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Picked up my White Whale
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My father was in possession of one of these for all of 10 minutes in '94 or '95. These were crazy tough to come by period. Even harder pre EBay days in Austin. Right as the show started some one brought some beat up 50's FB to our table and wanted to do some trading. My dad flipped through it and didn't find much, until near the end.
A 1952 Large Lansford. This card was not for the faint of the heart. It had two diagonal creases and 3 or 4 horrible corners. My dad told him it was rare and he was interested. We were mostly vintage and regional/oddball dealers. He kept around modern stuff to keep a few customers happy and to pay the rent on the store. He personally abhorred the modern stuff. I remember the look on his face when the guy asked for a few '89 UD Griffey rookies. Guy was happy. My dad was happy. We had a half price case that did really well during the shows. He hadn't put the sign up that denotes the discount. He marked the price of $400 on it and told me that half of it ($200) was his "did not want to sell price" but if they wanted to pay it it was theirs. About a minute after he puts it in the case someone walks by then does a literal double take. I don't believe an actor could replicate how perfect this reaction was. He was already taking the cash out of his wallet as he asked to see it. As soon as it was in his hand the $400 was on the table and he walked away smiling. He was flabbergasted. I have wanted one since that day about 20 years ago. |
Great card and even better story! Thanks for sharing that and congrats.
jeff |
Nice pick up Matt. I collect this set and have a little over 60% of the cards. I really don't know much about it though. I checked my wantlist and big surprise, I need #144:)
The Standard Catalog says the large size cards would not fit on one sheet like the '52 small sized cards, so some cards were pulled and I guess printed on a second sheet? "The short-printed cards are those with a factor of nine plus the card immediately following that number." And the second series cards (73-144) were printed in even lesser quantities than the first series. Card #144 the last card in the set, a rookie card, a short-print (factor of nine card on the short printed second series on the short printed second sheet). The most expensive card in the set! Do I have this right:D Larry |
Larry- I've heard something along those lines. Supposedly the machine that printed them was notorious for destroying the last line of cards. I heard that they just snipped off the damages end and cut the rest for distribution. Could be an old wives tale but this card is quite tough.
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Congrats on harpooning that sucker! And thanks for sharing a great story.
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Awesome card!
I'm a huge UT collector. This has been #1 on my want list for 20+ years |
I'm going for a RC of all the UT exes. I'll post the others I'm picking up. I have some CFL issues on the way.
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Matt: Since reading your posting I have been looking for this card in off grade, and spotted one on eBay which I won. The card arrived today. My "book" says $3,000 in NM, and got it for just a touch over 5% ($154.50 delivered). I will probably crack it out of it's slab and put him in the box with the other '54 Bowman Large cards.
Larry <a href="http://s176.photobucket.com/user/larrytipton/media/s-l1600.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/larrytipton/s-l1600.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo s-l1600.jpg"/></a> |
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Larry |
Great snag, Larry! Tough card to get.
jeff |
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