This should count since its Jackie Robinson , I picked this up today at a Mooresville NC Food Lion, which a portion of the puchase is being donated to the Jackie Robinson Foundation

Great pick up Ron, I think that particular issue has a lot of upside potential. And if I'm wrong, hey, at least you got a can o' nuts.

My wife thinks Im nuts

Stoked to finally have been able to pickup a clean copy of this card. Yes, it's OC top to bottom, but that combo with the full bleed borders on '63 in terms of "noticeability" doesn't bother me in the least. I've had offgrade copies of this card with the same proportion centering s-s, and they were just dealbreakers. Other than that, very happy with the color, surface, and lack of print damage overall on this one.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5b8cdbcb14.jpg


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Nice! I would take that card all day!


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Emphasis added. That exact thing (along with 1962s and 1968s) is covered in my next round of 'Collectorisms'...if I ever hunker down and start trying to finish it!!!

I would trade for that Mantle any day of the week. Frickin' awesome!!!!!!!

Great mailday from SGC! Also, not wanting to start any political conversations, but I am very excited to finally add Obama's signature to my collection!

A heavenly coffee.

Another Kaline! (14 down, 8 to go)

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Thanks Darren. I figured if anyone could empathize with "low" centering, it would be you. Actually I found it interesting in my research on this card (uh, obsessively looking at graded copies...) that the majority of them are centered a bit high t/b. Even higher grade copies. Once every 10 cards or so you will find one centered like this one. Also interesting, the very light speckle of pink print dust on the upper border on this card also appears on many of them that have a slightly thicker upper border. I could spend hours and drive myself nuts just trying to find patterns in print oddities.

But yes thank you, very happy with the card. It's got a lot of NM qualities, including the corners - but I think the centering would hold it at a 6 if I sent it in. Which isn't happening, at least anytime soon...

Sweet, one of my favorite Kaline cards.

52T high numbers
 

Dale, congrats on snagging a few more nice looking '52 Topps high numbers! The finish line is getting a little closer for you. :)

Very elated to have found this epic card from my youth, 1974 Topps #1 Hank Aaron - All-Time HR King, at a very decent price (not eBay), and decided it was time to grab it before the prices continued to climb...

Attachment 522859

And the centering is actually better than it appears, as the shadow cast by the plastic thing on the left obscures some of the white there.

June pickups
 

I was able to add a few more cards to my 1952 Topps set this month. Still have miles to go though... :(

https://www.collectorfocus.com/image...ous/81196/june

Nice Aaron! That card brings back tons of memories for me. 1974 was the first set I collected and the Hank #1, along with the Aaron Specials cards, are super memorable since I grew up near Atlanta and enjoyed following the home run record chase.


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Thanks, Tom. :)

Those are great looking cards you've picked up, and if that is the standard you're after, you're going to have a great looking set come completion.

Good luck the rest of the way!

There was a discussion regarding off-centered cards in the pre-war forum and both sides (perfect centering vs having the card) had very strong opinions. Your 63 Mantle is a nice card by any stretch of the imagination, but being slightly off from top to bottom shouldn't detract from its collectibility. I think much of the impression that a card is less desirable if it's off-center has to do with the image and layout. My modest collection is probably around 70% off-center one way or another. For me, the individual card wears off-centering better than on other cards. Yes, I do try to upgrade certain cards that are way off-center which in turn detracts from the image, but in most cases, I'm quite satisfied. Now, rounded corners, wrinkles, and creases are an entirely different matter.

Happy collecting to all!

Phil aka Tere1071

Complete and off-centered: 1953 Bowman Color; 1971; 1972; 1974; and 1975 Topps Baseball

In progress and also off-centered: 1970 and 1973 Topps Baseball.

Just got this one today: 1967 Laughlin, showing Dizzy and Daffy Dean.

Thanks Phil. Yes, I would agree that cards with different design elements going on at one border can disguise centering issues better. The '63 Topps full bleed colors at the bottom and their "placard" effect do this; so do '53 Topps and the partial full-bleed element that is going on in that set. I once had a '53 Warren Spahn that was a PSA 5 (MC) and though the border was very thin at the top, the overall effect was just not such that it really caused difficulty on the eyes because the difference in the bottom design hid it. Centering is much more noticeable IMO on vanilla border issues like 1957 Topps, 1969 Topps, etc. etc.

Boy, some great cards this month guys!

Here's my take. 67 Brooks is still on its way to me. Now need just 4 to complete 1967 (Carew, 567 Hamilton, Colavito, 592 Shellenback/Willis). The 71s are all OPC.

Nice. I picked up that '67 Belanger raw recently. Still was not cheap.

Attachment 523344

I meant to ask, what stadium was the 1974 Topps #1 Hank Aaron taken in? The 1973 All Star game was held in Kansas City, and the scoreboard has the same trademark shape, but no crown appears atop it (which would've added that much more pop to the card had it appeared looming over Aaron's head, but I digress)...unless Topps airbrushed it out for some reason, although it doesn't really look like they did. There seems to be a couple of Reds(?) warming up in the background. Searching for footage of the game didn't really provide any help or answers.

Any idea if it was definitely KC?

I think the crown is there and maybe just difficult to see? That would definitely appear to be the base of the KC scoreboard and the green structure underneath that supported it.

It's possible that the scoreboard has a detachable top section? Or did? Maybe when events other than Royals home games were being played, they removed the Royals' crown? Just speculation, but it might make sense.

Here are three shots of it. The first is sometime during the 1970's, I imagine? Native son, Harry S Truman, passed in December, 1972, so perhaps this pic was taken in 1973? He is adored out there, so it could be from any year, but the pic seems to be 1970s-ish.

Attachment 523368

This is obviously a recent picture, but someone must have sprayed it with 'Corona-B-Gone,' because there's no crown up there...

Attachment 523369

And this is a screenshot taken after the narrator stated that Kauffman Stadium hosted the 1973 All-Star game. The lower part of the huge crown is very evident, so it was obviously there. This is quite puzzling...

Attachment 523370

Perhaps, it is an airbrushing job by the Topps art department, after all? We're so used to seeing their godawful 'retouching' work on caps and uniforms, that maybe this was a much easier job, just cutting and pasting parts of the bluish sky around to mask the area? Who knows why...but it could be?? What further points to that is the fact that all (or any) of those prominent, white, vertical support beams are nowhere to be found (or just faded into the sky) on the Aaron card.

very cool collectible

This awesome 1969 Topps blank back Hank Aaron arrived today.:)