The impossible has happened for my Cardinals collection!

[frankhardy]

The impossible has happened for my Cardinals collection. I have "lassoed the Moon" so to speak. This week, I acquired a 1955 Topps Hocus Focus Wally Moon. This card is the rarest card in my collection, with only 1 other copy known. The other known copy is owned by Al. (When I say "known", I mean by those on this and other boards that follow this issue). This card was only recently discovered in the last few years. Before 2009, it was unknown who card #19 was in this set. Now, we know that is Cardinals outfielder Wally Moon. Of course, being a Cardinals collector that already owned the Harvey Haddix, I cringed when I found out that Wally Moon was in this very rare set. I thought I would never own one.

Last week, I got a tip that lead me to this card. It came with another Harvey Haddix. Both the Moon and the Haddix have condition issues on the back. They were glued to an album of construction paper. The Moon had black construction paper on the back and the Haddix had off white construction paper. I am thinking it is possible that they were originally affixed to the "Hocus Focus" album. At least the Moon could have been because of the black paper. Anyway, I did a few minor repairs to the back and they look somewhat better. Since my original Haddix is in better condition, I have listed it for sale to try to recoup money spent. I am using the copy with back issues for my collection.


So.....without further ado, here they are!





Before




After

[ALR-bishop]

Congratulation Shane. You did am amazing job cleaning up the backs.

For me, the Topps 55 Hocus set has been the hardest Topps baseball set actually issued at retail to complete. I have finished the 48 Magic Photos and the 56 Hocus Focus but am still short two of the 55s. There are tougher unissued Topps test sets but the 55 HFs are extremely scarce. Probably because they were small, ugly, hand cut, often underdeveloped and fragile

[sflayank]

i knew you were the one who outbid me
i could tell in the scans that the paper would come off
i should have bid more

[frankhardy]

Originally Posted by sflayank

i knew you were the one who outbid me
i could tell in the scans that the paper would come off
i should have bid more

I sure am glad you didn't bid higher! My max bid was way higher. It wasn't anything that I couldn't realistically pay, but it would have hurt! I would have had to sell some things that I wanted to keep.

[sflayank]

i screwed up
i had the unknown spook jacobs not the moon
i needed them both
you want to sell the bad haddix back out?

[toppcat]

Excellent pickup Shane-killer cards!

[Mark70Z]

Awesome pickup. Thanks so much for sharing this rare beauty!

[frankhardy]

Originally Posted by sflayank

i screwed up
i had the unknown spook jacobs not the moon
i needed them both
you want to sell the bad haddix back out?

I kept the bad Haddix and have my nicer Haddix on Ebay.

[cardinalcollector]

Shane, congrats on getting one of the ALL TIME tough Cardinals.

Randy

[Leon]

Congrats Shane.
BTW, you should start coming out to the local shows popping up. You never know what you might find.

Originally Posted by frankhardy

The impossible has happened for my Cardinals collection. I have "lassoed the Moon" so to speak. This week, I acquired a 1955 Topps Hocus Focus Wally Moon. This card is the rarest card in my collection, with only 1 other copy known. The other known copy is owned by Al. (When I say "known", I mean by those on this and other boards that follow this issue). This card was only recently discovered in the last few years. Before 2009, it was unknown who card #19 was in this set. Now, we know that is Cardinals outfielder Wally Moon. Of course, being a Cardinals collector that already owned the Harvey Haddix, I cringed when I found out that Wally Moon was in this very rare set. I thought I would never own one.

Last week, I got a tip that lead me to this card. It came with another Harvey Haddix. Both the Moon and the Haddix have condition issues on the back. They were glued to an album of construction paper. The Moon had black construction paper on the back and the Haddix had off white construction paper. I am thinking it is possible that they were originally affixed to the "Hocus Focus" album. At least the Moon could have been because of the black paper. Anyway, I did a few minor repairs to the back and they look somewhat better. Since my original Haddix is in better condition, I have listed it for sale to try to recoup money spent. I am using the copy with back issues for my collection.


So.....without further ado, here they are!





Before




After

[ALR-bishop]

http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrBT...dxhSVvqrJpL7U-
http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrBT...Ga_BnCpg8txac-

[frankhardy]

Al,

In that second article, he mentions Jason Eggert and the last two discoveries. That is the guy that I bought my first Haddix from.

[Section103]

Wow!!!

I am completely jealous. As a Moon collector (see my very recent post in July pickups in this post war forum), this is one of the VERY few cataloged cards Im still chasing. If you or Al come across another one (very unlikely) or decide to sell (still unlikely) please, please, please keep me in mind.

Congrats- you definitely beat me to a proverbial white whale.

Edited to add that Im sick: Im sure I would have lost, but the auction never even came across the various followed searches I have set up. Gah!

[Beatles Guy]

Nice pickup. As a fellow Cardinals collector, it's nice to see a passionate collector own this card.

[OlderTheBetter]

As a long-time Cardinals fan myself I do admire the collecting passion of the OP. It's so much fun to acquire long-sought-after items.

[CurtisFlood]

Nice pickup Shane!