1952 Topps Variations - NNOF

[ALR-bishop]

The gentleman involved died unexpectedly in 2007. He was not a transplant but a lifelong San Antonio resident. San Antonio is basketball and football town. I have not come across many ( any) hard core baseball card collectors here and our paths never crossed despite the fact I had been in SA since 1995

His wife left his card room alone for years and one day at a Bible class heard my wife talking about us going on a trip to Arizona to see some spring games and meet with some fellow card collectors. She asked my wife if I would review what she had and see if I knew how she could dispose of it. I thought it would be a bunch of modern stuff, and there was every major league and minor league set you can think of through 2007, but he also had full Topps and Bowman runs and some older football and basketball sets.

In addition to a full 52 set, he also had a good portion of a second set that was autographed, included an autographed Campos black star. He had a lot of autographed balls and photos too and numerous old hobby publications

Most was organized into sets but much of it was packed in drawers and suitcases awaiting his retirement The volume of material was staggering. Each wall of his study were lined with shelves full of binders, and there was a also a closet stuffed with stuff. It was a lot of fun going through it all.

I put her in touch with Al C from Love Of The Game and after meeting with him here she chose to sell if off through his auctions. I doubt I will ever come across anything like it in San Antonio again, and it was a good tutorial for my wife in what to do with my stuff.

[Brianruns10]

It had to have been erased. Because the black ink was it's own printers plate, and if it were an error, I'd expect to see some of the black border missing too. The fact that JUST the signature is absent, but every other element from that printing layer is intact tells me it was removed.

Now for comparison, consider the House Yellow Tiger variation, which is a product of the ink not being applied evenly to one of the print plates. You can see this effect in that part of House's neck is green. It indicates that the dye layer was not applied evenly.

Basically, the absence of the signature is too perfect. It was erased after the fact.

[irv]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

The gentleman involved died unexpectedly in 2007. He was not a transplant but a lifelong San Antonio resident. San Antonio is basketball and football town. I have not come across many ( any) hard core baseball card collectors here and our paths never crossed despite the fact I had been in SA since 1995

His wife left his card room alone for years and one day at a Bible class heard my wife talking about us going on a trip to Arizona to see some spring games and meet with some fellow card collectors. She asked my wife if I would review what she had and see if I knew how she could dispose of it. I thought it would be a bunch of modern stuff, and there was every major league and minor league set you can think of through 2007, but he also had full Topps and Bowman runs and some older football and basketball sets.

In addition to a full 52 set, he also had a good portion of a second set that was autographed, included an autographed Campos black star. He had a lot of autographed balls and photos too and numerous old hobby publications

Most was organized into sets but much of it was packed in drawers and suitcases awaiting his retirement The volume of material was staggering. Each wall of his study were lined with shelves full of binders, and there was a also a closet stuffed with stuff. It was a lot of fun going through it all.

I put her in touch with Al C from Love Of The Game and after meeting with him here she chose to sell if off through his auctions. I doubt I will ever come across anything like it in San Antonio again, and it was a good tutorial for my wife in what to do with my stuff.

Great story, Al. Curious, did you offer or purchase anything from her? It would have been hard not too seeing that size of a collection.

Any idea how she made out at LOTG? Hopefully good!

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

The gentleman involved died unexpectedly in 2007. He was not a transplant but a lifelong San Antonio resident. San Antonio is basketball and football town. I have not come across many ( any) hard core baseball card collectors here and our paths never crossed despite the fact I had been in SA since 1995

His wife left his card room alone for years and one day at a Bible class heard my wife talking about us going on a trip to Arizona to see some spring games and meet with some fellow card collectors. She asked my wife if I would review what she had and see if I knew how she could dispose of it. I thought it would be a bunch of modern stuff, and there was every major league and minor league set you can think of through 2007, but he also had full Topps and Bowman runs and some older football and basketball sets.

In addition to a full 52 set, he also had a good portion of a second set that was autographed, included an autographed Campos black star. He had a lot of autographed balls and photos too and numerous old hobby publications

Most was organized into sets but much of it was packed in drawers and suitcases awaiting his retirement The volume of material was staggering. Each wall of his study were lined with shelves full of binders, and there was a also a closet stuffed with stuff. It was a lot of fun going through it all.

