1952 Topps House gray/yellow

[flkersn]

As many of you know, I recently bought a PSA 4 1952 Topps House with a gray back and yellow logo. It has to be one of the rarest cards in the set, although unrecognized by TPG at this point.

This card is available in trade for a package that includes a gray back Reiser.

Bill

[SMPEP]

... that card is not as rare as the seller claimed. The seller claimed this is the only one and at least 2 more are known to exist. That does make it as rare as the Reiser currently - although in all likelihood, there are probably at least 5-7 more Reisers that will turn upeventually. It is unlikley that more of the House yellow tiger card will turn up though. (If there are more than the 3 known ones, then 6 were originally printed, not 3 as I suspect).

I did contact the seller and informed him that he was misleading the public ... but he wasn't honest enough to revise his description ... which is why I refused to bid on it.

But the Reiser isn't as rare as everyone thinks unless something very weird happened (i.e., someone threw away a large collection of the grey backs back in the 1950s - which is highly unlikely given how diffuse these grey backs were in their distribution patterns).

Cheers,
Patrick

Ps - The pop reports on the Reiser are wrong. One labeled as a grey back is in fact a white back. One labeled as a white back is in fact a grey back. Net wash, but the pop report is inaccurate.

[Zach Wheat]

I knew you would be the man that would know the population figures Patrick. Thanks for the info as I've learned a lot about the gray backs from you over the years. I hope you both find your gray back Resiers.

Z

[Exhibitman]

Pics please

[SMPEP]

As requested ... here are the three known ones. I do not have copies of photos of the backs of these - but the first one is from a lot of grey backs sold ... by Mile High (?) in 2005 (?) ... my memory is rusty. I've personally seen the back of the other one.

Cheers,
Patrick

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

... that card is not as rare as the seller claimed. The seller claimed this is the only one and at least 2 more are known to exist. That does make it as rare as the Reiser currently - although in all likelihood, there are probably at least 5-7 more Reisers that will turn upeventually. It is unlikley that more of the House yellow tiger card will turn up though. (If there are more than the 3 known ones, then 6 were originally printed, not 3 as I suspect).

I did contact the seller and informed him that he was misleading the public ... but he wasn't honest enough to revise his description ... which is why I refused to bid on it.

But the Reiser isn't as rare as everyone thinks unless something very weird happened (i.e., someone threw away a large collection of the grey backs back in the 1950s - which is highly unlikely given how diffuse these grey backs were in their distribution patterns).

Cheers,
Patrick

Ps - The pop reports on the Reiser are wrong. One labeled as a grey back is in fact a white back. One labeled as a white back is in fact a grey back. Net wash, but the pop report is inaccurate.

Patrick,

Why is the mid-series Reiser Gray back, in particular so rare? It seems several people going after all mid-series gray backs are missing the Reiser.
And why do you say that there are unlikely to be more than 3 House yellow mid series gray backs? Is it due to the error or due to something else.

If you don't want to discuss this in an open forum, I understand.


Z

[SMPEP]

Hi Zach,

That's an easy and hard question to answer. The easy part is ... it's a DP on the sheet versus most cards being a TP. So the Reiser should be one of the tougher ones to find.

BUT there are 19 other cards that are also DPs ... and some of those have 10+ known copies (with others ungraded), and none have as few known copies. Like I said earlier, either Reiser got thrown away more often, or there are more out there to be discovered. Given the rate at which the Maxwell (a previous tie for a s few with Reiser) has been found in recent years, my money is on them being in collections and people not recognizing that.

Cheers,
Patrick

[Exhibitman]

Can someone post a pic of the gray back?

[SMPEP]

Here's the back of the one that Bill won. The one form the Mile High auction never showed the back in the auction listing. Not sure I ever took a shot of the back of the third one when I saw it - but both in the photo were grey backs.

Thanks,
Patrick

[flkersn]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

Hi Zach,

That's an easy and hard question to answer. The easy part is ... it's a DP on the sheet versus most cards being a TP. So the Reiser should be one of the tougher ones to find.

BUT there are 19 other cards that are also DPs ... and some of those have 10+ known copies (with others ungraded), and none have as few known copies. Like I said earlier, either Reiser got thrown away more often, or there are more out there to be discovered. Given the rate at which the Maxwell (a previous tie for a s few with Reiser) has been found in recent years, my money is on them being in collections and people not recognizing that.

Cheers,
Patrick

Which 20 cards do you consider DPs versus TPs? Or do you just go by the Pop reports?

[tombocombo]

Cards 181 183 185 187 189 seem quite difficult in the cream let alone the gray back variation. Informed the seller that this is the 3rd known copy on the Frank House gray/yellow. The 3rd series is rarer than originally thought. Cards 171 to 190 in general are difficult.