Irv, I tapped out at 4K. Looks like three guys went hard for this. Here is a pic of my House unicorn.

Sweet card, Billy! :)

I only watched the auction as I knew ahead of time it would be a little to spendy for my blood.
It was fun watching it explode in price in the last few seconds though. :eek:

Those idiots at SGC refused to holder my yellow tiger as either a gray or yellow!

The sgc poated copy is Only the 6th I've seen. Thanks for posting billy.

Nice Billy

Not sure if I'd posted

Wrong photo


Trying to post 3 gray backs
Gray/yellow
Gray/orange gray front
Gray/orange tiger glossy front

You never cease to amaze me Ted. Just curious if you think all yellow House gray backs lack most or all of the green neck?

Have you seen any yellow House gray backs with some or all of the green neck? Is there any correlation to the glossy fronts and the lack of green necks?

The house gray is ONLY found yellow or orange. No partial red/green throat. These are 2 seperate cards placed on the sheet.


This is because after the gray stock was used
In the beginning of the run. After switching to the cream stock, someone noticed the logos were different on the same house cards on the sheet and tried to stone off the red from around the correct version to have them match. I'm guessing this was easier than trying to add a mask to get the orange logo to have red added. Eventually, the whole mask was redone to have the tiger logos matching.

To me, the yellow/gray is the key card which proves my theory of not only the grays printed first, but of the house card having both an error and a variation on the same sheet!

I don't think I've seen this here yet. Glenn Nelson with a slightly severed jugular.

Len Brown stated in various interviews on line as well as comments made directly to me regarding Topps sets made post-1959 indicate that more than one printer was used simultaneously and they did not discriminate between card stock - which could explain the same variations.

Good luck with the sale! Hopefully it brings more attention to the "key card" in the 1952 topps set

52 House Gray/Yellow Tiger
 

My card just came back from PSA where I tried to get it crossed over. They refused to give it a yellow Tiger variation. I don’t know how my card got out the door if SGC won’t grade yours. I think PSA didn’t want to mess up the registry with this new addition IMO. If it was your card Ted or Zach what would you do with the card?

Was a reason given as to why, Billy?

Psa told me I could opt for either yellow tiger or gray back. They wouldn't add both. No reason given.


Sgc told me they only distinguish red/black backs, not gray backs.


Both are true stories

Ted, this explains a lot. I did not know that.

Irv, I probably would keep it raw. If I had to make a choice between grading companies I would go with PSA and have it slabbed as a House - Yellow Tiger since that distinction over the gray back is more subjective. The gray back "yellow tiger" can't have any red on the tongue or anywhere else on the tiger, as you know and should not have a green tint on the neck. The cream back House - yellow tiger with green tint on the neck seems to be more commonly found, than without the green tint. The gray back House, yellow tiger appears to be found only without the green tint on neck - but so few exist I am not positive.

However, the standards for grading a House with yellow tiger have not been consistently applied at PSA. I have seen some House - yellow tiger cards with slight shades of red on the tongue.

Nice card Billy. Wish I had one.

Hi Mike!

I can always hope for registry purposes PSA realizes this should be added to the Super set.

Au contraire monfreir...the Absence of red on the tongue is WHY the neck appears green! if you look under a loupe, you will see the dot pattern is missing the red ink around the tiger and then up towards the neck.

The house SOLID yellow No green is an error, as it was printed this way on the sheet

The house WITH green is a variation, print defect, or man made error as ( I believe) the red was deliberately removed to match the other Tiger on the sheet. It would have been a slow process of stoning off the red mask, and this is why, over the print run, the tiger has less and less red with some (I will call it bleeding) onto his throat.

Since (IMO) the gray backs were printed first, we only have either solid yellow or perfect red. Somewhere along the lines, they decided to try and match the tigers, and it would have been too difficult to just add the red to the yellow tiger, so they starting removing the red from the other one on the sheet.

