1955 Topps
This set was my main introduction into the modern card marketplace (after being away since the junk wax era). Around a year ago, it went up for auction on ebay as "low-mid grade". There was little interest because it was a jewelry dealer who mentioned that horrid "estate sale", and while most of the huge cards were graded, the Clemente was not.
Run for the hills, especially for someone who's fairly green to the new card world. Right? But I wasn't able to dismiss it so quickly.
Not only did the PSA HOFers have amazing eye appeal for their grade, but I could not see any major damage on the Clemente, which looked like a grade 4-5. The modest L/R centering shift (and everything else I'd learned at that point about diagnosing fakes) appeared legit to my relatively untrained eye. So I looked into the jewelry shop selling it. Wrote them and asked why the Clemente was one of the few HOFers not graded.
Finally, I decided it was worth the risk. The '55 T was a set I'd always wanted anyway, because I value its elite level top 10 cards more than the missing Mantle and second-tier HOFers like Campanella, Feller, and Reese bother me. Could just cheaply(well, at the time) add a low grade '56 T Mantle to it. And if something went wrong, I could always return it.
When the package got here, I could hear the phrases "no creases and measure correctly" repeat in my mind about the Clemente, as if willing them to be true. Thankfully, that was the case. There are a few very minor pock marks near the bottom left corner, but I doubt they'd push the grade below a 4. Even if they do, it's still a nice card and the set was a great deal.
Included a closeup of the pocks (if anyone wants to speculate). They look worse in the pic than in hand.
Guess I should get off my lazy ass about submitting and find out
206/206
Avg grade: 4.12
Top 10 cards w/ grade:
164 Roberto Clemente (R): 4
123 Sandy Koufax (R): 3
194 Willie Mays: 2
2 Ted Williams: 3
210 Duke Snider: 3
47 Hank Aaron: 4
50 Jackie Robinson: 2
124 Harmon Killebrew: 5
198 Yogi Berra: 5
28 Ernie Banks: 4
