Presentation Sets

SayitaintsoJoe63

Recently, I came into several 1963 Topps cards that I was told came from a Presentation set. I was told that PSA won't grade these, as they don't meet the minimum size requirement.
First....can someone shed some light on what exactly presentation sets are, and why they are smaller than cards that came in packs.
And, second......if these are in fact a legitimate Topps issue.....why does PSA not grade them?

theBobs

Previous thread discussing presentation sets.

koby

It is my understanding that PSA does in fact grade these cards, only PSA does not label them differently.

SGC on the other hand specifically identifies these as special "presentation set" cards.

pc

<< <i>Previous thread discussing presentation sets. >>



everyone please read Buckwheat's comments on the second page!

LloydsBaseballCards

I looked at a Presentation Set about a year ago, it is amazing that the set given to "special" people (this one was give to the President of the NHL in 1963) was loaded with PD's (snow, snow, snow), and OC's to the point where these made up close to 40-50% of the set.

CDC4

Llloyd,

I am surprised that a presentation set would look that poorly, especially a set given to an NHL President. From what I've seen presentation sets were much sharper than regular issued cards. From what I've heard from experienced dealers is that many of these sets are much sharper because they were the first sets printed and since they were printed first the razors that cut the cards were sharp (since they were the first cut) which meant that the cuts were very clean and most of the cards looked superb. I've seen a 1962 presentation set and it was the prettiest 1962 set I've ever seen, I was able to pick up the Ruth/Gehrig card, which was a PSA 9. As for being shorter than normal cards I am not sure but I'm sure it's possible since sizes on cards weren't precise back then.


Carlo

Stump

The fact that the set had PD and OC is indicative of the thoughts in the 1960's. I started dealing in the early 70's and print defects and off center cards were not nearly as big a issue as it is today. Unless the card was miscut or cut sideways a little the oc did not matter. It still had to have nice corners but no one was using a loop. The eye can lie to you on corners. So what dealers considered a Mint card in the 60's today may be NM 7.

Dave

waitilltheytrytosell

If you have a pile of normal production cards, you will have cards that smaller and larger than the average size of 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", and maybe even some that measure right on the money. When some rows of cards are cut on the small side, there must be some rows cut of larger sized cards. The only scraps left over are the borders of the sheet. The problem with cards that people often like to call presentation cards is they always seem to be found on the small side. So where did all the larger size cards go? These sheets were not cut using the same process as regular sheets. They were cut on a much smaller scale, and since they are consistently smaller in size, then you must assume that they were cut more than once. A normal sized 132 card sheet, cut up to produce regular sized cards, would need to be cut 27 times, with just border scraps left over. A sheet cut up for presentation cards would almost have to be like a hand crafted sculpture, with scraps not only from the border, but also from between the cards on the sheet. The hand crafting of sheets and over-sized cards is not an artform performed only by somebody designated by Topps. This is why it is difficult for grading companies to treat them the same as regular production cards. The "presentation" label is almost a qualifier, not in a negative way, but just letting you why it looks the way it does.