Ted Williams
Gem Mint Pete Maravich rookie card highlights vintage card auction at PWCC
We recently featured NBA and NCAA legend Pete Maravich and his trading cards, which are helping keep Pistol Pete’s Hall of Fame legacy alive.
Maravich’s 1970 Topps rookie card is one of the most coveted basketball cards in the hobby, but only two have ever been graded a 10. We finally get to see what one of the two GEM MINT examples is worth in the current hobby market thanks to PWCC Marketplace, which has one of the PSA 10 examples in its June Vintage Premier Auction.
The 1970 Topps Basketball set introduced collectors to the infamous Tall Boy cards, which were often too big to fit in protective sleeves and were prone to production mishaps and difficult to find in good condition.
PSA has graded nearly 3,800 examples of Maravich’s rookie card, but only two have been graded a 10. One of them sold for $130,054 in 2015 at SCP Auctions. The other is being offered in PWCC’s vintage auction and has a current bid of $40,000.
The auction, which went live June 22, runs through July 6 with extended bidding beginning at 7 p.m. PT.
Other key vintage cards up for bid include:
• 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #181 (PSA 8 NM-MT). A Pop 32 with only eight earning a higher grade.
• 1939 Play Ball Ted Williams ROOKIE #92 (CSG 9 MINT). It also earned a PWCC-S (Superior—Top 5%) from PWCC.
1957 Topps Basketball Bill Russell SP ROOKIE #77 (PSA 8 NM-MT). Russell’s only Topps card is one of 48 examples in a PSA 8, with only five graded higher.
1955 Topps Roberto Clemente ROOKIE #164 (PSA 8 NM-MT). Thousands of examples have been graded by PSA, but only 123 to received a PSA 8 grade.
• 1922 W575-1 Babe Ruth R.F. (PSA 3.5 VG+). Issued as Ruth was entering his prime, the 1922 “strip card” mirrors its American Caramel counterpart, but features a black-and-white action shot instead of the popular lithograph prints of the time. It is the highest graded example to date and also earned a PWCC-E (Exceptional – Top 15%) designation.
