March 19, 2020: Spring Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/19/2020
In a hobby that prides itself on its myriad options for collectors, accumulating blank-back cards has long been a popular niche, and this lot offers an enormous bounty with cards touching many of the top stars of the era, including Rod Carew, George Brett, Ozzie Smith, Bob Gibson, Joe Torre, Frank Robinson and more. With primarily blank-backed cards from 1961-85, the lot would be a tremendous launch on a new collection or a considerable infusion to an existing one. About ¾ of the array is from 1984 and the remainder before and a handful after. The lineup includes a dozen Hall of Famers and a host of stars, All-Stars and specials, most in a relatively uniform Ex-Mt to Near-Mint condition in the 1970s and Near-Mint or better in the 1980s. The default description for the array is blank-backed, with a handful of anomalies noted in the listing. The breakdown: 1961 Topps – Valmy Thomas – Excellent; 1964 Topps (2) – O’Dell – Ex-Mt and Sadecki – Good; 1971 (7) – mostly Very Good, including Torre – three have green printing on back but no black ink; 1972 (3) – Ex, with Pitching League Leaders and two Dietz cards that are profound miscuts; 1973 (18) – Ex-Mt to Nr-Mt, including Freehan, Parker, Fuentes and Cubs Team; 1974 (5) – Ex-Mt to Nr-Mt, with green printing on the back and no black ink, including Spikes, Bibby, Griffin and Paciorek; 1979 (2) – Near-Mint with no fronts – McWilliams and White; 1984 (157) – Near-Mint or better, including Frank Robinson, Brett, Carew, Smith, Lasorda, Gossage, Sutter, Cox, two Checklists (1 and 2), Kingman, Quisenberry, Murphy, Guerrero, White, Boddicker, Wilson, Francona, Baylor, Reuss, Grich, Oquendo, Luzinski, Stieb, Easler, Landreaux, Bedrosian, Mazzilli, Kennedy, Chambliss, Oglivie, Vukovich, Manning, Hatcher, Dravecky, Orosco, Hernandez, Moreland, Johnstone, Campbell, Buckner, Cey, Davis, Dernier, Lopes, McNamara, Howser, Gardner, Crandall, Virdon, Gura, Morgan, Alexander, Spier, Butler, Ojeda, Maddox, Tanana, Wathan, Young, Barfield, Bergman, Stanton, Hubbard, Crowley, Youngblood, Yeager, Martinez, Joe Niekro, Vail, Sisk, Beattie and Lollar; 1985 (12) – Near-Mint or better, including Perez, McGraw, Lezcano, Wiggins, Cedeno and Redus; and a Bob Gibson Great Plains Greats collector card with no front. In addition, there are six Topps Football cards just to make sure everyone was paying attention: Stratton, Garrett and Hicks, plus three Checklists (one is marked).
1970s and 1980s Topps Baseball Blank Backs, Fronts, Miscuts (214)
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