1985 Topps Mini & 1991 Desert Shield

[slidekellyslide]

Thanks Al, I had no idea there was even plans for a mini set in 85. Would have been cool if they’d distributed the set.

[bswhiten]

http://www.milehighcardco.com/LotDet...entoryid=95497

A nice looking 85 mini set just sold on Mile High…

[Zach Wheat]

Resurrecting the old 85 Topps mini thread as I am adding additional info.

This set has been listed as one of the top 10 rarest Topps sets. Alan Hager, who was influential in the creation of the grading scale pre-PSA (ala AccuGrade and ASA) was the one of the dealers that bought 60 of the 110 sheets that were "discovered" by OPC's garbage scrappers. The sheets were in varying stages of printing, including smeared ink, wrinkles on the sheets, partially printed backs and they were printed on different stocks of cardboard. All of the cards are thought to be hand cut and said to originate from the original find of 110 sheets.

I suspect Alan bought the white/tan and normal stat back sheets as he did not have any of the red stat back sheets when I talked to him at varying dates from his acquisition. Perhaps another dealer bought the red stat back sheets prior to Alan purchasing his stock. He mentions that the rarest back came from his sheets - and he purchased 10 sheets of white back cards and 5 sheets of tan back cards with the remainder being normal stat backs.

Ben good acquisition - the Ryan is a nice looking card and one of the most expensive cards in the set.

[bswhiten]

There is a great article that Kevin Glew wrote on the set that was recently published by Beckett Vintage Collector. Multiple folks that are members of Net54 were interviewed - Al, Bob, Christian, and myself