A hypothetical thought problem

[Brianruns10]

I was pondering this, and wondering what you all think. Which would fetch more:

A) A complete 100 card sheet of '52 topps highs including the double prints
B) A PSA 10 Mantle

Now here's an ethical question: Suppose you came across such a sheet of cards, and no one else knew about it. And suppose you had available the means to cut those cards, and thereby yield some or all perfect 10s with dead centering.

Would you keep the sheet, or cut it?

For me, no doubt I'd keep the sheet.

[sschauer]

No Brainer keep the sheet or actually put in up for auction and watch the fireworks while 2 PSA 10 Mantles would be crazy along with the other PSA 10 possible there is only 1 sheet probably in the world and think it would bring in super crazy money. Given enough resources one could get 10s on all cards look at Demetri Young's collection as there are a lot of hidden 52s in old time collectors hand still not graded.

How fast would your heart be going as they did the first cut. Now 2 sheets I'd cut one and save the other :>

[steve B]

I'd keep the sheet, but the individual cards woud probably bring more if they all were nearly perfect.

Of course, most old sheets are a bit worn, so that probably wouldn't be a problem.

Steve B

[doug.goodman]

I would keep the sheet and hang it in my living room.

Insert smiley face here.

Doug

[AustinMike]

I don't think I would want to keep the sheet. I would either cut it up or sell it.

I would be tempted to cut the sheet if (1) I knew that the sheet could be cut properly and the resulting cuts would not diminish the condition of any of the cards and (2) the surface (front and back) of the sheet (primarily the Mantles) was in pristine condition. I would sell duplicates to finance other cards. I'm not sure if I would ever be confident of (1), therefore I would probably not cut it and would end up selling the sheet to finance buying the '52 Topps Mantle and a '51 Bowman Mantle plus whatever else I could get.

My main reason for cutting the sheet would be because that is the way the cards were originally meant to be. I collect Post cereal cards from the '60s and I have many uncut panels/sheets of those cards. I like them in panels/sheets because that's the way they were available. Plus, they're small enough that they are easy to take care of and display. I also have the '84 Nestle set, the '85 Topps set, and many minor league team sets in uncut sheets. They are in my closet collecting dust. Too many to be able to afford to display them properly and not enough wall space to display them all even if they were in frames. So to me, another big sheet would be a no go, even one as nice as high series '52 Topps.

[darkhorse9]

If someone had an uncut sheet of 1952 high numbers, I'm betting they could get enough publicity to convince Topps themselves to do the cutting. Think about the media surrounding that. Video of Topps placing the sheet onto their cutters and producing new cards with it would be heartstopping.

Then you probably have new questions about the legitimacy, but it would also answer a lot of questions.

[ALR-bishop]

I'd wait until Doug was on one of his band sojourns and then get it from his living room and put it in mine

[doug.goodman]

Al -

Would you let me visit occasionally to see it?

Doug

[SMPEP]

This is easy. Keep the sheet.

There are PSA 10s out there. There is only 1 known partial sheet with an uncut mantle on it (25 cards on the sheet and the mantle has creases).

Oh, and there are only 3 uncut high number sheets known to exist and all of them are 25 card versions.

[Matthew80]

If someone had an uncut sheet of 1952 high numbers, I'm betting they could get enough publicity to convince Topps themselves to do the cutting. Think about the media surrounding that. Video of Topps placing the sheet onto their cutters and producing new cards with it would be heartstopping.

Then you probably have new questions about the legitimacy, but it would also answer a lot of questions.

Good points, all of them. I couldn't handle watching them cut the lines of high series cards. You could probably raise a ton of money just putting that on PPV :)

Of course, a good rule of thumb: never turn down a PSA 10 '52 Topps Mantle. If someone offers to trade it, you take it. Uncut sheets, unborn children, ungraded lot of VG to EX-MT 1988 Topps- you get it!

[campyfan39]

I appreciate this thread as I have been debating what to do with my uncut sheet :)