April 4, 2024: Spring Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/4/2024
Here’s a hobby treasure that rarely finds its way to the auction block in this form: the Low Series run from the iconic 1952 Topps Baseball issue, missing barely more than two dozen cards, all in a highly attractive and collectible condition that is pretty evenly divided between Good and VG-Ex, with 20 cards above to Excellent and a similar number below, mostly to Fair. Four Hall of Famers are present in SGC slabs: No. 26 Irvin – SGC 3.5, No. 216 Ashburn – SGC 4, No. 243 Doby – SGC 4 and No. 277 Wynn – SGC 5; there are also several important Rookies cards, including Runnels, Friend, Loes, Silvera and Houk. This is the Holy Grail for generations of collectors, the natural starting point for advanced collections and the most important and coveted postwar set. Overall, it comes out to 7 percent Excellent, 21 percent VG-Ex, 39 percent Very Good, 27 percent Good, and 7 percent below. Perhaps three or four dozen cards have the kind of centering that might prompt thoughts of an upgrade, though not all of those would be severe enough to dictate a formal off-center designation. A listing of the missing cards appears at the end of this document. Here’s the breakdown of keys: No. 2 Runnels Rookie – Good, 20 Loes Rookie – Good-Plus, 29 Kluszewski – Good, 49 Sain – Very Good, 108 Konstanty – VG-Ex, 129 Mize – Poor, 168 Silvera Rookie – Good o/c, 189 Reiser – VG-Plus, 200 Houk Rookie – VG, 202 Collins Rookie – VG, 215 Bauer - VG-Plus, 223 Ennis – VG, 227 Garagiola – VG-Plus, 233 Friend Rookie – VG, 237 Coleman – VG-Ex, 244 Wertz – VG, 246 Kell – VG, 250 Erskine – Good, 257 Avila – VG-Plus, 274 Branca – Excellent, 296 Rolfe – Poor and 310 Metkovich – Good. The missing numbers: No. 1 Pafko, 11 Rizzuto, 12, 31 Zernial, 33 Spahn, 36 Hodges, 37 Snider, 59 Roberts, 64, 65 Slaughter, 66 Roe, 85, 88 Feller, 91 Schoendienst, 154, 157, 175 Martin, 191 Berra, 195 Minoso Rookie, 261 Mays, 268 Lemon, 269, 270, 271, 303 and 309.
1952 Topps Baseball Low-Numbers Near Set (284/310)
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