Vintage Racing?

[Bored5000]

I was able to pick up two major cards in recent weeks -- both of the Lorenzen cards from the 1972 STP set. I wrote about those cards earlier in this thread, and the Lorenzen with car variety is arguably the holy grail of racing cards. Racing collector Jon Hardgrove over on the net54 non-sports forum has written in the past that the two Lorenzen cards are the rarest major American racing cards. In 26 years of collecting, Hardgrove had seen one example of the Lorenzen with car card and four examples of the Lorenzen portrait card.

The Lorenzen with car card is now the centerpiece of my collection. I was absolutely shocked when I saw the two cards go up for auction on eBay about a month ago, I put in a big snipe (for me) for the Lorenzen with car card and a smaller snipe for the portrait card. I won the auction for the "with car" card and lost the portrait card auction. The seller actually lives about 45 minutes from me, and I began exchanging PMs with him about where he found the cards and educating him about the set and how rare those cards are. I agreed to meet the seller and pick up the card rather than have him mail it.

Upon meeting the seller, I talked with him for a while about the set and how he found the cards. The seller is a long time seller on eBay and the Lorenzen cards were among a box of car stuff/racing stuff he bought for $40 at a live auction. The seller told me has had some decent finds before, but this was far and away the greatest "find" he has ever had.

The cards were included in a box of racing photographs from former Area Auto Racing News (a racing trade paper based in Trenton, N.J.) photographer Leroy Leibelsperger, who passed away in May of this year. The box also included numerous 1970s and 1980s photos of NASCAR Winston Cup drivers, which aren't worth much money.

The seller said he tried doing some research online for some information about the Lorenzen cards to see if they were worth anything, but could not find anything online about them. He then put them on eBay and instantly knew he had something special when people began sending him PMs wanting him to end the auction. One offer came in for $300 for both cards to end the auction ; another offer of $750 for both cards was also made.

The "find" included one of the Lorenzen with car cards and a small batch of the portrait variety. The cards look like they were put in a box in 1972 and have not been touched since then. Those were the only STP cards included in the box, so the original owner knew the Lorenzen cards were something special. The "with car" variety of the Lorenzen car is really the holy grail of racing cards, but I also bought one of the Lorenzen portrait cards from the seller even though I lost the initial auction.

I know 1972 is not old in terms of Net54 "finds," but it is amazing what pops up for sale once in a while when a collector passes away. Jon Hardgrove needed 26 years to find a Lorenzen with car card, and the seller that I bought a Richard Petty STP card from earlier this year had only seen one Lorenzen with car card in 20 years of searching.
PSA has graded only one of the Lorenzen with car cards and four of the Lorenzen portrait cards.