Willie Mays etched bronze card set of 4 w/Mays autograph

[marvymelvin]

I have a set of four solid bronze cards that are etched with an image of Willie Mays 1952 Topps card, and the other three are images of him in various playing poses. They are mounted nicely in a black frame, grey outer matte, with a white inner matte autographed by Willie Mays and numbered out of 1500. Mine is 272/1500. I bought it with a large collection of 1950's and 60's Topps cards from a local estate. The thing is, I can't find anything about it online. There is one currently on eBay for a BIN of $129.99, but none in recent ebay history. And my Internet searches keep coming up empty. The one on EBay has a certificate of authenticity for the Mays autograph issued by Topps Stadium Club. Still no information coming up when I use TSC in my search. Does anyone have any information about the set? I would upload a picture but my camera battery is charging. I will try to add a picture tomorrow.

Thanks,
Brad

[marvymelvin]

So here are the photos of my framed and matted set of Willie Mays, etched in flat heavy bronze of 4 images, all four the size of a standard baseball card. There are no markings, anywhere except for Willie Mays autograph and the number of edition.

I searched every possible key words in the universe and got nothing. I mean nothing. There are actually only two relevant hits: my posting here on net54, and one set listed on Ebay.

I have conversed with the Ebay owner as I am interested in another set for a friend who is a Mays/Giants fan and he is always bugging me for mine. The one on Ebay has been listed multiple times and started out much higher but is now down to $99.00. He also has a picture of a certificate from Topps Stadium Club. My set is missing the cert.

So again back to searching the net but now with Topps as a possible party involved in the creation and/or distribution. Still nothing. Does anyone know any thing about it?

Thanks, Brad

Maybe this would be best posted on the autograph forum??

[mrmopar]

I can't give you anything you don't already have from your set and the auction, but Topps did sell a bunch of stuff directly in the 90s through their Members Only club I believe. I remember nearly pulling the trigger on a special set of those basketball rookie reprint cards that were inserts in the mid 90s, but thinking it was too much i eventually passed.

I also have some larger Topps card reprints in some sort of bronze like material. I want to say they were maybe 4x6. I bought them on ebay years back. There were 4-5 different and I think Mays was one of them. Maybe a 64 Topps card. i'll have to find them to know more.

[marvymelvin]

Thanks Curt. I am surprised that something with 1500 copies, that is an attractive display, complete with Mays signature doesn't have more information that is out there. There are 1499 other people with this set in their hands, I would think that at least a few of which are on this board, or have at least posted a comment somewhere.

Pictures just look funny because of the nature of the etching on brass. Up close and in person it is stunning, and me not already having a Mays signature I chose this one as my Mays autograph. I guess if there are no takers at 99.00 on the eBay example, value is whatever I think I would want to pay. 50.00 to 75.00 ish. It was part of the estate collection, we just didn't know how to value it into the final price.

Any other suggestions would be great.
Thanks,
Brad

Originally Posted by mrmopar

I can't give you anything you don't already have from your set and the auction, but Topps did sell a bunch of stuff directly in the 90s through their Members Only club I believe. I remember nearly pulling the trigger on a special set of those basketball rookie reprint cards that were inserts in the mid 90s, but thinking it was too much i eventually passed.

I also have some larger Topps card reprints in some sort of bronze like material. I want to say they were maybe 4x6. I bought them on ebay years back. There were 4-5 different and I think Mays was one of them. Maybe a 64 Topps card. i'll have to find them to know more.