Say Hey! My Willie Mays Topps Retrospective

vintagefun

I grew up in a house where Willie Mays was the best all-around ball player of all time. Ruth was the homerun king, even though his record had recently been broken. And Mickey, could've been the greatest, hands down, if not for injury. That was essentially the Baseball Holy Trinity in our house. Of course, there were others. Roberto, the best Latin player. Ted, the best hitter. Rose, the hardest player. And while this is all debatable, this is just how it was in my house. A house where Dad was ALWAYS right. How I ended up a Dodger fan, I still can't be sure.

Willie Mays was also the first pro player I ever met and he signed my Little League glove back in 81, which I continued to play with until the sig had completely faded away.

While I have always wanted a Mays Topps collection, it was never really a focus as it just seemed so far out of reach.

I had a few raw 50s and 60s cards, but it wasn't until I stumbled onto a fair price on the 52 through a local guy I met through eBay, that this would start to become a quest.

Once I had it, it was time to grade some of my raws, and once those were back, I had a head of steam.

This collection was put together with a bit of everything. I self-subbed a handful. Got a few from BST. One from a Board Member at the National. One from BBCE. One from D&A. A few from 4SC, and the rest through eBay. Seems like everyone had a hand in helping me put this together.

I'm extremely happy with most of these examples. I would like to upgrade the 66 at some point, but it came at a good price and I had a real hard time finding one I'd be happy with at the price, so it's an acceptable placeholder for now. I didn't realize how tough some of the 60s years were...65, 66, 67, and 69 were kinda tough to find centered and without tilt. The 65 ended up being the toughest for me and was the last piece of the puzzle...mail delay gave me a scare...but it did arrive today. Yee Haw.

So without further ado...My Willie Mays Topps Retrospective.







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Thanks for looking!
Jim

Dnice

Great collection. I noticed that many of those have very strong centering. Thanks for sharing. Your passion shows.

LarkinCollector

Well done!

perkdog

Absolutely Awesome!

I Cant decide which one is my favorite, Im torn between '53 and '55 I think..

QUITCRAB

69 70 and 72 looks great !

slum22

Jim,

Remarkable collection. You should be proud of such a great group of cards. Like others said sharp cards for the grades especially centering-wise. I don't know how it's possible but I don't think I had ever seen the 53 Topps Mays card until this thread. Very cool.

Steve

MisterBungle

Nice collection of a great player. Glad you finally received the '65.

Can't think of the "Say Hey Kid" without thinking of that crazy
over the back catch against Vic Wertz in game 1 of the 1954
World Series.

John

JBrules

Congrats on completing this set. This motivates me to get more focused on completing this set myself. When I started collecting again this past February the Willie Mays set was one of my goals. I have a few graded of Willie but have been more focused on a couple of other sets. Your 58 and 59 Mays have outstanding centering. Job well done and thanks for sharing.

Brick

Nice.

KendallCat

Great job! Awesome to put together a full run of your favorite player.

dberk12

Excellent cards and thanks for showing. Everyone on this board makes a very compelling argument to focus on centering and thus eye appeal rather than the peripherals and overall grading. This is case and point. Great centering and fantastic eye appeal.

jmaciu

jmaciu

Jim, you have a great eye for picking the right cards. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

jmaciu

Triple post.

byronscott4ever

So twice in a few years Topps reused photos? Interesting, since I don't have much vintage I never realized it

vintagefun

Thanks Guys! It was a fun project. It started with the occasasional grab, but once I was 2/3 there I started getting a bit more aggressive, especially since it started getting competitive on many of the auctions for the few cards that looked right and priced in my range.

I think the 54 is my favorite.

And yes, 65/68 and 66/69 are the same photo, so the layout worked out to show.

Thanks for the comments.

Jim

MisterBungle

"And yes, 65/68 and 66/69 are the same photo"
-----
I think the '54, '55, and '56 are all the same photo too.

John

KendallCat

The '53 Mays and Mantle are some of the best looking cards of all time IMO. Years ago had one of the best 53 Mantles in existence, and now the quest is to get the two big boys from the 1953 set in high grade. Thanks for sharing.

* correct that Topps reused photos especially from 54-56. Aaron, Williams, Mays..all used the same head shots for those years.

esquiresports

Awesome run. Really quite the bargain relative to Mantle in my opinion.

brian26

Awesome. That Mets card sticks out like a sore thumb

Kid4hof03

Congratulations Jim! Great Mays collection

saucywombat

Great cards.

Interesting that he only had portrait pictures on all his cards.

DanBessette

Awesome collection of an awesome player by an awesome board member. Very cool to look at! Thanks for sharing and congrats!

downtown

very nice collection
you should add the 1974 world series game #2 card

CW

Incredible run of Mays cards! Very nice!

The '62 and '70 have great photos, all else aside. But for some reason the '53 always catches my eye.

Thanks for posting.

flcardtrader

I respect this retrospective - awesome cards!

Stingray

Nice cards!! Funny how Topps used the same pick for 65 and 68, the again on 66 and 69!!

BaltimoreYankee

Just wow! Thanks for sharing - always loved the Say Hey Kid.

dennis07

Very impressive! I think when I finish my 1970 set my next project will be a complete run of Aaron in comparable grades to yours.

vintagefun

<< <i>very nice collection
you should add the 1974 world series game #2 card >>



Thanks Downtown...nice call. Added this last night for $14.49 delivered.


Also picked up these along the way, and am looking to add more of the Mays w/ Other HOFer cards. Manager's Dream, TOPS in NL, Rival Fence Busters, etc....if you have others in mind, please share...can't recall if he had a card with Clemente, that wasn't a League Leaders card.



Again, really appreciate the kind words.

Jim

DanBessette

Cool. With these others in hand, are you going to chip away at the mays master?

vintagefun

<< <i>Cool. With these others in hand, are you going to chip away at the mays master? >>



Considered it for about 2 minutes, but NO. Just too much stuff and too many other wants. My plan with Mays moving forward is to keep an eye peeled for some of the pair cards I like...and the 51B in the right eye/price ratio...but that would be more for the PostWar 1st Ballot HOF RC set.

Should I ever secure the 51B, at that point I'd probably look to complete the Mays Basic with the rest of the Bowman's and the lone Fleer...but any of those Master sets are totally overwhelming for me.

Baez578

Very nice collection!

DanBessette

64 Topps #423 pictures Willie with Hammerin' Hank. Pretty sweet card!