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1971 Topps Rack Pack with an actual 71 card as the top header card--opening a rack

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  • ahopkinsahopkins Posts: 1,107 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @70ToppsFanatic said:

    @ahopkins said:
    Another '71 rack just popped up on eBay with a Clemente on back. 5th series. What do you guys think? Legit?

    Very quick opinion after reviewing listing on an iPhone. Header card is two-sided and cross punched. All cards showing appear to be the same series. Inter-cell seams appear to be the wide ones. Nothing weird so far, and visible centering is not bad. This is a rack I recognize (two Alston’s showing). It’s been listed before.

    Plus, if you buy it and do a speedy review at BBCE and there is an issue you can SNAD and get your money back.

    Might be worth considering.

    Thanks, Dave. I appreciate your feedback. But if I bought this rack, my wife would throw me out of the house with the rack. That means I'd have to live with one of you guys. But just think, you'd be getting a '71 rack in the deal.

    Andy

  • 70ToppsFanatic70ToppsFanatic Posts: 2,109 ✭✭✭✭

    @ahopkins said:

    @70ToppsFanatic said:

    @ahopkins said:
    Another '71 rack just popped up on eBay with a Clemente on back. 5th series. What do you guys think? Legit?

    Very quick opinion after reviewing listing on an iPhone. Header card is two-sided and cross punched. All cards showing appear to be the same series. Inter-cell seams appear to be the wide ones. Nothing weird so far, and visible centering is not bad. This is a rack I recognize (two Alston’s showing). It’s been listed before.

    Plus, if you buy it and do a speedy review at BBCE and there is an issue you can SNAD and get your money back.

    Might be worth considering.

    Thanks, Dave. I appreciate your feedback. But if I bought this rack, my wife would throw me out of the house with the rack. That means I'd have to live with one of you guys. But just think, you'd be getting a '71 rack in the deal.

    You can do what I do. Tell her it’s the rack or an affair.

    😉



    Dave
  • KendallCatKendallCat Posts: 3,052 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks, Dave. I appreciate your feedback. But if I bought this rack, my wife would throw me out of the house with the rack. That means I'd have to live with one of you guys. But just think, you'd be getting a '71 rack in the deal.

    You can do what I do. Tell her it’s the rack or an affair.

    😉

    That is funny Dave. Mine says I spend too much time on my iPad because at night I am always on it reading the board checking eBay, checking cards... could be worse. I could be at a bar drinking with college girls, but I don’t drink and too old for college girls. Plus any money spent there is less for my card budget!

    KC

  • waxman2745waxman2745 Posts: 793 ✭✭✭

    @ahopkins said:
    Another '71 rack just popped up on eBay with a Clemente on back. 5th series. What do you guys think? Legit?

    This pack just sold this morning at the BIN price of $6,500. Bid history says that there were no offers, just the buy it now. It was on eBay for less than a day.

    Adam
    buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
  • 70ToppsFanatic70ToppsFanatic Posts: 2,109 ✭✭✭✭

    Hopefully the buyer will send that pack to BBCE in short order to get it authenticated. It had no obvious primary characteristics that made it suspect. There are two secondary things I do wonder about related to the inverted cell that contains the star card.

    Quality control in those days was pretty poor at Topps. My first curiosity pertains to the misorientation of that cell. It’s not like the cutting machines randomly oriented the stacks of cards. Generally they should have all come out in the same orientation, but there is no way to rule out the possibility that a stack of cards might get misoriented. The fact that it happens to be the cell with the star card showing could be a coincidence I guess.

    The other quality control issue is that, again generally, Topps did try to avoid packs with duplicates showing. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but unless that pack happened to find it’s way to a retail store where the right kid came along (I.e. a dodger fan) and saw it, most of the guys I hung out with in those days were not interested in getting duplicates of Walter Alston. If it were a superstar, sure. But some old guy who was the manager of the dodgers? That pack would have been left in the box by most of the guys I knew and picked around. Who knows? Perhaps that is why it survived?

    I’ll stick with my original impression. The pack was worth a shot if the buyer is planning on a timely review by BBCE.



    Dave
  • grote15grote15 Posts: 29,858 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 21, 2019 7:21AM

    Duplicate cards on top of adjacent cells was not that uncommon during this era through 1974. The rack looks good IMO. I was tempted to buy it but price was a bit rich for me.



    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
  • grote15grote15 Posts: 29,858 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @waxman2745 said:

    @ahopkins said:
    Another '71 rack just popped up on eBay with a Clemente on back. 5th series. What do you guys think? Legit?

    This pack just sold this morning at the BIN price of $6,500. Bid history says that there were no offers, just the buy it now. It was on eBay for less than a day.

    There was no best offer option on it.



    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
  • PaulMaulPaulMaul Posts: 4,943 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The inverted cells seem commonplace up through at least 1972. Then there’s the fact that 1975 racks are oriented “upside down” from surrounding years. Who can explain all this?

  • 70ToppsFanatic70ToppsFanatic Posts: 2,109 ✭✭✭✭

    I’ve seen inverted rack issues and am not saying that it disqualifies the rack. It’s just curious that the inverted cell happens to be the one with the star card AND is also the one with the duplicate card showing.

