1954 Topps Original Artwork (ebay listings)

[Section103]

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Know anything about these? Legitimate?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-TOPPS-A...item258f9c9196

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-TOPPS-H...item258f9cda5d

[ALR-bishop]

I know a guy who has collected some of these, but I think he bought them from Topps Vault and they came sealed with a certificate. I will ask him to take a look at these. The sellers feedback and other sale items seem a mismatch

[spacktrack]

They are identical to the ones sold by REA in the most recent auction:

http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/...x?itemid=30930

[Section103]

Thanks!!

[Brianruns10]

I guess it could be legit, but I'm always bothered when quality vintage items like these turn up as items being sold by dealers who sell modern junk, who don't have the eye or frankly the appreciation that a dealer in vintage would have. Personally I don't do business with them because I don't think they have the experience level to judge an item's worth or quality. And frankly, this guy is greedy trying to almost double what he paid for it through the auction house.

I'll save my money for guys like Probstein.

[spacktrack]

Originally Posted by Brianruns10

And frankly, this guy is greedy trying to almost double what he paid for it through the auction house.

To be clear, REA did not sell the ones listed on eBay. They are identical in style, not identical player selection.

[toppcat]

This is only semi-related to the discussion here but as I wrote recently on my blog, Irwin Hasen of Dondi fame was noted by the Card Collectors Co.to have done the illustrations for the 1955 Topps baseball reverses. Looking at the 1954 artworks, its seems possible to me he drew the earlier year as well as they style looks a lot like his.

http://toppsarchives.blogspot.com/20...-new-info.html

[stone193]

I've been buying Topps art for card backs since 1991 and am by no means an expert.

The easiest to feel comfortable about? Those with the "Toppsvault" COA.

I have bought pieces from Mike Gidwitz (without the stamp or COA) whom I trust and since the price was very reasonable, it wouldn't bother me if they were found to be fake.

Another "group" of artwork that I would also have piece of mind? Those with the Auction (Guernsey) stamp on the back. Many dealers bought boatloads of these at the auction and were selling them in SCD in the early 90s.











What interests me about the artwork from the auction? It's not complete.



(No printing)

I can only guess that perhaps this was the part of the process where they were going to do a "paste-up" for a subsequent card proof?

I think these items are a bit overpriced now IMO. I'm totally out of the game for that kind of dough.

[Section103]

All great comments - thank you. Clearly, the items on eBay seem overpriced compared to history and I probably wont bid on any unless compulsion overcomes me. These were the first Ive seen of their kind (at least, that I remember) so they are intriguing.

Now I know what to look for.

[ALR-bishop]

Thanks for dropping in Mike

[stone193]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Thanks for dropping in Mike

Always a pleasure Al.

Looking forward to seeing you.

[laughlinfan]

Full disclosure - let me start out by saying I did buy the Hank Aaron artwork.

Got it in the mail today, and I am very happy with it. I have no doubts as to its authenticity - all of the earmarks are there. There are no stamps from 1989 or Topps Vault indications. I have other pieces that were for whatever reason not kept by Topps - not sure if in some cases they were returned to the artist or simply given away, but it seems about half of the years I have seen artwork for were sold through the 1989 auction and/or the Vault, and the other half not. I think the other pieces he has for auction on the Bay run from overpriced to ridiculously overpriced, but I suspect his achieved price on the Aaron will blind him of that for a while. The Kaline is nice - the others I would be surprised to see sell for much over $50, probably closer to $30 for most of them, but again, they are truly 1 of 1, so I could always be surprised, and the value on these is highly subjective. Aaron was one of my favorite players growing up, and I do collect some of the Topps artwork when I see it. The 1954 Topps Aaron rookie is such an iconic card, and a holy grail for me in the 70s, that I had to take a shot at getting the art for it. I was happily surprised that the other bid stopped at the initial bid.

Thanks for the info on the artist, Dave - looking at the piece, and comparing it to other drawings by Irwin Hasen - I would say that he is very likely the artist. In addition, "Henry Aaron" is written on the back in pencil, and I saw a sample of Hasen's handwriting, and it would appear that Hasen may have written the name on the back as well based on my crude(!) handwriting analysis. The missing text on these, as Mike pointed out, is interesting. Since the captioning of the comics on the card backs was not lettered by an artist in the 1954 set, I assume that the final paste up text was typed and pasted just the same way the stats and bio were for these cards.

[Zach Wheat]

The ebay seller is more than likely related to the estate of a former Topps Director - Ric Mahig. You can google his accomplishments at Topps. He worked with other key people at Topps, mainly on the design and printing side of Topps. He was responsible for creating the famous Topps Bush cards from inception of design all the way through post production, and was involved as well as the Desert Shield cards. Sadly he passed away in 2012.

I have spoken to his son several times in reference to information on Topps sets, etc. and I believe this is his account.

I know he also consigned hundreds of full Topps sheets to REA. I believe this is the same person....and would explain his source of this unique stuff.

Z Wheat