1948 Leaf Graziano card...True Story

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Posted By: paulgrubor

My Graziano Leaf boxing card story...

I'm the seller that auctioned off the Rare 1948 Leaf Graziano card via a Sports Collectors Digest auction in the late 1980's. The story behind this rare card is as follows. My wife and I were set up at a Sun Times show in Chicago and we met a Doctor from Streator, Il and we became good friends with this person. He mentioned that Streator was a big Baseball town and that we should come there on a buy trip. We ran ads in the local paper and did buy a 1963 presentation set along with a wonderful collection of old Bobbing heads.
A Honus Wagner Ball also was offered but we passed on it because we were mainly sellers of sportscards (darn it). We had a great time and purchased quite a few nice collections.

We arrived home and the Doctor called us about three days later and said he was contacted by a local business man that had quite a nice collection of sets from the 50's and 60's. He was unable to make it during our previous visit so we set up a time and date to visit his furniture store located in downtown Streator. Upon arriving we walked in his backroom and lined up on 4 back to back eight foot tables were stacks and stacks of cards with alot of complete sets. Included was a stack of Ringside and Leaf boxing cards that were added to the final purchase price. Upon leaving the store my wife noticed a nice recliner and asked about the price. The owner threw it in and we put it in the trunk and tied it down...True story..It was January and we had a back seat loaded with vintage cards and froze all the way home.

I never really had boxing cards so I offered them to a collector in Milwaukee for $500.00 for the group but he passed. I decided to run an SCD auction with the cards and kept getting calls to end the Graziano card early. I told my wife that something is up with this card because I swear I had at least 15 calls to end early. The card ended up at $1100.00 or so and I was shocked. There were 2 bidders on the line and I kept switching back and forth with bids increasing by the second. The card was creased and by todays standards would grade a 2 or 3. Anyway, thats my story on the Graziano card that the original owner stated was purchased in the Chicago area during his childhood.

Paul Grubor