1957 and 1958 Omaha Cardinals picture packs with Bob Gibson
 

Last night I was going through stuff in my closet and found these picture packs that my dad had given me a couple of decades ago. I started to look through them and read his note where he mentioned that the Gibsons were probably worth around $100. Not sure if he was guessing or if that was the value when he gave these to me. Anyway, thought I would share. At this time, I have not decided what I am going to do with these.

Sorry for the size of the pictures. I will see if I can figure out how to shrink them.

1st picture is the complete 1958 set
2nd picture shows the two Gibsons
3rd picture is a partial 1958 set minus two players
4th picture is what's left including some from the 1957 set (I don't know if it's complete until I match up players with the checklist I found online).

Removed pictures - sold all of these as a big lot and the buyer wanted to keep things as discrete as possible/asked me to take the pictures down. Not sure why, didn't ask but honoring his request.

Love those early Gibson cards. Are they just blank on the back?

Yep...all of these are labeled as part of picture packs, but are also listed on Trading Card Database. None have numbers and it's hard to read the signatures (not actual signatures) on these to identify the players.

Yeah, I was trying to read the other names, but they are difficult to make out. Undoubtedly some made it to the majors, just didn't become as big as Gibson.

Gibson is the big one. The guys on Blowout are telling me that I should sell the individually because selling as a lot may actually dissuade interest.

Some other names I recognized include Jim Frey from the 1958 set and Dick Schofield from the 1956 set. There might be others as well.

Selling them individually might get slightly more money. The other names aren’t major, so it might not make much difference.

Make sense for those that specifically collect Gibson or HOFs, etc. Selling the rest individually also makes sense as people may need singles to complete their own sets.

Being from Omaha I keep track of anything baseball from the city past, so it’s nice to see any complete sets. They are pretty rare. Of course the Gibson minor league cards are on many want lists. Thanks for showing.

The Gibson is a huge deal. I would get it graded even if it won't grade high and it certainly looks nice, and sell it through a proper channel. If you want suggestions feel free to PM me, but this is s very rare and very desirable item. It took me years to find one.

I'd bet you could add another 0 to your father's original note, pretty easily.

Very cool!

More IMO.

I doubt anyone is collecting this set, it's too rare and obscure. I would guess virtually the entire value is in the Gibsons. To find two is astonishing, unless many have surfaced since I bought mine a few years ago after looking forever.

Yeah it's the kind of item that might actually be smart to auction on ebay (and I don't say that lightly, 90% of the time a bin will net you a higher price). But Bob isn't a lightly collected player, the snipes people may set could really be something..

Then you have leverage for the second as well.

My dad grew up near Omaha and said he attended the Cardinals games as a kid. I don't remember the exact year he gave these to me, but thinking it was at least 20 years ago. I never gave it much of a thought until I stumbled across them last night. My curiosity led me to looking them up for the first time and that's when I realized I had something special. Makes me wonder how many others may be out there like this - someone having it passed along to them without knowing what they have all these years and still sitting packed away.

None graded by PSA. At the time I bought mine it was the only SGC graded one. I've seen a couple of raw ones and that is it.

Scratch my $1000 guess lol.

https://collectrea.com/archives/2019...-gibson-rookie

As I recall the REA ones had back damage?

Not sure if the same set resurfaced with Huggins and Scott Auctions, but the price went up exponentially in two years:

https://bid.hugginsandscott.com/bids...?itemid=201464

Edit: not the same set - the one from 2019 was missing the header which is present in the 2021 auction.

Wacko pandemic peak, but still. Get these graded and they will do very well.

Yep I am definitely going to go that route. You said yours is SGC I believe. Is that the best option for an item like this? PSA will be at the Chicago Sports Spectacular in March, so I might drop them off there.

Interesting both sold sets were missing a photo. Is yours 24/24?

I would start by asking PSA if they grade them. You could do that now. Sometimes they don't grade some issues and can be a pain if they haven't graded one yet. I believe the person in charge of those decisions, at least in the first place, is named Elizabeth. IF PSA will grade them, I would go with PSA, but SGC will be fine too.

Here is mine. Grade is a mystery.

Yeah, first set is complete. Second set has the other Gibson and is 22 out of 24. Determined the 1957 set is complete, the 1956 set is 22 out of 24, and there is one extra 1957. It took a lot of work to figure this all out since these just don't seem to be very common.

I see, I don't think it's much work to be honest. These kinds of items people have saved searches for and are chomping at the bit to pop up. They are going to pay what they will pay, the past 2 sales are pretty much irrelevant. Of course they are a good baseline, but the buyers are collectors of Bob Gibson who have been waiting and are going to set the market. Like folks have said in previous posts, Bob is 99.5% of the value. I would be surprised if the set without him sells for over a couple hundred.

I would do 1 of 3 options. If you are selling.

Option 1. List them here, ask whatever you want. A great option, I'm sure you have PMS already.

Option 2. Auction them with a big auction house or eBay. Also good option, who knows what they will go for.

Option 3. Get in touch with Gibson collectors directly. This is by far the best option, trust me from experience with other very rare items of star players. Go walk the Gibsons around a St Louis show or other nearby show. Or get in contact with a Gibson collector online (Facebook group etc).

Like Peter said, for any option PSA is going to really put people at ease on rare issues. And that = $.

I appreciate all the solid advice given here. More than likely I am going to wait until the Chicago Spectacular in March and stop by the Heritage and PSA booths to discuss options, costs, etc.

That makes sense. Good luck and I expect at the end of the day you will do well with these. I recently sold a NM Puerto Rican Schmidt for well over 3K and the Gibson is much scarcer.

Great post. Enjoyed seeing these

....but wait...I was gonna offer $100 apiece for 'em.

:D:D

Believe it or not, there was a $10 price tag on one of the 1958 header cards. Not sure if my dad was trying to sell these at a garage sale or maybe set up at a flea market. You can see the dark circle on the header card in one of the pictures. :D

I agree with all the previous posts regarding selling them, but - since your father gifted them to you - you may want to consider keeping a set. I'm sure you've already thought that through.

Regardless, thanks for the photos! Great set!

The auction house will have them graded for you. Try Love of the Game Auctions. Al is great with special stuff like this.

I am definitely thinking about keeping one. Admittedly, I am torn though. Part of me wants to keep all of it because my dad gave these to me, but part of me wants these to be in the hands of people that truly enjoy them. From the notes my dad included with these, I almost think he would be ok if I sold them. But then part of me thinks I would regret it, lol.

Thank you for the tip about that auction house. I hadn't heard about them until you mentioned it. I will check it out!

Grade both. Sell one. Then decide if the money is enough to move you, or you feel better about keeping the second one.

I'll add to that as well, if you decide to sell both. Make sure to wait a while in between. At least I would.

I second Adam's auction-house suggestion. REA would be my other auction-house suggestion.

I was looking into both PSA and SGC. PSA seems to be exponentially more expensive compared to SGC. Do you think the potential upside value going with PSA makes it the best option to go with? If I read things correctly, PSA is going to be about $249/each unless they deem these as more than $2500 value for each. Then it goes to $499/each. I think SGC was coming in at $85/each based on a $2500 per value. Been hearing a lot of good things about SGC lately as far as their turnaround times and accuracy while I am hearing mixed things about PSA.