This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/6/2006.
Rich with history and intrigue, the 1952 Topps baseball card set developed by Sy Berger is now one of the more revered and valued card sets of all time. The first "modern" baseball card set (and the first Topps set to include bubble gum), the cards now had a color portrait on one side, with statistical and biographical information on the other. This set became a landmark in the baseball card industry. It was the largest baseball card set of the time, with a total of 407 cards issued in two series; the first series were numbered 1-310 and the second 311-407. The second series started with card #311, which is Topps' first card of Mickey Mantle and remains the most valuable Topps card ever (and the most valuable post-1948 card). As the later series did not sell well, Topps was left with a substantial amount of surplus stock which it disposed of by dumping many cards into the Atlantic Ocean! As a result, cards with higher numbers from this period are rarer than low numbers in the same set. This is the full set of 1952 Topps baseball cards, 407 in all. The following star cards have been encapsulated and graded by SGC as follows: #1 Andy Pafko "40 VG 3," #191 Yogi Berra "40 VG 3," #21 Willie Mays "40 VG 3" (rookie), high #311 Mickey Mantle "30 GOOD 2" (rookie), high #312 Jackie Robinson "40 VG 3," high #314 Roy Campanella "20 FAIR 1.5," high #315 Leo Durocher "20 Fair 1.5" and high #392 Hoyt Wilhelm "40 VG 3" (rookie). Also, high #333 Pee Wee Reese has been deemed "color added to corners," and high #407 Eddie Mathews has been signed in blue ink by Mathews, card grades GOOD with signature that grades an 8. Of the remaining stars and commons, centering varies, some creases throughout, occasional wax staining on the back, generally softer corners, average VG overall.