March 25, 2021: Spring Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/25/2021
This is a genuinely unique auction lot, derived from a childhood collection and providing enormous value with the tiny stipulation that this listing requires a good deal of close examination to find all the pearls. Focused primarily from 1957-61, but with about four dozen cards from earlier Topps and a couple of Bowman issues, the lineup herein is almost startling in the number of Hall of Famers, albeit with some of the earlier years in lower grades. But from 1957-61, the prevailing range is broadly Very Good to Excellent or Ex-Mt, and even better starting in 1959. Included in the mix are some of the most iconic HOFer cards of the era, along with a number of important Rookies and Specials, including: Roy Campanella cards from 1953 and 1956; Mantle, Clemente, Koufax, Aaron, Drysdale Rookie, Banks, Spahn, Kaline, Snider and Mathews from 1957 Topps; Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Banks and Mathews cards from 1959; and Aaron, Maris (2), Mays, Ford and a host of others from 1961. And it should be noted that the 103 figure for Hall of Famers is for their regular-issue cards; adding in appearances from All-Stars, League Leaders and other specials and it would likely double. As we said, this one takes a bit of reading, but is without a doubt worth the trouble. The chronological breakdown: 1952-55 Topps and Bowman (40), highlights include 1948 Bowman No. 4 Mize – Good; 1952 Topps No. 26 Irvin – Good (mkd), 1952 Topps No. 219 Shantz – Excellent and 1952 Topps No. 243 Doby – VG-Ex; 1953 Topps cards of Campanella and Irvin (Good) and Mize (Ex); 1954 Topps of Kuenn and Snider (VG-Ex), Ford (2, VG and Good), and Combs and Skowron Rookie (Good); 1955 Bowman cards in mostly Good condition of Rizzuto, Piersall, Minoso and Mathews; and 1955 Topps cards of Berra and Hodges (Fair); 1956 Topps (22) – mostly VG-Ex, some Good and some Ex-Plus, including Alston, Kluszewski, Campanella, Mathews, Rizzuto, Fox, Mays (Fair), Score Rookie (2), Killebrew and Newcombe; 1957 Topps (40) – mostly VG-Ex, some Ex-Mt and some Good, including Mantle (Fair), Roberts, Drysdale Rookie, Aaron (Good), Ford, Banks (2, Ex and Good), Ashburn (Fair), Clemente (VG-Ex), Spahn, Lemon, Kaline, Newcombe (2), Kluszewski, Snider, Colavito Rookie (Fair), Kell, Mathews (Ex-Mt), Koufax (VG-Ex) and Bunning, plus Adcock, Woodling, Crandall, Score, Groat and Piersall; 1958 Topps (72) – Very Good to Ex-Mt, with some below and a significant number of Ex-Mt cards, including Drysdale, Snider, Kell, Bunning, Ashburn Frank Robinson, Killebrew, Spahn, Banks, Ford, Berra and Reese, plus 16 All-Star subset cards, including Mantle (2), Mays, Aaron (2), Musial, Frank Robinson, Banks, Fox (2), Spahn, Mathews and Lollar, plus Colavito, Furillo, Gilliam, Larsen, Adcock, Erskine, Sievers, Howard, Tanner, Groat and Jensen; 1959 Topps (126) – Excellent to Ex-Mt, with some VG and a couple Good, and including Mantle (Poor), Mays (Ex-Plus), Aaron (VG), Aaron All-Star (Good), Drysdale, Banks, Mathews (2), Roberts, Bunning, Frank Robinson (2), Fox, Maris, Ford, Brooks Robinson, Anderson, Cepeda, Burdette, Richardson, White (2), Erskine, Cash, Colavito, Groat, Furillo, Dark, Howard, Kuenn, Kubek, Pinson, Martin, Zimmer, Cuellar RC, plus more than a dozen Baseball Thrills, including three Kalines, three Aarons, two Banks and a Mays; 1960 Topps (110) – Excellent to Ex-Mt, some VG or below, with perhaps four dozen really strong Ex-Mt to Near-Mint, including Wynn, Brooks Robinson, Ford (2), Gibson (3), Fox, Kaat Rookie (2), Roberts, Maris, Snider, Bunning, Herzog, Anderson (2), Mathews All-Star, Kaline All-Star, Rival All-Stars, Furillo, Groat, Colavito, Burdette, Kluszewski, Kubek, Larsen, Shants, Howard (2) and two World Series subet; 1961 Topps (77) – Excellent to Ex-Mt, some VG and several Near-Mint HOFers, including No. 1 Maris (2, Ex and VG), Aaron (Ex-Mt), Billy Williams Rookie (2, Nr-Mt and VG-Ex), Kaline (2, Ex-Mt-Plus), Ford (2), Spahn (Nr-Mt), Gibson (Nr-Mt), Drysdale (2, Nr-Mt and Good), Yastrzemski – Ex-Plus, Banks (Good), Mantle’s World Series Homer (Nr-Mt), Frank Robinson (2, Nr-Mt and Ex), Cepeda (Ex-Mt), Snider (Fair), Wynn (2), Marichal Rookie (VG), Mazeroski, McCovey (Ex-Mt), Aaron MVP, Banks MVP (2), two Baseball Thrills, Kluszewski, Covington, Cash, Kaat, Larsen, Kubek, Gilliam and Howard.
Large Group 1952-61 Topps Baseball With 103 HOFers (487)
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