1954 Topps Complete Set

[Harliduck]

Well, after starting in earnest over 3 years ago, I have chipped my way to finally completing the 1954 Topps Set. I say earnest as a couple of the cards were actually from my youth, when putting this set together seemed like an impossibility. When I decided to get back in, I went up in my attic to see if I had anything left (my original collection was donated to a church who used the "parking lot sale" as a fund raiser back in 1991). Much to my surprise, I had a small box of vintage of mostly commons...except three 54 Topps cards. I remember keeping the Jackie Robinson, but I also found Johnny Lipon and Jim Robertson. I thought...cool...I LOVE this year, and getting the Hank Aaron RC is something I definitely want to do...so the quest was on.

I picked up cards here and there, but it wasn't a focus. At a local show I was able to get a few commons and Warren Spahn off an older fellow who bought the cards originally in their packs at a small store off Queen Anne in Seattle. Local cards with provinance...COOL. I ended up freeing 4 PSA's, 3 BVG's, and 2 SGC's...nothing under a 3. Most commons are EX, but I would say the set averages from VG - VG/EX - EX. I have a list of 7 cards to replace, where four of them are P/G.

Here are the three big dogs...I still love digging them out nightly and looking at them, haha. My wife thinks I have a problem...I probably do -



The rest are scans of the HOFers. As I was downloading I realized I skipped Phil Rizzuto...which meant I didn't have to add the Moose at the end to round out the pictures. Oh well...



As you can see, Eddie and the Duke are a little rough...but OK by me. I will be looking to upgrade those two. Interestingly enough I bought both of those cards in Vegas on a work trip visiting the card shop where the owner works as the memorabilia expert on Pawn Stars. Cool guys, cool shop, and they gave me a heck of a deal...



The Hoyt was a rather high graded card, I probably shouldn't have popped that one and got a different card for the set. Not that expensive and most likely a shame I took it out of the registry, but oh well, freed. Anyone care to guess the grade? Not the best scans on these...



Pretty tough crease on the Ted, but I just love this card. Rather pricey to upgrade, and may eventually will, but still great eye appeal. I think the Moose RC may be one of my favorites in the set.


Super excited to have it complete. 1954, that was a LONG time ago. Last card was eyebrows himself, Wally Moon RC that came in the mail today. Mr. Lasorda came yesterday, and was "freed" today, haha. My best deal was probably the Aaron RC...I got this card after literally 3 years of checking at least daily on Ebay and searching shops in many states and shows. It may not be NrMT, but with the price I paid I could easily quadruple my money...but I honestly wouldn't take 5x's what I paid for it now...IT'S MINE.

Thanks for looking...I'm pretty stoked! 57's are close behind...

[CobbSpikedMe]

John,

That's awesome man! I've been slowly pecking away at this set for over ten years now. Very passively as I'm nowhere near being able to pick up the Aaron. I have picked up a lot of the keys already though and my Kaline RC is one of my favorite cards.

Best regards and congrats!

AndyH

[Cardboard Junkie]

Congratulations! Super job! Always a great feeling of accomplishment! Dave. Fantastic looking cards.

[cubsfan-budman]

My favorite set! Nice job completing it!

[Harliduck]

Thanks for the comments!

Andy...wow, 10 years...I can't wait for your post of completion! Still very cool to me that there are others with similar goals. Good luck on your quest for the Aaron...I can say I never tire of that card. I think some day I will want another one, I miss the chase. I still find myself looking. It's a sickness. Kaline was my first of the big 3...I too love that card. I'd love to see a scan of yours...

[Harliduck]

Some fun facts on the 54s...

* I have or am working on just about every Topps vintage set, and this is the only time I have notice they have three cards from the same team IN A ROW.

#115 Rip Repulski - St. Louis Cardinals
#116 Steve Bilko - St. Louis Cardinals
#117 Solly Hemus - St. Louis Cardinals

*Only time twins have been pictured on the same card -
Ed & John O'Brie
This card is also considered Topps first multi-player card of them all

*First and Last card, same person - TWO base cards of the same player -
#1 Ted Williams
#250 Ted Williams

*Only time a card and player represents Four different teams -
#19 Johnny Lipon
- Pictured in Red Sox Uniform
- Listed on front as a Baltimore Oriole
- Listed on back as a Chicago White Sox
- Mentioned in the dialogue on back as a St. Louis Brown
Whats really funny is they misspelled his name, it's actually Johnny Lipton

* Rookie card of one the coolest trivia questions..."Who is the only player in sports history to win a World Series AND an NBA Championship? Also, the only player with multiple major sport Championships??"

- Gene Conley - Milwaukee Braves, Boston Celtics

*Last base card of a 1927 Murder's Row NY Yankee (Phillies Coach) -
- Earle Combs - HOF

* 20 HOFer's (21 HOF Cards)

*Topps paid $125 per contract, beating Bowmans $100. Ted Williams got $400!

* #204 Angel Scull NEVER made it too the big leagues

* There are 7 different color schemes -
- yellow, light blue, green, red, orange, dark orange, and white

* There are 60 Rookies in this set!!

* During the Bowman vs. Topps war, 82 players still appeared for both companies in 1954

* Who led the entire 1950's in hits?? Richie Ashburn...a 1995 HOFer...

* With RC of Hank Aaron, Al Kaline, and Ernie Banks, who were the AL & NL Rookies of the year in 1953??