    Given eBay return policies and no primary characteristic issues I think it would be safe to purchase that rack and promptly submit to BBCE for authentication.

    It has been listed before, and not just on eBay. I’ll bet we can find it in some auction house historical records.



    Dave
  • grote15grote15 Posts: 29,858 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The duplicate cards on top of adjacent cells and inverted cards are actually good signs imo as someone resealing or fabricating a rack would not want to draw attention by doing something like that and would also likely put Clemente on top instead of on back to maximize value.



    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
  • KendallCatKendallCat Posts: 3,052 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @grote15 said:
    The duplicate cards on top of adjacent cells and inverted cards are actually good signs imo as someone resealing or fabricating a rack would not want to draw attention by doing something like that and would also likely put Clemente on top instead of on back to maximize value.

    Very good points!

    KC

  • grote15grote15 Posts: 29,858 ✭✭✭✭✭

    One of two 52s PSA graded no less! Quite a way to start out selling on ebay!



    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
  • softparadesoftparade Posts: 9,281 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @grote15 said:

    One of two 52s PSA graded no less! Quite a way to start out selling on ebay!

    Oy Vey

    ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240

  • LarkinCollectorLarkinCollector Posts: 8,975 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 22, 2019 9:38AM

    @grote15 said:

    One of two 52s PSA graded no less! Quite a way to start out selling on ebay!

    Not only one, the seller has both of them for sale.

    @softparade said:

    @grote15 said:

    One of two 52s PSA graded no less! Quite a way to start out selling on ebay!

    Oy Vey

    Oy vey, indeed.

  • PROMETHIUS88PROMETHIUS88 Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @grote15 said:

    @waxman2745 said:

    @ahopkins said:
    Another '71 rack just popped up on eBay with a Clemente on back. 5th series. What do you guys think? Legit?

    This pack just sold this morning at the BIN price of $6,500. Bid history says that there were no offers, just the buy it now. It was on eBay for less than a day.

    There was no best offer option on it.

    Vintage Breaks is going to be ripping another 71 rack in the near future. I'm guessing it will be one of the two recently sold.

  • waxman2745waxman2745 Posts: 793 ✭✭✭

    Wow Dave, those are great looking 9's. A 9 from 71 Topps is a work of art. Thanks for sharing.

    Adam
    buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
  • PROMETHIUS88PROMETHIUS88 Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Vintage Breaks is going to be ripping another 71 rack in the near future. I'm guessing it will be one of the two recently sold.

    If they can buy at $6500 and sell the slots for an aggregate of over $13k they would be crazy not to do it. I would not be surprised if they were the buyer on both 1971 racks and the 1970 rack that sold earlier in the week.

    1971 Series 1 and 5 both have an extreme value PSA 9 card (Munson/ Clemente) to hype about. And the other big cards as PSA 9 in those series range from the high hundreds to the mid-high thousands. Hyping that kind of potential will hit those with the “fever” particularly hard.

    They also showed a 1975 Topps baseball regular rack that they are going to be ripping. There was at least one star on that one but don't remember who it was.

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  • secretstashsecretstash Posts: 1,396 ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 22, 2019 6:15PM

    If you sell the Mays, please connect with me. What a card.

  • grote15grote15 Posts: 29,858 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 23, 2019 7:04PM

    Can't get a good view of the seams between sections on that one and punch hole appears to be cross-hatch instead of large circular one.



    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
  • SdubSdub Posts: 736 ✭✭✭

    Wouldn't you rather have your rack pack sealed by BBCE instead of GAI? I understand there was a period of competency at GAI, but most folks dont' know the chronological order of when slabs were bad and good at GAI.

    Collecting PSA 9's from 1970-1977. Raw 9's from 72-77. Raw 10's from '78-'83.
    Collecting Unopened from '72-'83; mostly BBCE certified boxes/cases/racks.
    Prefer to buy in bulk.
  • grote15grote15 Posts: 29,858 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 23, 2019 9:50PM

    @Sdub said:

    Wouldn't you rather have your rack pack sealed by BBCE instead of GAI? I understand there was a period of competency at GAI, but most folks dont' know the chronological order of when slabs were bad and good at GAI.

    The vast majority of GAI graded packs in the first generation holders with the silver flips are perfectly fine (I have opened well over 100 of them from the 70s over the years), but as with any graded pack, the pack should be evaluated based on its own merits and attributes. Before PSA began grading packs, Steve sold GAI graded packs on a regular basis.

    That said, there were a number of questionable 71 racks holdered by GAI so it pays to be prudent.



    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
  • PROMETHIUS88PROMETHIUS88 Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭✭✭

    So, here it is. You guys follow these more than I do so I'm assuming this is one of the 71 racks that sold recently? Once again, $250/spot. Hell, some of you guys can probably tell who exactly is going to be in the pack!!

    https://www.vintagebreaks.com/featured-breaks/1971-topps-baseball-1st-series-rack-pack-54-spot-random-card-possible-psa-10-thurman-munson-worth-50-000-pete-rose-worth-20-000.html

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