March 21, 2019: Sports & Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/21/2019
Return to the dawn of the modern age of card collecting with the acquisition of a half dozen pristine baseball cards sets that look essentially as they might have when they rolled off the presses in the first six years of the 1980s. Essentially Near-Mint or better, the sets boast nice centering and superb color and gloss, with no discernible differences between the Tier One Hall of Famers and the lowliest commons. In short, largely unimprovable offerings, with the 1981 Topps issue, the company’s first issue in a competitive marketplace after a quarter-century monopoly in the baseball cards business, just a whisper below the other five, with a handful of Near-Mint and Ex-Mt specimens appearing, along with centering not quite as unimpeachable as the others. Condition anomalies from 1981 include No. 110 Yastrzemski – Near-Mint, No. 240 Ryan – Ex-Mt, No. 254 Ozzie Smith – Ex, No. 261 Rickey Henderson – Nr-Mt, No. 302 Valenzuela Rookie – Nr-Mt, No. 315 Gibson – Nr-Mt, No. 489 Raines Rookie – Nr-Mt, No. 490 Murray – Ex-Mt, No. 515 Yount – Nr-Mt and No. 620 Eckersley – Nr-Mt. A couple of anomalies from 1983 Topps: No. 360 Ryan – Ex-Mt, No. 482 Gwynn Rookie – Nr-Mt and No. 498 Boggs Rookie – Nr-Mt. Before the advent of all the fussy grading gyrations of the 1990s, this grouping would have simply been described as Mint sets and sold accordingly.
Super High-Grade Topps Baseball Sets Run from 1980-85 (6)
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