AL - Harvey Kuenn
NL - Jim Gilliam

- Both had cards in 1954, although Gilliams RC is 1953

Sorry, I get obsessed with this sort of stuff! I could go on...

[brick]

Congratulations. Love that set. If I didn't already have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel I would also do this set in mid grade.

[ALR-bishop]

60 rookies and 25 coaches/managers.

Congrats on the set

[t206blogcom]

Congrats! Job well done.

[CobbSpikedMe]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

Thanks for the comments!

Andy...wow, 10 years...I can't wait for your post of completion! Still very cool to me that there are others with similar goals. Good luck on your quest for the Aaron...I can say I never tire of that card. I think some day I will want another one, I miss the chase. I still find myself looking. It's a sickness. Kaline was my first of the big 3...I too love that card. I'd love to see a scan of yours...

Hey John,

Yup, 10 years and counting. I picked up the Warren Spahn from Kit Young as one of my first real vintage cards when I got back into the hobby at the end of college. I also picked up my first T206 (Hannifan) and a 1956 Ernie Banks at the same time. I was hooked on vintage from then on and it's been a great ride. I decided to go after the entire 1954 Topps set no matter how long it took. There have been times where I've picked up a bunch of commons and times where I've only picked up a couple cards in an entire year. That's why it's taking so long. But I always planned on it being a very long journey and knew I wouldn't be killing the set quickly.

Here are a couple of my cards including my Kaline.

Thanks a lot,

AndyH

[cubsfan-budman]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

Some fun facts on the 54s...

* I have or am working on just about every Topps vintage set, and this is the only time I have notice they have three cards from the same team IN A ROW.

#115 Rip Repulski - St. Louis Cardinals
#116 Steve Bilko - St. Louis Cardinals
#117 Solly Hemus - St. Louis Cardinals

Sorry, I get obsessed with this sort of stuff! I could go on...

Awesome Trivia!

[sox1903wschamp]

Congrats John. Thank you for sharing.

[Harliduck]

Thanks all!

Nice cards Andy, thanks for posting. That Al is NICE...great card.

Al...25 coaches/managers...shows you how hard up they were! Still hard to think about all the players they couldn't get contracts for....imagining Mantle, Musial, Feller, ect on a 54 Topps card is crazy...of course those would have been PRICEY and I would't be done right now, haha.

[Cardboard Junkie]

Johnny Lipon is really Lipton?? Never heard that before. U sure?

[Harliduck]

Good catch CJ....Haha...

When I go for a set I google everything I can for info and read as much and learn as much as I can (how I found this site) and remember reading that in an article somewhere...and not knowing Johnny Lipon very well I took how PSA spelled it as gospel, when I should have known to check that...here is the article I read a while back -

http://www.psacard.com/Articles/Arti...eball-card-set

"There were a few uncorrected error cards but none that added any value to the standard price. Card # 14 of Preacher Roe has February misspelled on the back; and card #19 of Johnny Lipton has the Orioles team name on the front, White Sox team on the back with Lipton wearing a Red Sox cap. Card #178 of Bill Glynn has his name spelled Gylnn on the front. One very popular card is #139 of the O'Briens, brothers Johnny and Eddie on the same card. Another card of interest was # 226 of the Baltimore Orioles Jehosie Heard, who on the back of his card is listed as "Little Jehosie" standing 5 feet 7 ½ inches tall and weighing only 147 lbs."

[PowderedH2O]

I am right with you on that 54 set. I am down to the three rookies to complete it. I would call my set Vg-Ex overall. My 250 Williams is probably g/vg, as is my Willie Mays. My Jackie Robinson and 1 Williams are both VG. Most of the others are Vg-Ex or Ex. I should probably slow down on working on other sets and put together the money it takes to get the last three. Hopefully in the next few months I can chip away at them. But, having 247 out of 250 in an almost 60 year old set ain't too bad.

[ALR-bishop]

On the contrary, it is quite good

[ALR-bishop]

white arm stripe---recurring print defect

[Harliduck]

Powdered...only 3, nice!

ALR...it sure would be neat one day to see all your variations and oddballs, wow. Your collection is amazing. I had to click to page 1 to see if mine had the armband, haha.

[Zach Wheat]

[QUOTE=Harliduck;1113333]Some fun facts on the 54s...

*Only time a card and player represents Four different teams -
#19 Johnny Lipon
- Pictured in Red Sox Uniform
- Listed on front as a Baltimore Oriole
- Listed on back as a Chicago White Sox
- Mentioned in the dialogue on back as a St. Louis Brown
Whats really funny is they misspelled his name, it's actually Johnny Lipton

* Rookie card of one the coolest trivia questions..."Who is the only player in sports history to win a World Series AND an NBA Championship? Also, the only player with multiple major sport Championships??"

Congrats! And thanks for the fun bit of trivia...

[GoldenAge50s]

Whats really funny is they misspelled his name, it's actually Johnny Lipton


Not true Zack---Lipon is his correct name & spelling.

[brob28]

Congrats John! Anytime a vintage set is completed is time to celebrate. I completed a '56 set a few months ago and felt like a million bucks afterward. Good luck on your '61 set, I'm about 85% done with mine - another great set.

BTW - I'll guess a 6 on the Wilhelm due to the lower right corner looking a tad soft. Bottom line on it though, is it's a great looking card