1954 Wilson Franks Ted Williams

MattyC · August 24, 2012 11:21AM

Man I love this card. Awesome photo. Cool color. Overall pretty relatively rare. The more I looked into Ted Williams cards the more I realized two things:

1. The guy was a serious baller. Batting .406. Fighter pilot. Can you imagine today's prima dona players dropping their careers to fight in war? Never.

2. The Franks Williams gets serious props from seasoned collectors.

This has quickly become one of my favorite cards. Being a Yankee fan, I have always kept away from adding Sox cards to my collection. But Williams gets the exemption. Impressive man all around.

And Will we ever see a .400 season in this age of microscopic media scrutiny?

MattyC · August 24, 2012 11:26AM

I mean, look at this guy on baseball reference. His numbers are sick! As a Yankee fan I'm hesitant to say it, but if I were putting together a team Williams might be my first pick. Sick hitter.

perkdog · August 24, 2012 11:28AM

Bar none that is his best looking card in my opinion.

otwcards · August 24, 2012 11:35AM

The Yankees had a pretty good one during the same era.

A look at their career stats broken into 162 game seasonal averages:

BoSox: 127 Runs, 37 HR, 130 RBI, 143 BB, 50 K, .344 AVG
Yankee: 130 Runs, 34 HR, 143 RBI, 74 BB, 34 K, .325 AVG

Not to take anything away from Williams, but DiMaggio was pretty dasm good, too...

MattyC · August 24, 2012 11:43AM

Oh I agree, otw. I am a huge Yankee fan, but just have to give Ted Williams and his 1954 Franks Card his very due props.

I think Joe D's streak is another record that may never be broken in today's game. Unless a player can put on serious media blinders.

Back to the card: it really surprised me how low pop it is overall, especially considering crossovers and maybe some crackouts. And being a 1954 card issued with hot dogs, likely not too many still to be slabbed.

MattyC · August 24, 2012 11:47AM

Williams walks are INSANE. His OBP is silly.

Joe D hardly K'd. Neither did Berra. Donny was also sick in terms of not whiffing. Today's players K way too much.

captainthreeputt · August 24, 2012 12:09PM

MattyC is that your card? If so, congrats. I have one, but not as nice as that one. Very envious!!!

Thanks for sharing,

Brian

nam812 · August 24, 2012 12:09PM

I'm no Boston fan, but two triple crowns and a .406 season should get you at least one MVP (if not all 3).

MattyC · August 24, 2012 12:14PM

Nam,

Yep, the black ink of league leader is just all over his stats. He almost won another MVP while batting .388 way late in his career. Imagine if he had those three PRIME years in MLB instead of flying a damn fighter plane? Crazy.

Captain,

Yes, that 4 is mine. Managed to strike a deal for a very fair price. Really got to know the card's idiosyncrasies, its often natural cut (top sloping about a millimeter to right, and up a mm on the bottom left, as in the scan above), usually stained, creased, and corners can be very hurt.

A PSA 4 was pretty much my ceiling, and one has to pick what appeals most to their eye with this card, because a perfect one will cost $$$$. Staining and creasing were definitely things I didn't want, so that narrowed it down for me.

Someone got a pretty nice 2 (if creasing doesn't bother them) on ebay the other day. Was a good price.

MattyC · August 24, 2012 12:23PM

The interesting thing about the Franks Williams is that having been to several shows this year, I haven't seen ANY raw. Whereas with almost any other 50's card of a star, you can see many raw out there at tables. Now of course that's not to say there are PSA 8 raw 50's stars laying around in abundance, but it seems that the pop of the Wilson Franks Williams is pretty static, which is another factor that makes it a solid buy IMO.

I compared it to his 1939 RC a lot, and just found the RC was too bland for me at the end of the day, only wanting to spend on one of them. I liked the flavor this issue had, with the random floating pack of hot dogs!

addicted2ebay · August 24, 2012 12:30PM

.400 again...NO
Love the Franks but my FAVORITE Williams card:

MattyC · August 24, 2012 12:36PM

Addicted,

That is hands-down my close-second favorite Ted card. And that is one AMAZING specimen. What is that, 8K? 10K?

Centering is staggering.

Congrats if that is yours!

One day I will cave in and buy that Leaf in a lower grade centered. Right now after that Ted I have a 9 month moratorium on buying cards.

otwcards · August 24, 2012 12:47PM

The Franks is an awesome card and even more stunning when clean and in high grade:

MattyC · August 24, 2012 12:47PM

Ah. That price wouldve been very good even with a crease.

That 8.5 Franks is outrageous. That is the best one in the world I think.

Outrageous card. Mad mad loot!

