1955 Topps Cello Ripped Open

[jbhofmann]

Didn't see this posted anywhere and thought I'd bring it to the big board.

https://forums.collectors.com/messag...VIEWTMP=Linear

[ullmandds]

very cool!

[Danny Smith]

So much fun

[JustinD]

That was fun.

[iwantitiwinit]

Agree very cool. I'd get a lot of enjoyment from being the one to rip that open.

[ZachS]

Holy crap! That guy scored big. There's no way I would have gotten that lucky.

[Buythatcard]

That was an awesome rip. What did he originally pay for the cello pack?

[WillBBC]

$2030 according to the CU thread. What an incredible pack. That Clemente is beautiful!

[slidekellyslide]

I wonder if the consignor of that pack has seen that thread. Incredible!

[GregMitch34]

This might be an apt moment to ask: How do people judge the legitimacy of packs offered for sale--ones that are not graded? Is it pure blind or do you put stock in auction house claims or what? What is track record? If this guy didn't pull a 2nd Mays and a Clemente wouldn't you have guessed that maybe pack tampered? I've always been tempted to take this plunge but never enough faith that getting legit pack. Willing to take chance on getting non-star cards but only if believe not tampered....

[Beatles Guy]

Goosebumps, wow!

[Orioles1954]

Let's just say the consignor is a reliable source and is probably thrilled.

[bwbc917]

Thanks for the post. That was a lot of fun!!!

[Rookiemonster]

Nice ! Cool post but it was kinda funny how off centered they were and he was like it's improving hahahah

[Section103]

Really, really wish it had been on video; but fun all the same. I think the last thing I ripped was a box of 88 Donruss.

[ullmandds]

this should definitely help the hammer on the next older unopened pack(s) that hit the block!

[D. Bergin]

Nice! I ripped enough packs in my day to deduce, I probably shouldn't be ripping packs, unless I found myself caught right in the middle of Billy Ripken FF Fever.

[bbcard1]

do you think he did much better than $2000?

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

do you think he did much better than $2000?

Probably a little, but not much. That Clemente is probably a 8 PD which is worth maybe $2000? The Mays an 8 OC, which is maybe worth $500?

[Republicaninmass]

Lots of low pop cards in there, if they had only been straight 8's all around!

[baseball tourist]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Probably a little, but not much. That Clemente is probably a 8 PD which is worth maybe $2000? The Mays an 8 OC, which is maybe worth $500?

There were two Mays.

[MW1]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Probably a little, but not much. That Clemente is probably a 8 PD which is worth maybe $2000? The Mays an 8 OC, which is maybe worth $500?

An 8 PD Clemente would sell for much more than $2000. That's at least a $5000 card...maybe more.

[slidekellyslide]

So if this is all legit then Topps cello packs were a mixture of low numbers and high numbers in 55? Is there any other documented 55 cello rips? Also why wouldn't you take video opening a $1700 pack of cards?

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by MW1

That's at least a $5000 card...maybe more.

I respectfully disagree. I think my guess was a best case scenario. What if there's a small surface wrinkle? Then it's a 5 PD. How much is it worth then?

I also agree with Dan, I'm a little skeptical of the whole thing. It's funny how every card was OC with the exception of the Clemente.

[MW1]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

I respectfully disagree. I think my guess was a best case scenario. What if there's a small surface wrinkle? Then it's a 5 PD. How much is it worth then?

I also agree with Dan, I'm a little skeptical of the whole thing. It's funny how every card was OC with the exception of the Clemente.

Even if the card were only graded a 7 PD, it would still probably reach $5000 but the corners look stronger than "NM." I was trying to be conservative in my estimate. The last two unqualified 8s to sell in auction realized over $35K and $44k. The Clemente rookie has risen considerably in value over the last two years as have many other key rc's from the 1950s.

I haven't opened any cellos from 1955 Topps but I have opened wax packs and the centering does indeed vary so yes, I would say that the Clemente could definitely be a legitimate card in that sequence.

[midwaylandscaping]

No pink elephants in that room

Edit: Or I should just say, I agree with SlideKellySlide, and i'll leave it at that.

[jason.1969]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

I also agree with Dan, I'm a little skeptical of the whole thing. It's funny how every card was OC with the exception of the Clemente.

Not sure I'm reading this right. Are you saying the pack had been opened before but that the real cards were replaced with 2 Mays cards and a Clemente RC?

Or that the guy who bought it didn't really get those cards and just pretended to?

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by jason.1969

Or that the guy who bought it didn't really get those cards and just pretended to?

Come on, would it really be the first time a CU member faked a pack rip?

https://forums.collectors.com/messag...rd1=jordan+rip

[vintagetoppsguy]

19 horribly off centered cards and 1 dead centered Clemente. It's a Christmas miracle.

[PM770]

Thanks for posting that CU link. It got threadjacked a couple of times but was still a $h!+storm all the way through

[jason.1969]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Come on, would it really be the first time a CU member faked a pack rip?

https://forums.collectors.com/messag...rd1=jordan+rip

Wow! I see what you mean. And add to it the drama of the RC being the very last card!

