April 2, 2015: Sports & Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/2/2015
This is yet another instance of mimicking an old-time auction lot, one of those that would require a good deal of examination from diligent collectors because of treasures to be found with just that extra effort. Despite its imposing nature, the itemization number in the title doesn’t adequately illustrate the extent of the offering, since the pristine cards in the numerous open boxes would up it by many hundreds. Basically, the lot features an amazingly eclectic array of unopened material, then add in roughly 500 nice condition wrappers (mostly baseball), then unopened and generally flattened boxes in nice condition from several sports. We’ll address the lot in those three groups.
The unopened array includes a box of 1979 Topps Baseball Comics, with 55 pieces of the famous (infamous?) gum neatly wrapped by the quirky comics issue from 35 years ago. The box is in generally Good condition, with the top separated from the main section. Another well-known issue from the era, the 1988 K-Mart Memorable Moments issue, is found here with two large boxes each holding 24 boxes of the 33-card complete sets, with the sets in pristine condition and the larger boxes Ex-Mt or so, though one has a small tear. There is a box of 1986 Topps Baseball (36 packs, 15 cards each) and a box of 1992 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Baseball in the original company cellophane (36 packs, 12 cards each). The final unopened box is 1991 Ultimate Sportscards Hockey, also in the original company cellophane, with 36 packs and 7 cards inside.
Perhaps the most striking element of this lot is the near 500 wrappers, mostly all in a highly collectible condition, all flattened out nicely and carefully preserved. The lineup includes: 1978 Topps Baseball (4), Very Good to Excellent with a few tears; 1980 Topps Baseball (126), mostly Ex to Ex-Mt; 1979 Topps Football (19), generally Very Good to Excellent with a few tears; 1980 Topps Football (118), Very Good to Excellent with a few tears; 1980 Topps Basketball (62), mostly Ex-Mt; 1981 Topps Baseball ScratchOffs (37), Very Good to Excellent with a few tears; 1980 Fleer Baseball Stickers (72), Ex-Mt; and 1981 Fleer Baseball Star Stickers (48), Ex-Mt.
The final component includes empty boxes, generally in nice condition and most flattened for easy storage. Here we have two boxes of 1979 Topps Football and another two boxes of 1980 Fleer In-Action Football, generally Very Good to Excellent, but one of the Fleer boxes without the top. There are Topps Baseball boxes from 1978, 1979, 1980 (5) and 1981, with the last one missing the top, a box of 1980 Fleer Star Stickers, 1981 Topps ScratchOffs, and 10 boxes of 1980 Topps Football, generally Ex-Mt but with a few barely visible pen marks. There are also boxes from 1979 and 1980 Topps Basketball (3, one without the top), and two nice condition flattened boxes from the 1977 Wiffle Balls that were a popular item nearly four decades back.
Remarkable Lot of Unopened Boxes, Empty Boxes and Wrappers (741)
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