Ultra-rare 1957 Topps Football Vending box with Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas rookies up for bid at Mile High
If you were a Bart Starr or Johnny Unitas fan in the 1950s, you could find rookie cards of such NFL greats in a Topps vending machine.
The 1957 Topps Football Vending box held 500 cards with a combination of cards from Topps first and second series, which featured rookie cards of such NFL legends and Hall of Famers as Starr, Unitas, Paul Hornung, and Raymond Berry.
Mile High Card Company founder Brian Drent calls the 1957 Topps box “the coup de grâce” of Topps Football vending boxes.
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Mile High has a 1957 Topps box up for bid in its September auction. Drent says it is the oldest Topps Football vending box he has seen in more than 40 years in the hobby.
The offered box is part of three 1957 Topps boxes recently found in Colorado along with two vending machines and 300 additional cards from the 1957 Topps Football set. The boxes, which had been taped closed, had belonged to a Colorado businessman who owned a small vending business.
Mile High had a vending machine and the vending boxes on display at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, where one of the first/second series boxes sold for $400,000.00.
The 1,600-lot auction, which runs from Aug. 28 through Sept. 18, also features three iconic vintage baseball cards: a 1952 Bowman #218 Willie Mays (PSA 9); 1909-11 American Caramel Co. E90-1 Joe Jackson (SGC 5.5); and a 1909-11 T206 Piedmont 350/25 Ty Cobb Bat Off Shoulder (PSA 8) from The DBacks Collection.
Other elite cards include: a 1956 Topps Gray Back #135 Mickey Mantle (SGC 9); 1914 Cracker Jack #30 Ty Cobb (SGC 3); 1998 Fleer Tradition #9 Michael Jordan Playmakers Theatre (PSA 8); 1910 E90-2 American Caramel Honus Wagner (Pirates) (PSA 1.5 Fair); 1909-11 T206 Polar Bear Ray Demmitt (St. Louis) (SGC 3.5); 1910-11 T3 Turkey Red #9 Ty Cobb Checklist Back (SGC 3); 1914 Cracker Jack #57 Walter Johnson (SGC 5); 1909-13 M101-2 Sporting News Supplements Honus Wagner (PSA 3); 1909-13 M101-2 Sporting News Supplements Ty Cobb/Honus Wagner The Only (PSA 3.5); 1953 Topps #220 Satchell Paige (PSA 8); 1954 Topps #90 Willie Mays (PSA 8); 1954 Topps #1 Ted Williams (PSA 8); 1954 Topps #250 Ted Williams (PSA 8); 1955 Topps #123 Sandy Koufax (PSA 8); 2017 Topps Five Star Silver Signature (1/1) #SS-AJ Aaron Judge (PSA 9); and a 1984-85 Star #101 Michael Jordan (GAI 8.5).
As usual, Mile High as some of the top-ranked collections on the PSA Set Registry, including: a 1956 Topps high-grade complete set (#14, 8.04 GPA); 1950 Bowman Football (nearly all PSA 8 or higher); 1957 Topps Football (#4, 8.15); 1953 Red Man Tobacco (#2, 8.53); 1955 Red Man Tobacco (#5, 8.65); 1960 Leaf (#3, 9.37); 1963 Topps Peel-Offs (#2, 9.064); 1959 Topps Football (8.018); 1965 Topps Embossed (#4, 8.46).
Rare game-used memorabilia includes a 1918-1924 Babe Ruth single-signed ball, game-used bats from Hank Aaron Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr. and Albert Pujols, and a pair of 2004 LeBron James game-worn Nike shoes.