[Donscards]

I opened a 1955 topps cello pack maybe 25 years ago---it had 24 cards--20 cards were high numbered and 4 were low---the centering was very nice and it was loaded--I will not say what I got out of the pack because u wouldn't believe me---but my point is the cello pack was mixed---Don

[the 'stache]

I hate to be the cynic in the room, but we're expected to believe that he ripped open a '55 Topps cello pack, pulled out not one, but two Willie Mays cards, and then a Clemente rookie that's perfectly centered when every other card in the pack is at least 90/10 off center?

If I had a '55 Topps cello pack to rip, you can bet your sweet bippy the rip would be recorded, and posted unedited. What, he can afford to drop $2k on a 60 year old baseball card pack, but he has no capability to record said rip? Really? A little later in the same thread, somebody mentions the same guy ripped a '79/'80 O-Pee-Che pack, and pulled out a Gretzky rookie. Either this guy has the greatest luck, or something is rotten in Denmark.

[jason.1969]

I once ripped a pack and pulled a Ruth. Unfortunately it was a pack of 1991 Conlon Collection.

[autograf]

Why does everything have to be rotten in DENMARK? Can't it be Sweden or Finland? And since those places are so cold, it's hard to believe stuff goes rotten very quickly anyway. Peru, I could see...............

The coinkidinks are amazing............

[Sean1125]

Originally Posted by jason.1969

I once ripped a pack and pulled a Ruth. Unfortunately it was a pack of 1991 Conlon Collection.

Ha

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

19 horribly off centered cards and 1 dead centered Clemente. It's a Christmas miracle.

It's a Festivus miracle, for the rest of us. And for the airing of grievances:

I know the pack was legit because the consignor was legit. That said, I gotta call BS on the rip itself as presented. I believe the two Mays cards were in there because they were horribly OC the same as the other cards and they had the same print defect [fish eye] in his name at virtually the same place, which means there was bit of dirt on the transfer roller that was gradually moving across, so they were probably printed within a sheet or two of each other then sent to cutting and collating together. But the Clemente has different corner wear than the cards before and after it. If the rip was depicted sequentially, the Clemente was not in there between those two cards. If the rip was depicted out of sequence, perhaps to create suspense, then the whole thing is about as real as an episode of American Pickers.

As for the money, I think the winner would do just fine off the items as shown. Assuming the Clemente is not altered, I don't think anyone would realistically label that card as less than a vg-ex specimen. I'd call it ex or better, and if I wanted one of them, I'd pay a grand for a card with that kind of eye appeal, and I'm a skinflint. And with the two Mays cards and the commons I think the bidder will get back his money readily and then some.

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by autograf

Why does everything have to be rotten in DENMARK? Can't it be Sweden or Finland? And since those places are so cold, it's hard to believe stuff goes rotten very quickly anyway. Peru, I could see...............

The coinkidinks are amazing............

Who knows...Ask Shakespeare..

[bobbyw8469]

Color me skeptic as well. It makes for a better story with monster cards in it.

[mechanicalman]

I honestly hope it was real. No reason to root against a fellow hobbyist.

But it seems highly implausible that the Clemente was the last card. Wouldn't you have seen that through the cello? Can't imagine it would have sold for $2k if that was the case.

[jfkheat]

Originally Posted by mechanicalman

I honestly hope it was real. No reason to root against a fellow hobbyist.

But it seems highly implausible that the Clemente was the last card. Wouldn't you have seen that through the cello? Can't imagine it would have sold for $2k if that was the case.

The Clemente was the next to last card.
James

[jason.1969]

Right, sorry to mislead. I should have said it was the last card where there was any suspense at all...i.e., the last card that didn't already show through the cello.

[Bliggity]

Nvmd, beat me to it.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by jfkheat

The Clemente was the next to last card.

Right, and that makes it even more unbelievable. It couldn't have been the last card, because we knew the last card before the pack was opened. By having the Clemente as the next to last card, he built up the drama to very end.

[glchen]

Well, I think there's writing on the back of the Clemente card, and the fact that the ripper shows the back scan makes me think it was his idea of an April Fool's joke to say he pulled it as part of the pack.

[hammer]

Good pick up that looks like someone printed a couple of letters on the back.

[FourStrikes]

Originally Posted by glchen

Well, I think there's writing on the back of the Clemente card, and the fact that the ripper shows the back scan makes me think it was his idea of an April Fool's joke to say he pulled it as part of the pack.

yup.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Come on, would it really be the first time a CU member faked a pack rip?

https://forums.collectors.com/messag...rd1=jordan+rip

I am not a card guy, have enough problems with autographs, but why would someone do this? Over sized ego??

[GoudeyGum]

I hope this does not open the floodgates of packs with "popped seals" showing up at auctions. I do not mean to cast doubt on this specific pack.

[MULLINS5]

I've dealt with the ripper and would be shocked if I heard that it had been tampered with. Yes, it's true he pulled a Gretzky rookie (Topps) recently and received an 8.5 from PSA on it. It was a big hit and he shared it with the collecting community. He shared the '55 rip because, well it's a big rip. As for the "writing" on the back -- I'm a novice collector and can tell that that is NOT writing on the back. As for the rest of the cards, again a novice, but I remember busting tons of 1979 Hockey and the one card in the set that is notoriously OC is #161 Mike Bossy. Whenever I pulled a decently centered one the rest of the cards were garbage OC and miscut. In this case the Clemente is a notoriously OC card and, I'd assume, that in order to find one centered the cards cut around it would have to be butchered.