Toughest card in your set?

RayBShotz

Hope to get a rousing response to this one! Some times you hear the answer mentioned in other threads revolving around other topics. What is the toughest card/cards in your set whether it be condition or scarcity? Please exclude variations.

As a long time 1969 Topps collector the toughest card for me is:

#85 Lou Brock

This Brock is almost always off center; sometimes diamond cut.
It often exhibits what I will call surface snow. Spattering of white dots where maybe ink didnt lay down properly.
It is almost always at least a little bit out of focus. (You might even get 2 Brocks on one card!!)

I have yet to add this one to my set. The 7's are usually not very nice. The 8's dont come up very often and usually go for book + 50% at least.

Look forward to what others feel about the tough card/cards of your set.

RayB69Topps

HalleyGator

1887 Old Judge card of Hall of Famer BID McPHEE ...

It is the only card I still need for my HOF collection. Anyone got a few extra ones floating around?

DrNguyenVanFalk

Well, I just opened a case of '87s, so there should be a few McPhees in there . . . oh, you meant 1887. Never mind . . .

bosoxphan

Since I'm focusing on the 35 Goudey set right now, the toughest card is probably the Allen,Brickell,Jonard, Wilson card. None graded higher than 7 and only 5 cards graded higher than 5. Lucky to pick one up early on by luck.

bleacherbum

This is a little off the topic, but I rarely see PSA 8 1971 Rose's or Munson's up for auction in any form. And, just for the record, the SMR is way under on both of these. PSA 8 Rose's go for $500+ when they show up and the only Munson I've seen in the last 6 months went for $600.

Steve

zardoz51

I agree with Bleacherbum,

The Munson over the Rose. That $600 sale was a Buy it Now on ebay by a VERY astute collector who is familiar with this set. Not bad for a card that SMR's for $85.00. But let's not get me started on the accuracies of SMR pricing

mikeschmidt

1955 Bowman Birdie Tebbets card #232. Population ONE in PSA 8
1955 Bowman Ray Narleski #96. Population TWO in PSA 8, none higher.

I'll pay handsomely for either.

FB

The 72 set collectors have pretty much lucked out.

The most difficult cards to find in PSA 8 or better condition are all commons. #782 Larry Stahl and #178 Paul Schaal come quickly to mind as well as a bunch of the "In Action" cards - all due to centering.

I think that the worst star might be #51 Harmon Killebrew. It seems that every example that I've seen is OC or near OC top to bottom. There are a bunch of 8's out there but I don't believe that a 9 has been graded yet.

yawie99

one of the two psa 8 '53-54 parkhurst harry lumley cards (#1 one in the set) just sold on ebay for $2,500 - about five times its smr price. i don't even think there are many 7's of the card and the raw ones i've seen on ebay are usually no better than vg-ex.

Wayne8348

Since I'm doing the 65 set in PSA 8 the hardest card for me is #46 Bob Lee because it doesn't exist.

Wayne

Vargha

Most difficult -- 1951 Bowman #280 Overmire in PSA 8

Most expensive (a difficulty of sorts) -- 1951 Bowman #253 Mantle in PSA 10

CDC4

The toughest cards in the 1957 Topps set are # 300 Mike Garcia and #347 Hal Naragon, both have pops of 5. Garcia always tends to be off centered top to bottom. Naragon has a dark background, which shows a lot of snow on the card which makes it tough to make it in PSA 8.

-Carlo

Mitochondria

The toughest cards in my area of interest: 1969 Topps

1) Lou Brock #85; always off center. I can't even imagine what a PSA 9 would bring.

2) NL ERA Leaders #8: difficult to find well centered. Fortunately, I picked one up (PSA 9) in an auction that stated it was found in an unopened cello pack.

3) Tom Satriano #78. Difficult to find well centered. Obtained a PSA 8 for practically the cost of grading after a random e-mail request.

4) Reggie Jackson #260. Only 12 PSA 9 examples from the notorious 3rd series; even several of the 9's have marginal centering or unappealing diamond cuts. Thus, the true desireable PSA 9s are lower than this figure and probably in the hands of long-term collectors.

5) As a group: the third series (219-327). Finding well centered mint examples is extremely difficult.

Most plentiful and overpriced cards from 1969: #20 Ernie Banks and #50 Bob Clemente in PSA 8 and PSA 9.

69topps8

Ray - I recently sold a really nice PSA 7 Brock on eBay. I submitted it twice because I thought it was an 8 but I think it downgraded for print spots on the back. It sold for about $45. I paid $225 for my mid to high end 8 but they mostly sell for about $150. Kyle's Sportscards out of Colorado currently has a psa 8 for sale but I think he's asking about $250 which is kinda steep.

Frank - Are you referring to the in-action or the regular Killebrew? I always thought the IA was tougher but I see you have a 9. I just received a 9 on my #51 so there's at least one out there. I thought I had seen a few other 9's but I could be wrong.

