Treasure hidden in plain sight!
 

First of all, I need to give a little bit of background. For those that don't know, I am mainly a St Louis Cardinals collector. My Cardinals team sets are the main part of my collection. As an secondary part of my Cardinals collection, I collect Cardinals autographs on regular Topps cards. I am not talking about modern signed cards that you get out of packs, but the real thing... "on card" signatures on regular Topps cards....no reprints either. I have a thread where you can view all of my signed Cardinals cards. Here is the link.

https://forums.collectors.com/discus...al-to-1-178/p1

Now, back to my non-signed team sets. My team sets are fairly extensive. I have 23 albums full of team sets from 1948 to present. I started out in 2002 just wanting to get all of the main Topps sets. I quickly branched out to Bowman, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, etc for modern cards, and Post, Jello, Kellogg's, Exhibits, Red Man, Hostess, etc for vintage.

Then, I started the really hard part.....Topps Test Issues and miscellaneous inserts. Some are very easy like 1969 Topps Deckle Edge and 1965 Topps Embossed. Some are moderately difficult like 1974 Topps Deckle Edge and 1969 Topps 4-in-1. Then, some are very, very difficult like 1967 and 1968 Topps Discs, 1970 and 1972 Topps Candy Lids, 1968 Topps Plaks, etc. Then, some are almost impossible like 1955 Topps Hocus Focus, 1998 Topps Sportzcubz (which I have been able to accomplish). Then again, some ARE impossible like 1961 Topps Dice Game (which I don't have and don't ever foresee having).

That is the background. Now the reason for this thread....

A couple of months ago, I began to go after regular Topps cards that have variations. I have kept up with the modern gimmick variations like the SP and SSP photo variations that Topps have done over the past few years. But I decided to go back and try to get all of them back to 1952. Since I have a resource from an expert Cardinals collector (thanks, Randy!), I knew every thing I was going after. So far, I am update (I think) back to 1960.

One of the most expensive variations that I needed to get for my Cardinals team sets was a 1967 Topps Ed Spiezio that has the "pie" missing at the top. It is listed in the SCD Catalog. I began to look at those on Ebay, and even though it only books for $75 in the SCD, they are going anywhere from $300 to $700....OUCH! So, I just decided to be on the lookout for one and be patient. So one day recently I was going through my autograph collection and I noticed something that made my heart skip a beat! I thought to my self...."Am I seeing things?"

When I saw my autographed 1967 Topps Spiezio, I thought...."I must have this thing wrong....It must be the other one that is rare...not this one." But sure enough, I discovered that my autographed Ed Spiezio is the rare variation missing the "pie". So, I immediately began searching for a signed replacement for my autograph collection. After searching for about a month, I now have one. I paid $21 for it. Now, even though it is autographed, I can put my rare variation in my Cardinals team set collection, and the common card in the autograph collection.

Here they are side by side. The one on the left is worth about $20. The one on the right is worth about $300 to $500 (if you don't deduct for the signature).



<a href='https://postimg.org/image/4e6zu0b33/' target='_blank'><img src='https://s19.postimg.org/pb37yo943/83_Spiezio.jpg' border='0' alt='83_Spiezio'/></a>

Wow! Great story, great find. Must be an amazing collection. Before variations and side issues, is it about 1500 cards?

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Thanks. You know what......I have never counted! I have every card accounted for in a spreadsheet, but I don't have a running total of the number of cards in my team sets.

Great story of a hobby "find "

Shane, great story. Mine is similar to yours. I’m a Detroit Tigers collector and have a complete run of 1952 to current, 49 to 55 Bowman’s and working on the inserts. I also collect Tigers autographs on Topps cards and run into the same problem as you. I pull a card out of album to send for an autograph. Sometimes I’ll have to replace it. My question to you; do you separate your autograph cards from non-autograph cards in your binders? For example, I have a binder of 1957-1969 non-autograph Tigers. I have a separate binder for my autograph Tigers cards in year order.

Great question that is right up my alley!

Yes, I do have them separate. For my autographs, I have an album for 1952 to 1974 Topps. I have a second album for 1975 to present Topps.

My team set albums go like this -

1950's Topps
1960's Topps
1970's Topps
1980's Topps
1990's Topps
2000's Topps
2010's Topps
Topps Tiffany
Topps Misc #1 (1951 up to 1989)
Topps Misc #2 (1990 up to 1998)
Topps Misc #3 (2003 up to present; no misc cards from 1999 to 2002)
Topps Odd Sized (large/bulky cards)
Topps Chrome
Topps Chrome Refractors
Topps and Bowman Heritage
Bowman
Fleer
Donruss
Fleer Misc
Donruss Misc
Upper Deck
Score & Sportflics
Miscellaneous (mostly vintage)

Autos
1952-1974 Topps
1974 to present Topps

Great re-discovery Shane. That is how I found my first 1968 Milton Bradley cards. When I first read that there were a whole set of MB “variations”, I thought to myself, “hmm, what if...”. It turned out that I already had a small stack of a dozen or so MBs mixed in with my sets. I decided from that point on to collect the set. Then another, then another, then another... :)

i have found a few of those too!

Great find Shane!