Truly scarce postwar cards

[ALR-bishop]

In 1981 Topps issued several team sets cobranded with Coke. All but the Yankees had 11 cards and a Header card in their set. For some reason only 3 Yankee cards and the Header card made it to the public. This is the the 8th unissued Yankee card. The other 7 were posted above

[Harliduck]

I'd call this "scarce", not rare by any means but this little known 53 Dorman Skowron is super tough. Took me 4 months to find one when I put my set together. I got it raw and subbed it myself, presents better than a 1 (crease free, got lucky), but it's stamped and was sent. A quick check on Ebay currently and there are two spendy but decently priced...that was not the case when I was looking of course.




About as "scarce" as anything I have...I'm sure the 63 Fleer Checklist doesn't apply...haha. I guess I'm a pretty boring post war collector.

[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

I'd call this "scarce", not rare by any means but this little known 53 Dorman Skowron is super tough.

Wasn't the Gil Hodges Dorman PC ultra scarce for years until someone found a warehouse find of thousands of them? Or is that something I've just imagined in my advanced age.

[Harliduck]

That is true and one of the best post war stories out there. Apparently they never mailed out Gil's back in the day (the players used these to hand out to fans, and some were sold at specific stadiums) and his stash was found in the artists basement years later after he passed, not that long ago. The VERY FEW that were in the hobby were going for 5 digit prices, even for poor cards and it was considered by many as one of the rarest post war cards of them all. The discovery was purchased in whole at an auction and unfortunately for anyone who spent big bucks to get one, the value dropped exponentially. There is a PSA 10 on ebay for like $300 right now. The stash was in mint shape. I have a 7 I graded myself, and also picked up an 8 a while back for next to nothing. Just goes to show there are winners, and LOSERS when there is a big find. If you google it there are many articles on this...again, a pretty cool story.

I've read, not sure what the truth is, but Skowron and Elston Howard threw most of theirs away, thus the premium.

[Rickyy]

Tough one.

[raulus]

Here’s another fun one. PSA Pop 3.

For the uninitiated, the numbered version was a test, and never actually issued on boxes. The unnumbered version is pretty ubiquitous.

[ALBB]

Bazooka Mays

In addition the unnumbered version..is found everywhere

[Marckus99]

This, over any others….all day, everyday.

[paul]

Originally Posted by raulus

Here’s another fun one. PSA Pop 3.

For the uninitiated, the numbered version was a test, and never actually issued on boxes. The unnumbered version is pretty ubiquitous.

Is the 1971 numbered Bazooka Mays particularly scarce within the numbered set? I know the numbered cards are tough, but I never thought they'd have a population of only 3 each. I have about twenty of the numbered cards (but no Mays).

[captainfitz]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

I've read, not sure what the truth is, but Skowron and Elston Howard threw most of theirs away, thus the premium.

My Elston Howard is in pretty good shape, but I still need one of those Skowron's. I'm hoping to find a decent one at a good price eventually. Dormand's and those little 1950 Callahans are some of my favorites non-standard cards from the 50s.

John, for your complete set, did you you go with one per player, or did you make sure to get each of the known photo variations for each guy?

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by captainfitz

My Elston Howard is in pretty good shape, but I still need one of those Skowron's. I'm hoping to find a decent one at a good price eventually. Dormand's and those little 1950 Callahans are some of my favorites non-standard cards from the 50s.

John, for your complete set, did you you go with one per player, or did you make sure to get each of the known photo variations for each guy?

That's a super nice Elston...took me a while to pick that one up as well. I did go with all the poses, yes...and dabbled in a few of the auto positioning and no number cards but didn't focus on those. It is shocking to see the low PSA graded totals on all Dormands, seems only the 2 Mickey's are popular to sub...my set is all SGC.

The only variation that I would like to pick up one day but not sure it's even considered a "card", is the Arkansas auto dealership Johnny Sain. It's over sized and PSA has only graded 3 of them. I've never seen one available.

[hcv123]

1957 Salesman sample panel: better of 2 examples I know of
1960 Clemente Bazooka complete box - only known example
1962 Jell-O complete box - only known complete box
1962 Salesman sample panel: best of 3 or 4 known examples
1968 Topps Test disc: Only known example (though there should be some various proof versions out there somewhere)
1972 Topps prototype - Only known example
1960 Mickey Mantle complete Bazooka box - Finest of 2 known examples