[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by brian1961

It seems to me Jake has identified the most crucial question in this discussion. There might be "a ton" of ungraded 1952 Topps Mantles, but come on, do you really think their technical grades would come out that high? Remember all those stories you've heard in your life about someone saying, "I'm sure it will grade MINT, or at the very least "NEAR MINT - MINT". Then it's graded by PSA or SGC and ....

Not to re-route this discussion one whit, but there was the most staggering exception that occurred some time last year. PSA's Joe Orlando put up a scan in his "Joe's Tweets" of a card that had just come through their grading mill---the second PSA 10 GEM MINT 1953 Topps #82 Mickey Mantle. To think that significant card had been a heretofore unique 1 of 1 for over 20 years, and now a still minuscule 1 of 2. The pair are nevertheless extremely valuable, and with a POP of only 2 at that level, the price point is still stratospheric. Be that as it may, I would imagine when the owner of the first '53 Gem Mint Mick saw Joe's Tweet, it was not "sweet" news to him.

Even the most crusty dinosaurs who have a "nice" ungraded '52 Topps Mickey will have had to have noticed the boo coo bucks being earned by other owners of said card ALL involved professionally-graded specimens. If they refuse to acknowledge the obvious, let's hope for their sake they do not wait until death or dementia overtakes them. At least with the Lucky 7 Ty Cobb find, there was a very happy ending for the family of the original owner of the cards. "Twas not always the case ....

---Brian Powell

Another issue is if your house burns down, its a heck of a lot easier to prove the value of a PSA graded psa 7 card versus a card you are saying 'is mint' to the insurance company. You would think at least for insurance reasons the card would get graded especially if its a high end card..