over $1k. I even wrote an article about five alternatives to his iconic rookie card for collectors looking to add a few cards, at more reasonable prices, of this basketball Hall of Famer.
Heritage sold a slew of them this month, including a PSA 9 that went for $18k. Lucky for us with more “limited” checkbooks, the boom we were seeing in the hobby in late 2020 has cooled and those PSA 5s have now settled between $650 and $700. But with all the talk about the card and knowing how dynamic Erving was as a player, I wouldn’t be surprised if prices took off again.
Cheap Cards Every Collector Should Own
An awesome trend I have seen on Twitter shows that the hobby doesn’t need to be expensive. The theme is cheap cards every collector should own. @CheahaCardworks shared the following photo of his personal collections of these sorts of cards.
The hobby has eaten this up, with threads hundreds of comments deep and including cards of amusing 1973 Topps baseball variations, childishly amusing names (here’s looking at you, Rusty Kuntz), and other iconic junk-wax era cards like the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas.
It’s easy to feel disconnected from the hobby with all the focus on “museum” pieces like the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle I started the newsletter with, but there are so many cheap niches in this hobby that there is a place for any sports fan. Personally, I’m building a hobby library of old books, guides, periodicals, and magazines.
In the News
AP News: Rare 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card going up for auction
Sports Collectors Daily: Ali’s Ruble in the Jungle Belt Sells for $6.18 Million
The Athletic: State of the sports card boom: After sky-high surge, is the market still healthy?
Rolling Stone: Miles Teller Just Score $24,000 Worth of Baseball Cards on eBay
Next Avenue: Swinging for the Fences: How a boyhood hobby grew into an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution
Sports Collectors Daily: Joe Orlando Joins Heritage Auctions
Goldin Auctions: Rip and Flip
Sports Collectors Digest: Big changes coming to The National under new management team