DerekD · August 24, 2012 12:49PM

<< 

Someone got a pretty nice 2 (if creasing doesn't bother them) on ebay the other day. Was a good price. >>

The PSA 2 a few nights ago didn't meet the reserve. It just got relisted at $1500.

addicted2ebay · August 24, 2012 1:35PM

<< Addicted,

That is hands-down my close-second favorite Ted card. And that is one AMAZING specimen. What is that, 8K? 10K?

Centering is staggering.

Congrats if that is yours!

One day I will cave in and buy that Leaf in a lower grade centered. Right now after that Ted I have a 9 month moratorium on buying cards. >>

No not mine, wish it was! I have a NM-MT looking 48 but it has a Authentic grade. I really hope to see a .400 season someday or even a triple crown would be great. Pulling for Cabrera

CW · March 6, 2013 2:02PM

It's been a long time coming, but I finally picked one of these up. I actually found this thread when I was seeking info about the natural, slightly angled cut to this card's top and bottom edges (great info, btw, MattyC! -- your PSA 4 Williams looks fantastic, too! Thanks for creating an informative thread about a cool card).

MattyC · March 6, 2013 2:53PM

You have some sick collection CW. Congratulations on an awesome addition. The card is a monster to have in any grade. Was that the 5 that recently went off on ebay thru Rick?

Griffins · March 6, 2013 3:31PM

Nice card Chuck!
The Wilson Williams 2 on ebay used to be mine, I sold my set (and about 25 other sets) to Marty a couple of years ago. Great guy to deal with, and unbelievably fair.
The thing that bothers me about that card is the cropping- it goes against the rules of the first hour of any basic photo class. I prefer the '49 Leaf or
'52 Bowman over the Wilson.

lightningboy · March 6, 2013 11:11PM

A look at their career stats broken into 162 game seasonal averages:

BoSox: 127 Runs, 37 HR, 130 RBI, 143 BB, 50 K, .344 AVG
Yankee: 130 Runs, 34 HR, 143 RBI, 74 BB, 34 K, .325 AVG

Not to take anything away from Williams, but DiMaggio was pretty dasm good, too...

Dimaggio was great all around. But, hitting wise, if Williams didn't lose so many prime years in the Service, those numbers would be more lopsided in his favor.

MantleMarisFordBerra · March 7, 2013 11:36AM

<< But, hitting wise, if Williams didn't lose so many prime years in the Service, those numbers would be more lopsided in his favor. >>

That's the one thing I can't get over...dude lost 5 of his PRIME years to service. He would have challenged Ruth's lifetime HR record if he had played those years. What a great American Hero...baseball's real life John Wayne.

bobsbbcards · March 7, 2013 1:12PM

<< I prefer the '49 Leaf or '52 Bowman over the Wilson. >>

Made me look!

I couldn't for the life of me remember a 1952 Bowman Ted Williams card, so I was relieved when I realized that Anthony was the drunk one.

Griffins · March 7, 2013 1:35PM

Sorry, meant '52 Redman, but '51 Bowman works too

cpamike · March 7, 2013 1:56PM

Chuck, congrats on the pickup!!!

BTW Matty I missed this thread the first go around, but congrats to you on your Williams addition too. Didn't you have a thread where you were decided on which Williams card to pick up or am I sniffing too much glue again???

Maurice · March 7, 2013 2:00PM

<< BTW Matty I missed this thread the first go around, but congrats to you on your Williams addition too. Didn't you have a thread where you were decided on which Williams card to pick up or am I sniffing too much glue again??? >>

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=864342

cpamike · March 7, 2013 2:02PM

Thanks Maurice. I'm not losing it after all.

CW · March 7, 2013 2:13PM

Thanks, guys -- definitely one of my favorite cards now.

And, yep, Matt, that was the recent card sold on ebay. I wasn't happy with the zero feedback bidder bidding the card up during the day of the auction, but he did bow out at a point where it didn't matter. At least the underbidder had high feedback. Still, you're always leery about shills, etc. On this card, I had to take a chance.

PSA was pretty tough on this one, too. No wrinkles, just a small surface bump near the signature that's tough to see. It's amazing to think these cards were packaged with hot dogs at one time. Love the minimalistic look of the Wilson Franks Williams. Sometimes, as they say, less is more.

If someone chose to only collect Ted Williams cards, they'd have a pretty kick ass collection.

MattyC · March 7, 2013 3:00PM

CW,

It's true, Williams has so many gorgeous cards. I think it was the right move to go strong for the one you landed-- the Wilson Franks Williams rarely pops up in such nice shape. Great acquisition!

PS: when are you gonna get around to selling that CJ Cobb of yours? You must be sooooo tired of that card by now.

CPA,

Yep, I remember getting educated on all the key Williams issues. In the end I had to agree with Maurice-- the floating hot dogs are just so fresh. CW is right, the packaging of this card just adds to its overall mystique.

1954 Wilson Franks Ted Williams

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