Autographs
1952 Topps Baseball brick on display; Hall of Famer sightings on Day 3 of The National
ROSEMONT, Ill.—It has survived decades, and now a key piece of Topps’ early days of producing baseball cards is up for sale.
REA is auctioning off a brick of eight packs of 1952 Topps Baseball cards. There are only three bricks similar that are known to exist.
“The significance of this brick of ’52 Topps wax packs cannot be overstated,” REA President Brian Dwyer said. “I consider this to be one of the most impressive items that we’ve had the privilege to auction. I think the whole story of how they came to be—how Topps came to be. If you really think of it at its core, these are from the formative days of Topps. These are the first foray into widespread baseball card distribution. These are a testament to the success and lack of success to that early issue.
“’52 Topps was revolutionary in a lot of different ways, but it didn’t light the world on fire like some of their later issues. Topps was struggling to sell some of these cards, and, as we know, famously discarded them in the ocean. The fact that these exist harkens back to those early days of Topps and also harkens back to the early days of the hobby.”
The’52 Topps bricks, which were on display at the REA booth at The National, were discovered near Seattle in the early 1990s. The majority of the 84 packs in the find were ripped, but three bricks remained intact. It isn’t known how many cards are in each 5-cent pack.
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The packs are from Topps’ low series that year, which means they do not include cards of Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson and Eddie Mathews. The top name in the 310-card low series is Willie Mays.
The ’52 Topps brick is currently in REA’s Summer Catalog Auction, which runs until Aug. 16.
GRADING DEMAND
Card grading remains a big part of the hobby. The lines outside the PSA booth at The National were another sign that collectors can’t stop looking for those 10s and a chance for on-site grading.
After getting slammed on the first day and having to pause service levels in an effort to slow down submissions to their 12 million card backlog, the lines were much shorter during the rest of the show.
In an effort to reduce submissions, PSA—which featured an expanded booth this year—implemented a $400 card minimum on the show’s second day.
“It’s disappointing, but understandable,” said Jordan Lyons, a baseball card collector from Miami. “Everyone’s trying to get their cards graded.”
‘NO FEES’
Fanatics Collect launched FanCash payouts for customers at The National, which waives transaction fees for upwards of 12 percent that usually accompanies a sale.
To drive the point home to collectors, the company had dozens of people—armed with signs that read “Choose FanCash”—walk into the Topps booth on Friday chanting, “No fees! No fees!” The group of “protesters” even marched down the streets chanting outside the convention center before entering the show.
FanCash, however, can only be used at Fanatics.com, the Fanatics Collect app and Topps.com. Consignors can select the “FanCash payout” option before listing an item.
EBAY INNOVATIONS
Luci Yang has worked in a variety of roles during her eBay career, including such categories as automotive, heavy equipment and electronics.
But as eBay’s new Senior Director of Collectibles for the U.S., she is attending her first National Sports Collectors Convention. It is quite different from what she is used to.
“It’s amazing, it’s so vibrant, there’s so many people here and people from all stripes—families and kids,” Yang said at the eBay booth Friday. “I just love the excitement from the regular people here. You have a lot of people who are families walking around trading cards. You don’t see that at other more business-focused trade shows, where it’s about highlighting something before a business audience. You can feel the pop-culture energy in this space.”
Yang was on the show floor when young NBA star Dylan Harper entertained a big crowd during a pack break on eBay Live. Such moments are key for the hobby’s largest collectibles marketplace.
“We love being able to pair both our live presence and our marketplace presence, where we can bring both the excitement of that in-person feeling of being in the stadium with our traditional marketplace experience,” Yang said. “I think people are really looking for a lot of different things and we’re able to bring both here, and I think that’s great.”
eBay is promoting two new programs at The National, including new authenticity guarantee packaging that is coming out later this year. eBay has been working with partner PSA on the new packaging for both graded and raw cards and is previewing the new holders at The National.
“We think this will bring a more premium and better protection experience for collectors,” Yang said.
The other innovation eBay is highlighting is its new digital price guide, which it launched last year and continues to update.
“We are really excited about that because it just aggregates so much critical pricing information that people look at when they are scrolling, so you don’t have to go somewhere else,” she said. “You have a one-stop-shop destination as you are viewing the cards you are thinking about. You can tell the price history, you can get comps, you can check population data for both PSA and CGC now, you can check Card Ladder. It’s very exciting and there’s a lot of innovation around that.”
HALL OF FAMER SIGHTINGS
Friday was a huge day at the TRISTAR Autograph Pavilion with Hall of Famers at every turn. Baseball legends Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Schmidt, David Ortiz, Johnny Bench, Ozzie Smith and others were joined by football legends Lynn Swann, Emmitt Smith, Edgerrin James, Jim McMahon, Lawrence Taylor and Jim Kelly.
And there were some cool moments, like Big Papi getting a surprise hug from fellow Red Sox legend Jim Rice.
Or Mike Schmidt fist-bumping a young collector, while Ripken posed for photos with young fans.
Steelers Super Bowl legends Lynn Swann and Rocky Bleier signed at the same time, a few tables part, filling the area with Steelers fans.
And, of course, local favorites like McMahon, Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, Richard Dent and Ozzie Guillen were big draws.
HOBBY HAPPY HOUR
A big part of The National is getting together with fellow collectors after the show ends for the day. Trade Nights and catching a baseball game are popular afterhours pursuits.
Another commonplace ritual is grabbing dinner. Drew Pelto and Arron Littleton, hosts of the popular podcast TTMCast, held a gathering for listeners on Thursday night.
Nearly a dozen collectors showed up at Giordano’s, a popular pizza place about a mile from the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.
TTMCast, a podcast founded by Jeff Baker in 2019, focuses on card collecting and autographs. Baker, an avid collector and National regular, died in 2023.
— Jeff Owens, Greg Bates and Clemente Lisi contributed to this report.
