April 5, 2018: Sports & Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/5/2018
This is a collector-issue set that was sponsored by the Seattle area Shakey’s Pizza restaurants in conjunction with the 1975 Washington State Sports Collectors Convention, one of the important early groups as the hobby took off in earnest in the 1970’s. Limited to an extraordinarily low print run of 2,000, the 2 ¾-by-3 5/8-inch cards feature players with a connection to the West Coast, typically from birthplace or having played in the Pacific Coast League, at one time a minor league thought to be very close to major-league caliber. With that focus, the set ends up with the vast majority of the 18 cards being Hall of Famers, headlined by the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Paul Waner, Lefty Gomez, Ernie Lombardi, Casey Stengel, Sam Crawford, Duke Snider and Lefty O’Doul, to name a few, The cards offered here are essentially Ex-Mt to Near-Mint, with the emphasis to the upper end of the scale. The No. 1 Joe DiMaggio, along with Ted Williams the keys to the issue, is found here with an autograph affixed that was deemed to have been done by DiMaggio’s sister, a not-infrequent occurrence with the Great DiMaggio early on in the expansion of the autograph hobby.
1976 Shakey’s Pizza West Coast Greats (18)
Click above for larger image.