Here are a few other tough cards:

1973 - Yastrzemski
1974 - Dal Maxville, Terry Harmon
1969 - #78 Tom Satriano, #110 Mike Shannon, #85 Brock

All-star cards from 1969 and 1970
In-action cards from 1972

JH

In 1964 Topps the toughest cards at this point are all commons.... #6 Hal Reniff, #99 Al Stanek, #435 Vic Davalillo, #492 Colts Rookies, #503 Earl Wilson... all of these except Stanek have yet to be graded at all, and Stanek does not have a PSA 8 or above....... After that there are another 15 cards that only have 1 card in PSA 8 and none above....and 25 cards with only 2 cards graded as PSA 8 and above...

mcastaldi

Actually, for 1972 I would argue that in addition to the Schaal IA and the Stahl two of the toughest cards are the Mays IA and the Aaron IA.
The pop on them is -
Mays IA - 29 in PSA8 and 3 in PSA9
Aaron IA - 17 in PSA8 and 1 in PSA9

While these appear to have sufficient pops, you almost never see these come up for auction. The last PSA8 Mays IA I saw on eBay had questionable centering for grade and went for about $140. So much for an SMR price of $55.

Two other cards that seem to be very tough from 1972 are #4 - 1st Series Checklist and also the Jose Cardenal Traded.

Mike

pinhigh

In my trials and tribulations, collecting the 1953 Bowman set in PSA 6 condition and well-centered, I have found these cards to be the most difficult for me:

#148 Billy Goodman (only two in existence in PSA 6 and I know that one is poorly centered)
#111 Jim Dyck (only three in existence but I haven't seen any of them)
#128 Whitey Lockman (there are many of them but difficult to find with good focus)

jaxxr

In 1957 BB how about # 406, Bob Hale, regardless of any grade by any company has anyone ever seen one focused properly. Perhaps good focus was not checked in the original photo shoot and does not exist. Therfore could a slightly out-of-focus card be mint if all other criteria are met?

carkim

My 1974 Topps Baseball set has 2 cards that I can't find centered anywhere. I won't mention them until I get them in a PSA 8 or better.

The next hardest card for me to find in a gradable condition was #205 Victory Leaders which I recently purchased off a BB Card Exchange in a PSA 8 NQ. I had about 20 of these cards and all 20 were OC...argh!!! Total POPULATION is 4 PSA 8's with NONE HIGHER

In my 1976-77 Topps Basketball set, the hands down winner is #34 Lucius Allen AKA "Green Beard" this card has a burst of green color on his beard. Somehow PSA graded the card an 8. Total POPULATION is 1 PSA 8's with NONE HIGHER.

Nice post Ray.

Carlos

zardoz51

Carlos

That Allen card's photo was printed on St. Patricks day....... errrrr, a scarce variation?????

Paul

carkim

That Allen card's photo was printed on St. Patricks day....... errrrr, a scarce variation?????

Paul...Good one...lol

I guess I should have kepted my Allen PSA 6 card. I didn't realize how scarce the variation was!!!

Carlos

gaspipe26

The toughest cards. Ray great question. By the way, the 1971 Munson that sold for $600 was mine. It was sold to a great collector of 1971's , I'm glad he got it. I have 2 more raw that I just found that should go 8. It and the B.Robinson in the 1971 set are the toughest. As for 1969. #110 Mike Shannon is by far the toughest, with Mike Kekich a close second. Brock is very tough but there are a few out there in 8, not many but they show up now and then. With all the cards I have and all the sets I've looked at at shows. I dont ever think I've seen a nice Shannon or Kekich.

RayBShotz

Bob - Until I posted this question I hadnt given the Shannon and Kekich much thought because they are lower profile commons. However after reviewing my previous show searches for 69 cards you are definitely right on.
This question cuts right to the heart of set building as you know. Every set builder of vintage material struggles with the few cards that are condition sensitive or near impossible in high grade.
Anybody else out there?
RayB69Topps

dude

For 1967, it has to be Don Demeter #572
For 1968, it's #70 Bob Veale followed by Lee May #487
For 1969, I agree that Shannon and #8 are tough to find centered.
For 1970, that's hard to say, although card #1- Met World Champions is tough to find in high grade.

69topps8

That darn '69 Shannon is always miscut with that obnoxious black line on the border. I wish Topps had paid more attention to their quality control on that card.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the white letters, especially Bob since he's building a master set. Most WL's have only a few copies graded 8 or better.

NickM

carkim - it's not a variation, nor is it a print defect. Lucius Allen was experimenting with the Dennis Rodman look.

Nick

dude

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention. There's an eBay dealer who auctions off nearly half of a non-PSA graded vintage set every other month or so. He sells about 60 cards a week for about 3 or 4 weeks. If you read his descriptions, about every tenth card he sells is by far and away the toughest card in the set. It never ceases to amaze me how someone can think he's that much smarter than the buying public.

SayitaintsoJoe63

From my experience collecting 1963 Topps......The most difficult card to find in high grade is #60 Elston Howard. For some reason I can't find one that isn't covered in print snow.