1952 Christmas Rack Pack with Mantle

[russkcpa]

Originally Posted by russkcpa

I know all about these Christmas rack packs but have never seen a 52 Christmas Rack Pack with Mantle showing. Ebay seller is reputable but had this up last week and auction ended at $20K . Next day its back up for $24K Rack pack looks authentic down to the staples. Concerned about seal on bottom and fact that Mantle is on bottom of hanging pack instead of middle or top. Thoughts ?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-TOPPS-C...53.m1438.l2649

Well someone bought it from this miserable AH of a seller. No wonder he's changed his Ebay handle 4 times

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by russkcpa

Well someone bought it from this miserable AH of a seller. No wonder he's changed his Ebay handle 4 times

An offer was accepted at $15,200.......the Rizzuto and Spahn are likely as fake as the Mantle. If the other 9 cards are legit, it works out to be $1688.88 per common.

[chalupacollects]

So is the consensus that even the Mark Murphy ones are not legit either?

[ALR-bishop]

Tim-- if by legit you mean the Murphy packs were put together in the 60s, 70s or even early 80s by someone who then tried to sell them in retail stores at Christmas time in some unspecified time frame, there is no hard or conclusive evidence that I know of to confirm that. Nor is it clear whether whoever is churning them out today is different from the original source. But there are some, usually people claiming to sell or resell the Murphy "originals", that claim the older packs are more likely to be "legit" in that they are more likely to contain star cards in the middle because of being packaged at a time the cards were less valuable. But no one claims they were packaged by Topps and all seem to agree the cards are second hand returns or handled stock in Ex condition at best.

There are sellers who claim that by examining the staples and configuration of the packaging you can tell the old from the new packs. That maybe true but I am not CSI enough to verify that.