December 1, 2016: Sports & Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/1/2016
Presented here is a great opportunity to pick up a handsome example of a popular early 1960’s Topps issue, the brutally condition-sensitive 1962 baseball set with wood-grain borders that so easily reveal even the slightest bit of wear. With that caveat, the offered set is in much better condition that this issue is typically found in older collections, essentially Excellent to Near-Mint, with the bulk of the group divided between Excellent and Ex-Mt, with a significant edge to the upper end of the scale. It comes out to roughly 81 percent of the set being Excellent or above, and more narrowly 45 percent Ex-Mt and 33 percent Excellent, and barely more than 100 cards falling below the Excellent range. In short, it’s a great chance to pick up a highly presentable version of a particularly challenging vintage Topps issue. Three key cards have already been third-party slabbed and offer a nice glimpse into the overall condition range of the broader group: No. 18 Managers Dream is a BVG 5.5, No. 320 Aaron is an SGC 80 and 200 Mantle is an SGC 70. The set also includes all three versions of the Hal Reniff/Babe Ruth subset card No. 139.
The breakdown of the Hall of Famers and keys, with numerical totals for individual grades: Near-Mint (22), including No. 460 Bunning and 476 Orioles Team; Ex-Mt (271), including No. 22 Checklist, 24 Tigers Team, 29 Stengel, 30 Mathews, 43 Dodgers Team, 70 Killebrew, Ruth Subset (card Nos. 135, 140, 141 and 143), 158 Braves Team, 211 Midway Magicians, 213 Ashburn, 226 Giants Team, 277 Checklist, 310 Ford, 334 Red Sox Team, 340 Drysdale, 350 Frank Robinson, 353 Mazeroski, 382 Williams, 385 Wynn, 392 Boyer All-Star, 393 McMillan All-Star, 394 Aaron All-Star, 396 Frank Robinson All-Star, 401 Homer Kings, 409 Pirates Team o/c, 441 Checklist, 466 Cash All-Star, 469 Aparicio All-Star, 470 Kaline All-Star, 473 Howard All-Star, 505 Marichal o/c, 516 Checklist, and 594 Uecker o/c; Excellent (198), including No. 5 Koufax, 40 Cepeda, 50 Musial, 73 Fox, 98 Checklist, 113 White Sox Team, 132 Angels Team, Ruth Subset (Nos. 137-139, 142) 139 Reniff, 199 Perry, 217 Alston o/c, World Series Subset (Nos. 232-234, 237 and 239), 243 Roberts, 294 Phillies Team o/c, 384 Athletics Team, 387 Brock, 390 Cepeda All-Star, 391 Mazeroski All-Star o/c, 475 Ford, 500 Snider, 530 Gibson, 552 Cubs, and 598 o/c; Very Good to Excellent (49), including No. 61 Cardinals Team, Ruth Subset Nos. 136 and 144, 150 Kaline, 192 Checklist, 218 Torre, 286 Lopez, 300 Mays, 325 Aparicio, 360 Berra, 399 Spahn All-Star, 465 Reds Team, 544 McCovey and 584 Twins Team; Very Good (37), including No. 1 Maris, 10 Clemente, 25 Banks, 45 Brooks Robinson, 139 Reniff Portrait, 170 Santo, 206 Senators Team, 251 Yankees Team, 288 Williams, 398 Drysdale, 471 Mantle All-Star, 537 Indians Team, 545 Wilhelm and 575 Schoendienst; Good (7); Fair (9), including No. 367 Checklist; and Poor (2).
1962 Topps Baseball Complete Set (600)
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