Notoriously Tough PostWar HOFer Cards

[quitcrab]

1968 Willie Mays and 1972 Aaron in action .... Centering is awful. Nothing on the left a lot on the right,

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by quitcrab

1968 Willie Mays and 1972 Aaron in action .... Centering is awful. Nothing on the left a lot on the right,

Hey, check out the December pickups thread to see the Mays IA I got my hands on recently. Actually, there's two of them there, but the second one is what I'm referring to.

[judsonhamlin]

I had a heck of a time finding a 53 Bowman Eddie Mathews that wasn't really off center top to bottom. Finally got a nice Ex+ one that wasn't overpriced this summer.

[Brianruns10]

Any centered HOFers from the '52 Topps set can be a tough proposition. The Berra and the Mays, I've almost NEVER seen centered. I once saw a Berra on ebay that was dead centered, and I swear it went for more than double the PSA SMR value.

But the sleeper, I think, is the Matthews card. For all the pomp and circumstance of the Mantle, he was a double print, and already well known enough that his card was more likely to be saved.

The Matthews, meanwhile, is a perfect storm of rarity: single print, part of the toughest high series in all post war card sets, the last card in the set and prone to the same problems as the Pafko, and his card come with some of the worst centering I've ever seen. And it's his one, TRUE Rookie card.

I bought a PSA 5 Matthews in 2011, dead centered. I mean perfect. I paid a fair amount over SMR, and I have no regrets because I've NEVER seen another one like it come up on ebay.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

I had a heck of a time finding a 53 Bowman Eddie Mathews that wasn't really off center top to bottom. Finally got a nice Ex+ one that wasn't overpriced this summer.

Judson

DITTO....for the 1953 BOWMAN (color) Yogi Berra.

Both Berra (#121) and Mathews (#97) were the 1st corner cards on their respective 32-card sheets; therefore, very tough to find centered.

Incidently......how was the recent Valley Forge show for you ?


TED Z

[MattyC]

So many awesomely tuff cards mentioned here, fellas. That 52 Mathews, along with the Berra, I've seen routinely brutally centered.

That 69 Reggie is almost impossible, too. Right up there with his 64.

Here's a random one I noticed today looking at cards with my pops: 1958 Elston Howard. I checked VCP scans of sold cards, and it seems none have perfect centering and are print-dot free.

Reminds me of the 1975 Mini Claudell Washington and Frank Tanana cards. Both of those are just mangled right out of the pack...every damn time!

[brian1961]

Sorry JollyElm, here comes another mention of Mickey Mantle!

The last year of my youth where I seriously attempted to complete a Topps set was 1969. With Mick retiring in the spring, I was thrilled there was going to be "one more for the road". I bought as many nickel packs as I could of that series in what would be the last year for the five-cent pack.

I wound up pulling two Mickey Mantles, but both of them were so off-center side to side that in my mind each was only a few microns away from being mis-cut.

Soon, time ran out for that series, and I had to be content with at least having Mantle. That's such a swell pose of Mick, with the overcast background symbolizing to me the end of the line of Mickey Mantle's playing career. I should have tried writing to The Trading Card Company in Farmington Hills, Michigan that fall and see if they had any well-centered copies of Mick. They came through for me on a lot of other occasions, though.

COULD OF, SHOULD OF, but I unwisely assumed all '69 Topps Mickey Mantles were severely off-center. So untrue, but that's what we got in Arlington Heights, Illinois where I lived back then. Also, that was a typical way for a 15-year old to reason a situation out.

Oh well. In 1969, Lou Brock was another one that I also recall being "impossible" to find decently centered. No news on that well-known toughie.

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukkah. Cheers--Brian Powell