Collect this complete 274 card 1953 Topps Baseball Card Set features Pack Fresh PSA 7 Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays 2nd year cards. Every card in this set is graded either PSA Near Mint - Mint 8, or PSA 8.5 NM-MT +, or PSA Mint 9.
Appropriately titled The "Pack Fresh Time Machine" on the PSA Registry with a ranking of 5 in the world and an amazing 8.09-grade point average. A complete 1953 Topps Baseball Set in similar high-grade condition is almost impossible to find since only 5 others exist, with none offered for sale in many years. Don’t wait more years to locate another!
The 1953 Topps Baseball Set Details:
The Topps 1953 baseball set does not disappoint. This set is laden with beautiful paintings drawn by many of the leading artists of the day and also features many of the game's best players of the time - along with those whose stars would shine much brighter in the future. The design of the set features absolutely gorgeous player portraits on most of the cards with the player's name, position, team name and team logo on the bottom. The player information is in a colored border (either red or black) which bleeds into the corner making high-conditioned cards very difficult to obtain. The PSA Population Report has over 110,000 cards graded with just a small percentage appointed high grades due to the difficulty in maintaining high-grade condition on this issue. At the time these cards were issued in five-card packs. At a penny, each, don't you wish you could be transported in time and scoop up some great conditioned 1953 Topps cards?
A perfect example of the condition scarcity is the very first card in the set, Jackie Robinson. Other key players in the set include Mickey Mantle (card #82), Satchel Paige (Card #220) and Willie Mays (Card #244). The Mantle is also a beautiful facial portrait and many collectors actually prefer this card over the more famed 1952 Topps High Number (#311). The final key card before the high number series is #220 Satchel Paige, whose name is spelled incorrectly on the card front, his card is spelled with 2 L's. Also interesting to note if you presume Topps may not have wanted to publish a high number series, the first and last cards of the first few series are the most famous black players of the day. Topps began with Jackie and ended with Satchel.
Another key card is Willie Mays (#244), who is also part of the high number series which came out later in the year and are much more difficult than the series preceding those. The Mays card is an action portrait showing him fielding. In 1953 a fielding portrait was fine for Mays as he was already an exquisite fielder, but his bat had not yet developed into what would come over the next decade.
As with all sets in the 1950s, these cards were issued in series, with this set issued in the following series (1-85, 86-165, 166-220 and 221-280). The cards in series 166-220 are the most common of the 1953's and that has always been somewhat reflected in price guide values as those cards can be the most common in any grouping of 1953's when new collections appear on the secondary market. And, of course, as with most 1950s and 1960's sets, the final series is the least produced and the least available.
Some other quirks in this set involve some short and double-printed early series cards. Some of the better players who were short-printed include Joe Black, Smoky Burgess and Early Wynn. Those short prints are much tougher than the rest of the low series cards to acquire. There were several nice rookie cards in the final series including Roy Face, Jim "Junior" Gilliam and Johnny Podres. All of these cards are also in the high numbered series.
With the colored borders, difficult-to-find cards, and the great player selection, there is little wonder why 1953 Topps has always been a favorite among collectors.
A minimum of 5% of the sale price raised for this purchased package will be donated to the benefiting charity. Please be aware that this auction is not tax-deductible.
