Viewed a Topps Horde today!

Brianruns10 · February 5, 2011 5:58AM

Boy what a morning I had. My dad and I went to view a card collection, belonging to the grandfather of a boy who is on the team my dad coaches. This is an original collection, which the grandfather started in the 50s, which he stored in cigar boxes. He'd told us he had 55s and 56s. He was right, but that was only half the story.

We went into his dining room, where he had the cards sitting out waiting for us, arrayed in clear album sleeves, without binders, and held with rings, along with several gray card boxes. On the top of the stack I immediately saw a page full of Topps 53s! He had eight or nine full pages worth, though quite a few were duplicates, and nearly all were commons. He did have a nice pair of Willie Mays, though no Mantle, Robinson or Paige. Corners were good, but there was some chipping of the paint in the team logos. A few also had marks from being rubberbanded.

It was to only get better!

After the partial set of 53s, came a complete set of 54s! A few fuzzy corners, and rubberband marks on a couple cards here and there, but the colors were stunning, the centering nice, the gloss original and full of luster.

Better still. He had a nearly complete set of 55s, with all the majors present: Williams, Robinson, Koufax, Aaron, Clemente. The set was gorgeous. Superb corners, great centering, unbelieveable colors and gloss. Easily 6s and 7s, with a few 8s. A few perhaps even better.

The 56 set was likewise gorgeous. It had a few more holes, was maybe 2/3s complete, but he had the Robinson and the Mantle. I think the Mantle was a strong 7.

On to the boxes. These (he said) were his duplicates, off centers, secondaries, rejects. I expected a lot of commons with miscuts and bad corners or holes and tears. The boxes contained 54s, 55s, and 56s. The box of 54s contained a HALF DOZEN Ted Williams #1s. None had terrific centering, but the corners were great, as was the color and the luster (except for one card which, as a boy, he'd used as a straightedge, and had blue inks stains running along both sides). The 55 box was jam packed, mostly commons, but all with great corners, color, gloss. The 56 box was the smallest number, amounting to a few dozen cards, mostly commons, but also three Jackie Robinsons of equal quality.

All told, this horde was full of multiple star cards, and I've never before seen an assemblage of cards in such an original state of condition, apart from my dad's own original collection.

Alas, the gentleman is not ready to part with his "A" sets just yet (when he is ready, we'll get first crack...that'll be some interesting negotiating!), but he IS interested in selling his duplicates. So now we're seriously considering jumping into another set. Probably the 55s, because I think it's the most gorgeous set put out by Topps, after the 52s and 53s, it's a small set, and this mans' cards would be a great foundation to start a stellar new collection.

All told, a magnificent day. Now if I can just find that horde of 52s...

BR