Vintage Basketball Cards (PSA, 1957 Topps. 1948 Bowman, 1961 Fleer, 1969 Topps, Scott's, Bread for Energy, Bread for Health, 1968 Topps Test, Gunther Beer, Ashland Oil, Enamaline Oil)

NOTABLE VINTAGE BASKTEBALL CARD FINDS

I thought that it would be cool to have a section about the notable finds in the hobby. Here is the beginnings of a great section. If you have a find that you want to tell us about ... please email me at jeff@vintagebasketballcards.info

Topps Test Find (2002)

This was a find of roughly 90 Topps Test cards by the son of a former executive at Topps. To give you an idea of how important this find is, only about 200 cards are currently known to exist. That means that the 2002 find almost doubled the amount of cards in circulation. A set from this find sold for $24,000 in auction and then sold again for $27,500 in a private sale. Before this find, Topps Test cards were extremely rare. In fact, I am unaware of any set that existed before this find. I know of two groups of twenty cards (the set has 22) and two groups of roughly 11 cards. In fact, if you look at a 1996 price guide (thanks to S.T. for this), you will see that the Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell cards were noted not by name, but with the designator "not produced." Not until recently, did instances of these two cards surface (However, I do think that these cards were around before the recent find. Over the 2002 year, these cards were sold through a variety of auction houses. Recently, these cards have slowly found their way to the few collectors that collect the sets and now they are almost all dried up.

Tyler Texas Find (2001)

This was a really big find of about 2,000 cards that were kept sealed in vending cases at a little old ladies house who's husband owned a store that sold them in 1957. The find is notable not because it liquidated the market, but because it actually strengthened it. The high-end market was strengthened because only about 1.4% of the cards graded a PSA 8 or better. That is about 6 or 7 cards per vending case of, I assume, 500 that made the PSA 8 grade. Wow.

The Mikan Bread for Energy Find (~1997)

This is my favorite find of all time for vintage basketball cards. I need to try and contact the guy who is responsible for this find (we once crossed paths and he confirmed the find and the price ... I was filled in by other people on the actual details).

Basically the story goes as follows. One of the roughly 10-15 bread for energy Mikan cards was found in an antique store for $2. This has been confirmed by a few people. The story that I heard (unconfirmed) is that the guy was actually a teenage boy when the find took place. He had gone into an antique store (only like 4 or 5 years ago) and spotted a bread for energy Mikan. WOW. He asked what the lady in charge of the store wanted for it and the lady replied "$2". Now, the teenager did not have the $2 so he asked his mom to borrow the $2. Thankfully, the mom provided her son with the $2 and ... voila ... he got a $7,000 card (todays value) for $2.

I crossed paths with this guy about a year ago (2002) and he was married so it seems to me that the story is completely off. He is a pretty established collector now so when YOU read this ... email me and tell me the real story. I last saw him trying to sell a 1952 Mikan Tablet and trying to get ahold of a 1950 Bread for Health Mikan.

1957 Topps Wax Packs (1985 National)

I have heard that at the 1985 National someone had about 1/3 of a box (roughly 10 packs) of 1957 Topps Basketball for sale at $500 a pop. Although this isn't a find ... it basically fits right into this section. No one I know of knows of a sealed 1957 Topps pack right now. Back then $500 was a ton, but if one went on sale today, it could fetch an outrageous price (e.g., it could go for close to $10,000).

I have had two people confirm seeing these packs for sale at the 1957 National.