May 2015 SMR Magazine

[TanksAndSpartans]

I rarely spend much time with these - I like that there are always quotes from collectors in the set registry articles re: which cards are tough, etc., but I'm usually done with the magazine in 10 minutes or so.

But this issue is really good in my opinion. There is an article on 48 Leaf boxing. I had no idea there was a card so rare that "less than 10 have surfaced"! And the part about the card stock implying the set was also released in 49 matches up with the 49 football set being from a different card stock than the 48.

And there is a T206 article - may not be that interesting for you experts, but it was a nice primer for someone like me who doesn't collect baseball.

One thing that jumped out - David Hall is a big T206 collector with something like 4900 out of a possible 5200 variations. Is that the same guy in the ESPN 30 for 30 who said he didn't think the PSA 8 Honus Wagner was trimmed?

[Exhibitman]

On the Graziano issue, here is an entry from my blog in 2009:

July 14, 2009: A New Graziano Surfaces

As my loyal readers know, the 1948 Leaf Rocky Graziano is among the rarest boxing cards and is the most expensive card out there. In May I was contacted by someone who discovered a new specimen of this card in some papers and other cards left to her by her father. Two months later, the card is in a spiffy new SGC 50 (vg-ex) holder and residing in a very happy collector's hands. The purchase price on the card, raw with a guarantee to pass muster with SGC, was reportedly in the same neighborhood as the price that the last one sold for in auction on Ebay (see my report below).

The great thing about this card, from my perspective, is provenance. It came from outside the hobby via a lineal descendent of the original accumulator and was found with some other cards from the set. From a cataloguer's perspective, that is very strong proof that the card was actually issued to the public. It may have been rapidly withdrawn from the market and replaced with something else, but it was issued. Meaning that it is a short print, not a test card or prototype, and that there could be more of these hens' teeth out there for another lucky treasure seeker to find. What is also interesting is that the card is a white back, same as the others I've seen in person, which bolsters the concept that the white backs were issued first, with the inferior stock gray backs coming later on. Another minor insight I had when thinking about the set, bolstered by the cards I have seen and have records of, is that the really garish printing mistakes from the set--missing colors, flipped around printings on the fronts, wrong backs--are all white backs. Perhaps Leaf was working out some kinks early on and those cards slipped out like the Grazianos?

[glchen]

Originally Posted by DezHood

One thing that jumped out - David Hall is a big T206 collector with something like 4900 out of a possible 5200 variations. Is that the same guy in the ESPN 30 for 30 who said he didn't think the PSA 8 Honus Wagner was trimmed?

Yep, that's the guy. I believe he said he looked at the Wagner personally before it was encapsulated. Also had regular ads in SMR looking for different T206 backs.