I put her in touch with Al C from Love Of The Game and after meeting with him here she chose to sell if off through his auctions. I doubt I will ever come across anything like it in San Antonio again, and it was a good tutorial for my wife in what to do with my stuff.

Interesting story, thanks Al. I know some of the people that gave Al C advice on how to dispose of the '52 autographs. He had some rare autographs in the 600+ auto's - meaning he had to have started collecting autographs early on prior to the passing of many of the players in the set. In particular he had 2 auto's of what many consider to be the hardest autograph to obtain - Bill Meyers #387 - who resigned after the '52 season & passed shortly thereafter.

Here is a write up on those 2 cards from LOTG

http://loveofthegameauctions.com/Sig...-LOT13198.aspx

Z

[irv]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

Interesting story, thanks Al. I know some of the people that gave Al C advice on how to dispose of the '52 autographs. He had some rare autographs in the 600+ auto's - meaning he had to have started collecting autographs early on prior to the passing of many of the players in the set. In particular he had 2 auto's of what many consider to be the hardest autograph to obtain - Bill Meyers #387 - who resigned after the '52 season & passed shortly thereafter.

Here is a write up on those 2 cards from LOTG

http://loveofthegameauctions.com/Sig...-LOT13198.aspx

Z

I seen that card a few days ago and wondered why they called it the impossible card. The write up explained it and explained why it's current bid was so high. Not sure where that card will end up, price wise, but my gut tells me it is going to finish a lot higher than where it currently is.

[Republicaninmass]

One thing you have to love is the speculation of hobby enthusiasts. Last auction the Fannin was impossible, per one collector, however there were two graded at the time. This auction it's the Meyer, also two currently graded.

Howie Fox died in '55, the earliest if the 52 guys, and there are 5 graded examples! That being said, I was told for years the Meyer couldnt exist, and now 2 have surfaced. There ARE still 16 cards from the set not graded by psa/dna. Now we can speculate THOSE don't exist...for now

[ALR-bishop]

I did not offer to buy anything Irv. Felt a little conflicted about that it given her situation and how I was put in contact with her. I had all the Topps and Bowman regular sets and thought anything unique should go to auction to determine it's real market worth. I had a blast looking through the stuff. She offered to let pick some stuff for my time but given I am retired I almost felt I should pay her for the chance to rummage through it all. She debated selling it en mass to someone or putting stuff up for auctions, and chose auctions

In the end she sent me debit cards for a high end restaurant here and a couple of autographed Cardinal pictures ( I am originally from St Louis).

By the way, Al C was great. Came down and met with her described what he could do and how he would do it. She came to trust him and was happy with the results

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

One thing you have to love is the speculation of hobby enthusiasts. Last auction the Fannin was impossible, per one collector, however there were two graded at the time. This auction it's the Meyer, also two currently graded.

Howie Fox died in '55, the earliest if the 52 guys, and there are 5 graded examples! That being said, I was told for years the Meyer couldnt exist, and now 2 have surfaced. There ARE still 16 cards from the set not graded by psa/dna. Now we can speculate THOSE don't exist...for now

Just to close the loop here from the initial post, my NNOF came from this auction. I suspected the "NNOF" was probably erased, but wasn't sure. I have perhaps 5 NNOF which came from different sources who were long time collectors.

Ted, do autograph collectors pay a premium for the autographed cards with variations?

Thanks again for all the input.

Z

[irv]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I did not offer to buy anything Irv. Felt a little conflicted about that it given her situation and how I was put in contact with her. I had all the Topps and Bowman regular sets and thought anything unique should go to auction to determine it's real market worth. I had a blast looking through the stuff. She offered to let pick some stuff for my time but given I am retired I almost felt I should pay her for the chance to rummage through it all. She debated selling it en mass to someone or putting stuff up for auctions, and chose auctions

In the end she sent me debit cards for a high end restaurant here and a couple of autographed Cardinal pictures ( I am originally from St Louis).

By the way, Al C was great. Came down and met with her described what he could do and how he would do it. She came to trust him and was happy with the results

That's easy to understand.

Glad she made out good with the auction and was happy with the result.