Toughest '70s Baseball HOFers???
reelinintheyears
Posts: 241 ✭✭✭
As a collector of '70s and early '80s OPC baseball, I have known for a long time how incredibly tough many can be to find in PSA 7 or better but the scarcity of two cards in particular is mind boggling. They are the '76 #355 Steve Carlton and '74 #250 Willie McCovey (Washington variation). Only one of each has ever been graded by PSA and both are 5's! While I can understand the scarcity of the McCovey since it was a low production variation, the scarcity of the Carlton is absolutely amazing to me! The '74 #330 Juan Marichal isn't far behind with only two graded by PSA, a 5 and a 6. Is anyone aware of any obscure '70s issues that are scarcer than these with respect to HOFers (the scarcity of graded commons is certainly understandable)?
BBCE currently has one '74 OPC box available for $15k and no packs; they have no '76 OPC packs or boxes. Given the scarcity and cost of unopened early '70s OPC (and the difficulty of pulling anything that isn't poorly centered) I highly doubt that we'll be seeing too many new rips happening, unless prices take a dive at some point in the future. So I am not expecting the populations of early '70s OPC baseball to change significantly in the near future, unless there are some folks with large collections of nice raw cards who decide to submit some once the grading prices drop (I have some that I plan to submit when the price is right, but it's a miniscule amount).
I am currently focusing on '74 HOFers (plus Pete) in PSA 5 or better, so if anyone has any raw in decent shape or PSA/SGC 5 or better that they're willing to sell or trade please PM me. Thanks!
Comments
I must not be understanding this correctly. You are not saying that PSA has only graded 2 copies of the 1974 Juan Marichal card, are you? That would seem crazy to me, as that is one of the coolest looking cards ever made!
Just got this the other day.
OK, I just caught that you were talking OPC, not Topps. That makes more sense.
The Marichal high leg kick is one of the most classic pitching deliveries in baseball history...love this card!
Here's my Topps PSA 8. I've studied it closely front and back and assume that it didn't receive a higher grade due to the tiny orange dots in the black areas; the front and back centering and corners are perfect and the borders are bright white. Would such a minor print defect normally keep a card from getting a 9?
@reelinintheyears said:
Very nice card! I see that it is an older holder b4 the 1/2 point grading system. I think that it has an excellent shot at a PSA-8.5. Centering, color and registration check all the boxes for an 8.5.
Since 9's are only going for about $100, I'd have to wait until prices come way down before resubbing it. I would probably crack it out rather than trying a review since I think it would have a better shot of getting a 9 that way; I'm thinking that a review would likely result in a half point bump at best. I just reviewed the grading scale and even a 10 can have a slight printing imperfection so you never know; there are only four 10's so that would be a very nice result indeed!
Hard to tell from that photo, but certainly an attractive card!
I originally subbed the PSA 5 1974 Marichal. It was the best condition one I could find after searching for a couple years for raw ones. The 1974 OPC baseball set is notoriously tough for high grade.
Almost all 1970 Topps All star cards.
1970 All-Star Cards are such a pain to get centered. 1978 centered Eddie Murray as well as 1979 Ozzie Smith too.
It's an unexpected but pleasant surprise for the submitter of one of the cards in question to respond to my post! I suppose this would be the logical place for that to happen! What did you end up doing with this card? I've been searching for quite a while for raw '74 OPC's to submit some day; I have what I believe will be the first Fisk to grade higher than 7 NQ. Thanks for your comment!
Would add 76 Brett, 76 Simmons, 76 Torre and the 79 Molitor
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
I sold it last year to someone who is working on completing the whole set. I had put together about half the set before I quit that project and broke it up. Good luck on the '74 Fisk! As it sounds like you're aware, it seems to be nearly an impossible task to find one in high (7+) grade that would not have either an OC or MC qualifier. I have not seen images of one of the two PSA 7 NQ's of that card. I know one of them would have otherwise been a 9 (OC) but was subbed with request for no qualifiers because the guy with the 1974 set doesn't like qualifiers in his collection. I think it is pretty likely that the other PSA 7 would have a similar look, as it might just not be possible to find one that would be NQ. If someone were to eventually land a 7.5 in that card, it would be truly amazing, and quite valuable on the market as a pop 1 none higher.
https://psacard.com/auctionprices/baseball-cards/1974-o-pee-chee/juan-marichal/summary/247092
The corners are minty, the borders are bright white, there are no significant print defects, and the back centering is good. What are my chances of getting an 8 NQ these days given the diamond cut and marginal l/r centering?
That is a great Fisk card. The big question mark I would have for that card is the tilt. I'm not sure on how severe PSA grades tilted cards
Picked this up a few years ago after failing to get a bump on any of my 3 8’s. Believe there are less than 15 9’s and just a couple of 8.5’s.
The angle of your photos contribute to the appearance too. You'd probably get a better idea of grade potential if you posted hi res scans instead of handheld photos if possible. That said, it is still a nice example of that card considering how much worse most of them are. Here is my 8 (OC) by comparison, which is much more OC than yours and also has some obvious fisheyes too:
Also for you to compare, I found a different card from that set that has a PSA 8 NQ but worse tilt than yours:
https://ebay.com/itm/403000206903?hash=item5dd4af2637:g:6koAAOSwRiJeE22d
I think you really do have a good shot at an 8 NQ on yours if you compare just these two examples I've posted here.
Thanks for your analysis! Unfortunately, the resolution of my printer/scanner isn't very good. Based upon the way PSA claims to evaluate the centering of tilted cards, technically it should grade an 8 NQ. However, based upon what I've been reading about how tough their grading has been recently I'm not overly confident that will be the case. The only way to know will be to submit it, which I won't do until the prices come way down.
What a coincidence, one of the cards I based this post on ('76 OPC Carlton) is currently for sale on ebay in a BVG 9.5 GEM MINT holder! As stated in my original post, the total PSA population for this card is one, and it's only a 5! I'm certainly no expert on sheet cut cards, so if anyone out there is what are the odds that this one is? What techniques can graders use to determine the likelihood of a card this is notoriously badly OC or MC being a sheet cut?
https://ebay.com/itm/154514399853?hash=item23f9c6a26d:g:YtMAAOSwaG1btZgQ
Since my original post, the first '74 OPC Marichal PSA 8 was graded (6 was previously the highest), which 4SC just sold in an ebay auction for $1,251! I was hoping to pick it up for around $350 tops, but obviously my estimate was waaaaay off! It went for quite a bit more than the '74 OPC Reggie Jackson PSA 8 (pop 2, one 9) that I was also interested in, which sold for $565. I didn't think there were so many Marichal or '74 OPC baseball collectors out there.
Maybe you woke them up with this thread.
With those results, I may have to bust my 1974 OPC pack...not!
No argument from me; the odds of pulling anything worthy of being graded are extremely slim! I've been fortunate a few times with raw card purchases from this set, but mostly have resorted to buying graded cards when prices have been within my reach. To me, that is what makes chasing high grade HOFers from this set challenging and rewarding at the same time. I'm 54 and will be lucky to complete this subset within my lifetime!