BBCE 1952 Topps Wax Pack "Brick"

[JollyElm]

Maybe it's time for Robert Ballard to take his fleet of submersibles and search for the 'wreck' of all the boxes of '52 Topps high numbers dumped into the Atlantic. Perhaps cellophaned bricks are patiently waiting beneath the waves.

[jsanz]

The story goes that Sy Berger was on the barge to personally see the cases dumped into the ocean. I bet if he wasn't on that barge to over see it those cases would have made it back into circulation and 1952 Topps high numbers would not be so rare.

In other words barge company takes the money, tell you I am dumping your cards in the ocean, never dump your cards in the ocean, try to resell the cards and make even more money. I guess the cards had no street value back then. Oh well, that didn't happen but it's fun to think of "what ifs".

[toppcat]

And i'll bet that Topps ended up having Card Collectors Company sell off most of the remaining high numbers and create some spurious upwelling in the pricing of same in the 60's by concocting a story they were dumped at sea.

[Republicaninmass]

Yea...because they are so readily available and collectors just think they are hard to find.



Guys, it's been 60 years, they've what they are regardless if you believe it or not. Even on Ebay they are holding value. Not to mention maybe one or two dealers have them at shows.

[jchcollins]

They want more for that brick than what my house would reasonably sell for, and are basically admitting it doesn't contain a Mantle...

Don't get me wrong, I understand - but still shaking my head.

[Promethius88]

I always thought the story was that they were dumped into the East River...not the ocean?

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Promethius88

I always thought the story was that they were dumped into the East River...not the ocean?

A ruse IMO, the dumping at sea. Out of character for Topps in that era to spend money on disposal of something they could still sell somewhere. Repackaging and sales through Card Collectors Co and a few other select, employee-affiliated outlets was their MO but some highs also got exported to South America. If they got dumped, Bush Terminal had ample facilities to allow for disposal of bulk items without hiring a tug and scow. In addition, Topps used a carting company at Bush Terminal to haul their refuse.

Were some destroyed? Possibly. Was the print run shorter than the semi-highs? Yes it seems so but not THAT much-there were no penny packs and I believe they only did two packaging runs at most (wax and vending). Check out these comparative figures from a canvass I did of eBay today:

CARD COUNT PLAYER
251 62
252 92
253 80
254 100
255 81
256 107
257 57
258 83
259 87
260 84
261 72 MAYS
262 38
263 57
264 99
265 83
266 78
267 87
268 52
269 69
270 92
271 49
272 31
273 36
274 28
275 60
276 35
277 41
278 53
279 57
280 25
281 36
282 30
283 54
284 55
285 67
286 48
287 25
288 61
289 20
290 41
291 53
292 67
293 61
294 36
295 27
296 27
297 48
298 49
299 60
300 50
301 51
302 51
303 43
304 45
305 42
306 53
307 31 CAMPOS
308 33
309 34
310 37
311 42 MANTLE
312 22 ROBINSON
313 51 THOMSON
314 23 CAMPANELLA
315 26 DUROCHER
316 27
317 22
318 37
319 31
320 30
321 26
322 26
323 37
324 22
325 31
326 47
327 21
328 23
329 20
330 16
331 20
332 7 BARTIROME
333 37 REESE
334 22
335 13
336 38
337 39
338 25
339 14
340 24
341 23
342 23
343 27
344 33
345 24
346 38
347 22
348 26
349 41
350 34
351 38
352 28
353 27
354 17
355 29
356 28
357 19
358 48
359 17
360 28
361 31
362 16
363 41
364 37
365 48
366 45
367 52
368 60
369 13
370 17
371 30
372 30
373 28
374 28
375 26
376 16
377 54
378 23
379 38
380 28
381 32
382 22
383 22
384 21
385 38
386 16
387 41
388 38
389 36
390 38
391 39
392 8 WILHELM
393 33
394 34
395 30
396 19 WILLIAMS
397 31
398 16
399 30
400 20 DICKEY
401 29
402 27
403 19
404 24
405 29
406 19
407 15 MATHEWS

There's a couple of anomalies in the semi's and the high's but roughly speaking for every 2 semi-high's there is a high; some highs in my canvass were available in greater numbers than some semi-highs-there were as many as 60 available of one subject (#368). The highs are in demand and infamous, they are indeed "highnumberesque" but they exist in numbers that I can't consider to be scarce. You could assemble seven high number runs on eBay at this moment if you had the cash and about that many near-runs missing only 3 or 4 numbers. That is not scarce. Availability for the semi-highs ranges from 25-107 cards, vs 7-60 for the highs

[GasHouseGang]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

They want more for that brick than what my house would reasonably sell for, and are basically admitting it doesn't contain a Mantle...

Don't get me wrong, I understand - but still shaking my head.

I guess your house isn't considered "rare"!

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Perhaps cellophaned bricks are patiently waiting beneath the waves.

Let's get rid of the and pretend this is an actual genuine real fact. If there really were cellophaned packs of cards that have been sitting underwater for almost 60 years, would they be salvageable?

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

If there really were cellophaned packs of cards that have been sitting underwater for almost 60 years, would they be salvageable?

Too late. Al Rosen already got to them.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

Let's get rid of the and pretend this is an actual genuine real fact. If there really were cellophaned packs of cards that have been sitting underwater for almost 60 years, would they be salvageable?

Not in salt water, they would be gone pretty quickly.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Not in salt water, they would be gone pretty quickly.

Maybe? The wax paper would probably seal it, and if I remember it right cellophane could last a long time, even in seawater.

Assuming it's true, which is debateable, I think it would be worth having a look.

[ALR-bishop]

Steve— you should write to James Cameron about taking this on as a follow up to The Titanic ... The Barge

[frankbmd]

You would think that one waterlogged Mantle would have made it to the Jersey shore or Long Island to verify the barge dump. He was young and likely an above average swimmer.

[steve B]

The problem of course is that even if true, and even if the packaging protected the cards a bit, the barge company probably made it a habit of offloading in roughly the same area, and probably did so into the 60's if not later.

So the cards will be under at least a decades worth of other "stuff"