I do love the colors and the backs of this set. That being said, it is hard to believe that Topps won the card wars. Mantle and many of the big stars were with Bowman. All of the coaches and little known rookies with Topps. Plus Bowman even snuck in Williams for an early run in 54. The Bowman set had a nice cadence to it. Every team was represented in order. In 8 page sheets, you get the entire American League on one page in sequential order and the the same thing for the National League. The Bowman set is just so... boring. The names in cursive, the matte finish. Coming off the beautiful product in 53 and into a cutting edge/color TV set in ‘55, you would think they would have won against - especially since the Topps set in ‘55 only had 206 cards. But, by goodness Topps pulled it out and gave us the perfect, glorious, ‘56 set before becoming lazy, complacent, and (I and assuming) focused on cost savings with no competition and we ended up with sets like ‘79 - which should be made illegal if only for the terrible, hard to read, backs and that awful Topps logo on the front... but I digress.
If you haven’t read Dean’s book about the card wars, it is worth a read.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cardsagain74
1954 Topps
Present day, this set is obviously loaded at the top. But long before anyone knew that three of the generation's most recognized names would be making their debut in it, you have to wonder how this one made Topps better positioned to overtake Bowman before long (especially with the ongoing lawsuit at the time). The sense of desperation looms. Double Ted and all those coaches?
Despite all that, I actually don't mind it at all. The design is unique and the different background colors were a nice new touch.
My version is a shade rough, but it shows pretty well (and the Banks and Kaline border on mid grade). My focus here is just on the Hank though, and getting some opinions on its damage:
It looks like a small piece of tape was taken off the upper left hand corner. As you can see, it left a light rectangular border there (and thinned some of the paper a little too).
Do you think this would get a PSA number grade? Mk qualifier? Altered? I'd like to get a 1.5 or 2, but may not bother if it'll get an A.
250/250
Avg grade: 2.35
Top 10 cards w/ grade:
128 Hank Aaron (R): 1.5??
94 Ernie Banks (R): 2.5
201 Al Kaline (R): 3.5
250 Ted Williams: 1.5
1 Ted Williams: 2
90 Willie Mays: 2
10 Jackie Robinson: 1
50 Yogi Berra: 2.5
132 Tom Lasorda (R): 1
37 Whitey Ford: 3
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