Toughest card in your set?
RayBShotz
Posts: 1,088
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
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
Never met a Vintage card I didn't like!
0
Comments
It is the only card I still need for my HOF collection. Anyone got a few extra ones floating around?
POTD = 09/03/2003
Steve
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
1955 Bowman Ray Narleski #96. Population TWO in PSA 8, none higher.
I'll pay handsomely for either.
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.
Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!
lynnfrank@earthlink.net
outerbankyank on eBay!
Wayne
Most expensive (a difficulty of sorts) -- 1951 Bowman #253 Mantle in PSA 10
-Carlo
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.
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
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
#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)
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
That Allen card's photo was printed on St. Patricks day....... errrrr, a scarce variation?????
Paul
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
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
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.
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.
Nick
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