Notoriously Tough PostWar HOFer Cards

[3-2-count]

I would add to the list both the Bob Gibson and Eddie Mathews card from the 1959 Topps set. Both are super tough to find perfectly centered.

[pawpawdiv9]

it took me a while to find a nice centered one that suited me.
But add the 54 Hank Aaron RC

[CW]

Ah, good call on the '49 Leaf Paige, Ted. Great card! Love the writeup on the back, too ("...Should sizzle into his old stride this year.").

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by CW

Ah, good call on the '49 Leaf Paige, Ted. Great card! Love the writeup on the back, too ("...Should sizzle into his old stride this year.").

Thanx Chuck

I acquired my Leaf Paige in 1982....and, I have looked for more of them these past 31 years. But, I have not seen more than 4 of them.

We know Leaf issued them in their 2nd (Single-Print) series in the Summer of '49. But, the Paige card in this scarce series is even tougher than the other 48 cards
in that same series.

There was a 1949 Leaf Unopened Wax pack boxes find back in the late 1980's. The packs were opened and yielded 576 assorted cards from this Single Print series.
These 576 cards were a true random yield (11-12 cards of each player)....except for the Paige cards, of which there were only 3.

I would say that find suggests that the Paige card (for whatever reasons) did not get distributed equally as the other cards in that series.


TED Z

[midwaylandscaping]

Obviously these can be found in high grade being more modern but here's some 70's and 80's cards:
Baseball:
78 Molitor/Trammell in high grades. Smudge alert.
84 Mattingly Donruss. Centering, print spots.
84 Joe Carter Donruss. Centering, print spots.
77 Topps Dale Murphy. Centering, tilt.
79 Topps Ozzie Smith. Tilt, centering, spots, focus, everything

a few from other sports off the top of my head:

86 Topps football Steve Young. Centering.
84/85 Star Co. Michael Jordan XRC. I don't think a real one that's centered exists.
78 OPC Hockey Mike Bossy. Centering nightmare.
81 OPC Hockey Paul Coffey. Centering, tilt, miscuts, snow. Majority have one or more of those issues.

edit: Joe Carter , Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy are not a HOFers, my bad...LOL

Those are a few I've dealt with through the years that stand out.

[MBMiller25]

A few RC's off the top of my head that I have had trouble with over the years:

1958 Orlando Cepeda- Tough Centering (find one 50/50)

1948 Leaf Hal Newhouser-Tough card to find in any condition

1948 Leaf Larry Doby-Same as Above

[Exhibitman]

I've heard this one presents a centering challenge:

[JollyElm]

It's so nice to finally see people posting about cards other than Mantles. What a welcome relief!!! Every list that appears on this site has people stumbling over each other talking about Mantles, as if no other baseball cards were ever produced. It gets frickin' frustrating!!!

[quitcrab]

1968 Willie Mays and 1972 Aaron in action .... Centering is awful. Nothing on the left a lot on the right,

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by quitcrab

1968 Willie Mays and 1972 Aaron in action .... Centering is awful. Nothing on the left a lot on the right,

Hey, check out the December pickups thread to see the Mays IA I got my hands on recently. Actually, there's two of them there, but the second one is what I'm referring to.

[judsonhamlin]

I had a heck of a time finding a 53 Bowman Eddie Mathews that wasn't really off center top to bottom. Finally got a nice Ex+ one that wasn't overpriced this summer.

[Brianruns10]

Any centered HOFers from the '52 Topps set can be a tough proposition. The Berra and the Mays, I've almost NEVER seen centered. I once saw a Berra on ebay that was dead centered, and I swear it went for more than double the PSA SMR value.

But the sleeper, I think, is the Matthews card. For all the pomp and circumstance of the Mantle, he was a double print, and already well known enough that his card was more likely to be saved.

The Matthews, meanwhile, is a perfect storm of rarity: single print, part of the toughest high series in all post war card sets, the last card in the set and prone to the same problems as the Pafko, and his card come with some of the worst centering I've ever seen. And it's his one, TRUE Rookie card.

I bought a PSA 5 Matthews in 2011, dead centered. I mean perfect. I paid a fair amount over SMR, and I have no regrets because I've NEVER seen another one like it come up on ebay.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

I had a heck of a time finding a 53 Bowman Eddie Mathews that wasn't really off center top to bottom. Finally got a nice Ex+ one that wasn't overpriced this summer.

Judson

DITTO....for the 1953 BOWMAN (color) Yogi Berra.

Both Berra (#121) and Mathews (#97) were the 1st corner cards on their respective 32-card sheets; therefore, very tough to find centered.

Incidently......how was the recent Valley Forge show for you ?


TED Z