1959 Bazooka

speeder

Hi all

I have been checking out some cards from the 1959 bazooka set. Wow, it would seem that hardly any of these would stand up to receiving a grade from PSA.
The only ones that i have seen slabbed were labeled "Authentic" no grade.
I remember submitting a Johnny Bench bazooka card once, i think maybe one or two of the dots (from the dotted line which surrounds the picture) were not visable,, came back "Authentic" no grade. Because of the lack of those 2 dots.

Are there any 59`s that have been graded ? (i don`t have access)

I looked in the Mickey Mantle master set registry, only the top 2 people even had a 59 and the leaders was marked "Authentic" no grade.



That raises another question, i remember when you were not allowed to enter a card in a players master set unless it was assigned a grade. No "authentic" cards allowed ?

Thanks, LEE

baseballfanatic

I believe A761506 who is on these boards has a bunch of nice looking Bazookas, including the 59's....

A761506

You can enter AUTHENTIC cards into the registry - they count as 3's.

As for 59 Bazooka's... they are extremely rare with a complete set of dashes. PSA has graded a few with numbers, but of those, I've only seen a couple that are cut perfect with all the dashes present.

PSA is really hit or miss with the dashes of late... I've seen some situations like the one you described with the Bench, where if even a small portion of the dashes were missing, they just labeled it authentic. And on the other hand, I've seen some cards that are missing 1 or 2 entire borders of dashes and they graded them with a numerical grade, and sometimes those numerical grades have been 8 or 9 on those. It's a real sore spot with me actually - they are extremely inconsistent on their standards used for grading these. I personally believe that if any portion, even a dash or two near a corner, is missing, the card should not be able to be assigned a grade of higher than 7. And if a card is missing more than 5% of all the dashes, it should not be assigned a number grade, simply Authentic.

I have not had much luck in finding 59's that are in decent shape. I do have a couple (Maz, Crandall with complete borders). I also have an uncut sheet of all 14 short prints, which if I cut them up, would all grade extremely well and would have perfect cuts with all the dashes, but I'm extremely hesitant to chop up what is probably the only uncut sheet of them in existence. Eventually, if I ever want to sell it, I will probably cut them up, as they likely will be worth a lot more individually graded than they are on the sheet.

ajw

How about some scans, guys?

And maybe a little background. Why are they so rare?

bobsbbcards

The cards shown below were in the most recent Mastro auction. The Banks is clearly missing some dashes on the left edge, as is the Turley to a lesser extent (on the left towards the bottom and possibly the top edge). I'm a little baffled as to how these didn't get labeled AUTHENTIC.

speeder

Ajw,

1959 was the first year that Bazooka (owned by topps) put gum in a box and put players pictures on the bottom of that box.
In 1959 there was only one player picture per box, the cards are 2-13/16 x 4-15/16 inches.
There were only 9 original player pics,, and 14 more were added later. Those 14 player pics are considered SP (short print)
Out of the 23 total player pics there are a number of top names. Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Drysdale, Snider, Banks.

So there are no panels floating around to carefully cut up. And the chances of there being many boxes to purchase are slim to none.

And Bob, your right. It looks to me like each one of those PSA-7 cards have dash lines that are missing.

Dare i say, maybe it was not "what" was submitted, but "who" submitted them ??

LEE

bobsbbcards

<< <i>
Dare i say, maybe it was not "what" was submitted, but "who" submitted them ??
LEE >>


You said it, not me.

Griffins

Maybe PSA bought them back and had them graded as "authentic". I"m sure it's happened before

speeder

All talk about cuts aside, those three 1959 Bazooka cards look to be (physically) in great shape !

That in itself is quite rare from the 59`s i`ve seen.

Look again at the scan of the Mantle slabbed card above, and thats from the #1 Mickey Mantle master set !!

Were any Mantle cards on the PSA pop. list ?

Its also one of the few sets that are not listed on the PSA set registry !

LEE

bobsbbcards

1959 BAZOOKA POP REPORT:

Bob Turley - one 6 and one 7
Del Crandall - one 6
Duke Snider - one 7
Ernie Banks - one 7
Orlando Cepeda - one 1-2 and one 3-4
Rocky Colavito - one 3-4
Willie Mays - two 6s

No Mantles (except authentics).