I'm on a fool's errand
 

I've decided to make a run at the 1952 Topps set. I've added an additional layer to my misery by setting out to only centred examples (45-55 or better) of every card.

'm sure many of you have taken the same approach and collected this set (or at least a portion of it), so I'm looking for some advanced scouting. Which cards were the hardest to find entered. I know the centring is generally awful in this set, but I figure there must be at least a few cards that are nearly impossible to find with the centring I'm looking for

Good luck on your quest. You might take a spin through the Topps 1952 Gallery thread in this section since several collectors of the set posted all of it’s cards in different conditions. It is on page 13

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=294679

Centering is toughest for the 3rd series, #131-190.

I am about halfway through my low/mid grade 52T set and have some extras. PM me if you are interested in buying or trading.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

Good luck with your quest. I still haven't finished as I still need 4, but I haven't given up yet. :)
In hindsight, like you are planning on doing, I wish I had of taken my time more.
For whatever reason, (just recently back in the hobby as most likely being the reason) I rushed to amass as many as I could in order to complete my set.
I also remember thinking, since the cards came that way from the factory, centering wasn't a big deal, but I was wrong as I eventually learned here.

For whatever reason, Al's link didn't work so I'll try mine.
Good luck with your quest, and yeah, there are many that are very tough to find centered, let alone perfectly.
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=294679

I completed bowman 51 and 52 sets first as I always thought they were as underrated as much as the 52 Topps is overrated. Had the big cards since 2015 or so but I was happy to complete the highs in mid-2020 before commons became ridiculously expensive (> $80/each).

I should have been more patient for some of the semi-stars but got good deals by getting lots and reselling the dupes. It's a really good set and still a tad bit over rated IMHO.

Because I didn't add anything much to my first reply regarding your question, here are some off the top of my head.

Luke Easter, Del Crandall, Eddie Kazak, Bob Swift, Bobby Hogue, Clarence Podbielan, Dom Dimaggio, Frank Overmire, Jim Delsing, Karl Olsen (especially BB'd variations) Johnny Sain, Marv Rickert, Nippy Jones, Saul Rogovin, and 2 highs that I can currently think of in Bob Chipman and Jim Fridley.
Of course there are many others as you will likely soon find out.

.. I hope you are very young as you begin this tilt at the windmill ; your " 55-45 or better " of all 407 means it's possible that your grandsons might still be hunting for them at card shows . I have several hundred '52's , ; I would venture that maybe half of the members on the post-war side of the forum have as many too. Most of us have just given up on centering . Of my 300 or so , I have mebbe 19 with really really decent centering.
http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/204295...NTERED_NEW.JPG


...good hunting , and please keep us in the loop. Hell , we could start a club ..

The hunt for a centered 407 Eddie Mathews will be , uh , interesting.

..http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/204295...OC_SCHMITZ.JPG

..

..

I did the same and recently sold off with all variations sans Mantle and Mathews

Dealers would give me the oddest look when my "want oist" had notes like 55/45 and I wanted better!

The usual suspects that are low pops in USA 7 and 8, are the centering bears.

79, 80, 139, 180, come to might right off the bat.

As Dale mentioned Crandall, rogovin, nippy jones.

Gerald Staley also comes to mind, which also commands a premium, especially in the black back variation. I don't think I've seen a perfectly centered one, tbh? Always off top to bottom.

Link to my sold set, very few photos

Check out the chipman in the last photo! Think I paid 3x going rate



https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=316509

Just looking at your pics it's not hard to tell that many were cut the same way for the most part.
Your Shuba, Mizell and Burgess look very very similar to mine as far as centering goes.

Mine are a bit better on the centering, but none of these are 55/45 all around.

Yeah, only a bit. :D
Nice looking cards, Al.

Haha, well your Mantle is much nicer than mine, seeing as I don't have one.

Hey Sean,

Good luck with your hunt! I started my '52 Topps set in earnest about 2 years ago with the same intent of getting only well-centered cards for my collection. I'm only about a quarter of the way through it so far, but I'm pretty happy with the cards that I've been able to pick up - and I think that you will be too in choosing this route.

I've found that a good rule of thumb to follow is by looking at the PSA set weights for individual cards (i.e. if it's a common with a weight of 3 or more - it's a good chance that card is hard to find centered). Dale and Ted brought up several of them earlier; Gordon Goldsberry and Chico Carrasquel would be a couple more that I would add.

Here's a few pics of some from my set :):

https://caimages.collectors.com/psai...l.jpg?v=327148https://caimages.collectors.com/psai...1_original.jpg

https://caimages.collectors.com/psai...9_original.jpg

Great cards everyone, and thanks for the advice. The search has already begun in earnest, and it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.

I just discovered this thread after Al told me about it. Seems like my 52 Topps pursuit echoes many of the sentiments here. I'm aiming for 50/50, but occasionally grab some that are closer to 55/45, though most are true 50/50. I have about 155 cards total so far. Long ways to go. But it's a fun chase.

Sounds like a have a few of the more difficult-to-find cards out there so far (yay!), so they exist. It's a game of patience and persistence I suppose. Here are a few of the ones I have that were mentioned above.