If you look at the two versions under a loupe the card with no green throat still has the red dot pattern, but the green throat version is missing the red "pixels" for lack of a better term.

I hope that early AM rant is coherent...enough

Can you imagine what the folks who produced the Topps 1952 set would think about the discussion in this thread ( or in any of the variant/variations threads) :)

Billy's card shown above (gray back House with yellow tiger) does not have the green neck tint. So gray back House cards with yellow tigers appear to exist in both cream and gray back....

Correct, but no partial red aka green throat on the gray back...ever...as of yet

As Al-R said, another mystery.

Zach, I assume you meant with regards to Billy's card?

Interesting info, again, Ted.
I guess I should grab up a loupe. I know this has been discussed before, but what magnification is best?
I can grab a single, 40X for $15 bucks or can grab 3, a 10X, 20X and a 30X for $26.
This one (below) also for $18. 30X, 60X and 90X.

Maybe none of these are worth their salt though, or are any of these good enough?

https://www.amazon.ca/KINGMAS-Magnif...0&gad_source=1
https://www.amazon.ca/Jewelers-Magni...b&gad_source=1
https://www.amazon.ca/JARLINK-Jewelr...b&gad_source=1

I'm not sure the x of mine, but it has the centering lines on it as well. I can't imagine it's more than 15 or 20

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

Thanks, Ted. :)

52 House
 

Irv,
PSA said “we will not be recognizing this as a gray back yellow Tiger. It was the yellow Tiger part of it that we did not feel comfortable with recognizing.” Selfishly I was hoping it would cross so I could sell it for decent money to help me finish my 52 Topps set for the second time. I am so glad I recently joined the Net54 site. Picking the brains of people like Zach, Irv, and Ted is priceless!! Thanks guys!!

I wonder if it is all the red speckling on/near the lower left of the card that they feel uncomfortable about?
It also looks like, (possibly?) there is some red on the Tigers tongue?
Seems both companies, maybe more, have tightened up their grading criteria on what constitutes a true Yellow Tiger?
Some previous cards have definitely been graded with some red, and some significantly, on the Tigers tongue and elsewhere but I'd be really surprised if any in the last 6 months to a year have been?

And, you're welcome. I don't know as much as most on here so I'm glad to help out where I can. :)

Dale,

I had a House with partial red tongue "yellow" tiger recently (i.e. 12 months ago) graded by PSA. I guess it depends upon which grader gets the card.

Well that certainly Is curious. I was told I had the option of either, but not both. I did not save the email, but I did find this from nov 2023
"

Cert xxxxxxx is not the Yellow Tiger. We have tightened the acceptable parameters for the yellow tiger, which are different than those in the past, and the Tiger can't have any red or orange, including the tongue, so this is example does not fit our standards. "

Also, thanks for the kind words. However, I'm still not sure the difference between priceless and worthless :)

Or, you submitted it just under the new criteria as Ted has written below?

Thought that was the case. ;)

Irv,

I thought PSA made a mistake upon the initial grade. It was originally labelled a cream back House red tiger. I resubmitted it and requested the yellow tiger designation be added - which they did. Under their new definitions, the designation probably should not have been added, as it has some red on the tongue.

A scan of Mine actually went for "label correction" and they told me the info I'd posted.

Typo - should have said "....it was originally graded a House partial red tiger..."

Inconsistency is still one of the biggest issues. It also seems grading of card collectibles is trending more towards Pokemon and Magic cards and less on vintage, post-war cards

I also think that in the '50s Topps was not really a printer, but more of a bubble gum producer and card designer. I believe they farmed out most of their printing to different companies that used different card stock etc. I in the minority by far with this opinion though.

If you watch this video produced by Topps produced circa 1967, they do not show any printing presses, etc. but show stacked printed product, wrapper rolls and assembly operations. Their manufacturing is relegated to bubble gum

Topps Chewing Gum, Inc.: The Hidden Treasure "movie":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfvCFFBnWic