Mint Mantle rookie in spotlight in the Goodwin & C

Under the heading of "Masterpieces and Uncommon Commons," the eighth edition of the ongoing auction series from Goodwin & Co. features an extraordinary number of high-grade (and all-graded) stars and singles that have clearly been broken out of similar pristine sets and near sets.

With the hobby veteran's traditional mix of early tobacco and gum and vintage Topps and Bowman cards, the Feb. 23 auction of nearly 850 lots features everything from Old Judges and Obaks to mint Mickey Mantles and high-grade, entirely slabbed groupings of 1950s and 1960s commons, plus a mixture of unopened material and football, basketball and hockey cards as well.

Atop all of that sits a Mint 1951 Bowman Mantle rookie in PSA 9, a remarkable specimen that commands all of a $20,000 opening bid.

Bill Goodwin has always taken a unique pleasure in turning up hobby rarities, from the top superstars to high-numbered series commons, but this time it's a non-sport treasure that takes the top prize: a 1937 Gum Inc. Wild West No. 25 "Cowboy Outfit Free" Redemption card graded SGC 84 (pictured top right).

"This card is so rare that PSA doesn't even list it on their Population Report, aside from the fact that they've never seen one to grade," Goodwin said. The card, consigned by another well-known hobby figure, East Coast dealer Steve Forman, opens at $3,000.

The early tobacco and candy lineup includes dozens of individual lots of 1909 E95 Philadelphia Caramels, 1909-11 E90-1 American Caramels and Obaks, plus a number of T205 Gold Borders (Mathewson SGC 84, $2,500), W600 Sporting Life Cabinets, including Willie Keeler, Eddie Plank and Fred Merkle, along with more than 20 T207 Brown Background cards, including Walter Johnson, Rube Marquard and Joe Wood. There are also 1922 Neilson's Chocolates and several lots of 1921 E121 American Caramels, including a huge single lot of 78 different entirely SGC-graded cards and a collector-grade grouping of 100 different 1910 Contentnea Cigarette cards.

Goodwin has broken up several eye-popping graded sets from both the pre-World War II era and postwar, yielding imposing strings of pristine singles, like 1941 Play Balls of Joe DiMaggio (GAI 8.5, $6,500) and Carl Hubbell (PSA 9, $2,500), plus PSA 8's of Ted Williams ($2,500), Pee Wee Reese ($2,000), Jimmy Foxx and Mel Ott.

A massive postwar lineup includes pristine 1948 Leafs, six different 1948 Bowman eight-card uncut sheets, 1949 Bowman rookies of Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella and a 1952 Bowman Stan Musial PSA 9 that opens at $1,400 and a 1953 Bowman Color Warren Spahn, also in PSA 9, that starts off at $1,250.

The 1951 Bowman Mantle rookie mentioned earlier leads a group of more than a dozen Mantle cards, including a 1954 Bowman in GAI 9 ($4,900 minimum), Mint PSA 9s from 1958 Topps All-Star ($1,000), 1959 Topps ($4,000), 1959 Topps All-Star ($1,800), 1962 Topps ($3,000) and 1966 Topps ($1,500). The Mick's fabled contemporary, Willie Mays, weighs in on the PSA 9 front with a 1958 Topps ($3,800), 1960 Topps ($1,400), 1967 Topps and 1970 Topps.

A 1954 Topps set has been broken down to include three amazing all-graded common lots averaging nearly 50 card each, plus singles of Ernie Banks (PSA 9, $4,800), Henry Aaron (PSA 8, $1,950) and both Ted Williams cards, also PSA 8 ($2,000). There are also more than a dozen lots of tough high-grade 1952 Topps commons, including the Charley Maxwell in PSA 9 ($1,500) and the James Runnels in PSA 7 ($1,800).

There are also group lots of 1951 Bowman and 1956-58 Topps, plus Goodwin's usual significant emphasis on coveted regionals and food issues. In this instance, it includes toughies like the Sugardale and Wilson Weiners issues, Hunter's Meats (ultra-rare uncut panel with Musial, $1,000), Dan Dee and Num Num Potato Chips, 1952-55 Red Man Tobacco, 1964 Wheaties Stamps and several group lots of 1963-65 Bazooka.

Mix in a dozen lots of unopened packs, partial boxes of 1972 and 1975 Topps Baseball, a number of 1952 Bowman Large Football stars and vintage Topps and Fleer basketball cards, plus a 1963 Japanese set in three-card panels and the 1967 Kabaya-Leaf Baseball Japanese set, and you have the makings of a traditional, albeit numerically expanded, Goodwin auction.

For more information or to bid online, go to www.goodwinandco.com, or call (314) 849-9890. The complete Goodwin & Co. auction catalog will be inserted with next week's issue of SCD (Feb. 24).