1971 Topps Winners Complete BVG-Graded Set (19)

Bidding

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/6/2020

The legendary and elusive 1971 Topps Winner baseball cards were part of a unique Topps Baseball Card Contest run in test markets during the 1971 season. To enter the contest one had to fill out and send in an entry blank found on special boxes of 1971 Topps cards provided by a participating store (this contest was extremely limited in its scope, with only a handful of test markets known, namely Pittsburgh and Baltimore). After filling out the entry form, one had to send it to Topps in Duryea, Pennsylvania, where 25 Grand Prize Winners were randomly chosen to “Get their picture on real baseball cards.” 1000 Runner Up Winners received a 1971 Uncut sheet of baseball cards (which accounts for some of the volume of those sheets in the marketplace). The 25 Winners were informed by a letter from Sy Berger himself, who gave them the choice of: A. 1000 copies of their own baseball card, along with a box of 1972 Topps with each pack containing one of their cards; or B. a complete set of 1972 Topps cards, containing all the series. We know today that at least 19 of the Winners took choice A. and received their 1000 cards and box of 1972 Topps cards sometime during the 1972 season. We know that there were only 19 because of the discovery of an uncut sheet of Winners cards depicting 19 Winners in total. They are: Mark D. Audia; April T. Bole; Lisa C. Bole; Patricia I. Cox; Allan G. Csuk Jr.; Philip T. Edgerly; Theresa D. Faulkner; Vernon Grover; Tim J. Harlan; Jeff Hooper; Darren K. Lazzari; Jeffrey M. Mihalik; Jerry R. Nachtrieb; Rickey E. Nobile; Brucette C. Rumenyak; Carl R. Scatena; Fred A. Sinopoli; Christine Ulicny; and Steven M. Wilkie. Over the decades a small amount of these cards trickled into the hobby, usually in groups of ten or so. Until the recent discovery of the uncut sheet, only 15 of the 19 cards had been widely known to exist. As far as scarcity goes, the Winner cards are more difficult to find than just about any cards issued by Topps during the 1970s (including many Test issues). However within the Winners set, a group of five are infinitely harder to find than the others, appearing on the market only a handful of times, if ever. These exceptionally scarce Winners cards include April T. Bole, Steven M. Wilkie, Carl R. Scatena, Philip T. Edgerly and Patricia I. Cox. To date, only a handful (if that) of each of these cards are known to have surfaced. Offered is an incredibly rare opportunity to obtain the complete set of 19 cards, including all five of the exceptionally rare cards, meticulously assembled for the very first time. The breakdown is as follows: 1 Audia BVG 4.5; 2 April Bole BVG 7.5; 3 Lisa Bole BVG 8.5; 4 Cox BVG 8; 5 Csuk BVG 5; 6 Edgerly BVG 9; 7 Faulkner BVG 7.5; 8 Grover BVG 8; 9 Harlan BVG 8; 10 Hooper BVG 8.5; 11 Lazzari BVG 8; 12 Mihalik BVG 9; Nachtrieb BVG 7; 14 Nobile BVG 7.5; 15 Rumenyak BVG 8; 16 Scatena BVG 8.5; 17 Sinopoli BVG 8.5; 18 Ulicny BVG 8; and Wilke BVG 6.