Top Ten Vintage Football Cards

[jefferyepayne]

What's your top ten list of the most desired vintage football cards (pre-1970) that exist? Here is mine:

1. 1894 Mayo John Dunlop
2. 1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski
3. 1950 Topps Feltback Joe Paterno
4. 1965 Topps Large Joe Namath
5. 1935 National Chicle Bull Tosi
6. 1952 Bowman Large Jim Lansford
7. 1957 Topps Johnny Unitas
8. 1948 Leaf Sammy Baugh
9. 1958 Topps Jim Brown
10. 1948 Leaf Sid Luckman

jeff

[HRBAKER]

I can't rattle 10 off the top of my head but I know these two would be in there:

1. N162 Goodwin Champions Beecher
2. 1959 Bazooka Jim Brown

[jefferyepayne]

Serves me right for doing this off the top of my head! And I was just looking at a Beecher on ebay earlier today. My revised list:

1. 1894 Mayo John Dunlop
2. 1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski
3. 1888 Goodwin Harry Beecher
4. 1950 Topps Feltback Joe Paterno
5. 1965 Topps Large Joe Namath
6. 1935 National Chicle Bull Tosi
7. 1952 Bowman Large Jim Lansford
8. 1957 Topps Johnny Unitas
9. 1948 Leaf Sammy Baugh
10. 1958 Topps Jim Brown

I haven't picked up any of the Bazooka's yet but know there are numerous cards in that set that are difficult to acquire.

jeff

[alanu]

My list would include these for sure, not sure about a whole top 10:

1933 Sport Kings Red Grange
1948 Leaf Sammy Baugh
1935 National Chicle Knute Rockne
1957 Topps Johnny Unitas
1966 Phila. Gale Sayers

[jefferyepayne]

Now that PSA's SMR is free, I did some research to see what PSA thinks are the most valuable football cards at the PSA 7 NM level.

Here are their top values:

1. 1894 Mayo John Dunlop - $60,000
2. 1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski - $16,500
3. 1948 Leaf Sid Luckman - $8,250
4. 1894 Mayo Neilson Poe - $6,000
4. 1894 Mayo Dudley Riggs - $6,000
6. 1894 Langdon Lee - $5,500
7-38. All of the rest of the 1894 Mayo's - all between $3000 and $4500
39. 1952 Bowman Large Jim Lansford - $2,900
40. 1948 Leaf Bobby Lane - $2,800
41. 1935 National Chicle Bernie Masterson - $2,750
42. 1950 Topps Feltback Joe Paterno - $2,500
42. 1935 National Chicle Knute Rockne - $2,500
43. 1965 Topps Joe Namath - $1,750
43. 1948 Leaf Sammy Baugh - $1,750

While I like the 1894 Mayo's a lot, I don't think these values accurately reflect the market.

jeff

[skelly]

1. 1959 Bazooka Tom Tracy
2. 1962 Post Dave Baker
3. Felt Back Doak Walker ( I believe these to be 1950 )
4. 1952 Bowman Large Lansford #144 ( Not as rare as once thought )
5. 1959 Bazooka Jim Brown & John Unitas
6. 1958 Jim Brown
7. 1957 Bart Starr
8. 1962 Post Single Print Cards in High Grade
9. Any 1959 Bazooka cards that are well cut
10. 1967 Gale Sayers Philadelphia in High Grade

[jefferyepayne]

You are soooo right about Jim Lansford. A few people have been writing for a while that the whole "the first and last card of a set are more valuable" is a myth as grading statistics don't often indicate this. A different theory, one I first read about in the Nearmint Vintage Football Card Blog, is that those cards on the edges and corners of the uncut sheets for a set were more likely to be damaged during production and therefore more scarce in high grade.

Any thoughts by anyone on this theory?

jeff

[jtschantz]

Since its been mentioned a couple of times in the thread...I thought I'd throw out a scan of my Jim Brown Bazooka...I haven't checked in a while, but it use to be the only one that had a grade higher than authentic...I sold the Authentic one when I finally found the psa 6

[clamendo]

I think if you sent the second one to SGC they would grade it authentic because there is no dashed line that can be used as a reference for the size

[skelly]

SGC has become much tougher on the grading on the 59 bazooka's. The SGC 60 Brown might not make a number today ( Clemendo you have a beautiful set, I have seen it on the SGC Website ) It's just frustrating to me that it seems their standards have changed over the years.

[skelly]

Also very frustrating that PSA doesn't even have the 59 bazooka's in their population report. ( although I prefer sgc and just cross any psa cards I can pick up )

[HRBAKER]

Really to me with something as tough and as beautiful as the the '59 Bazookas as long as it has a full white border around it, I don't care about a freakin' number.
Simply georgeous cards.