Graded NM-MT 8 (ST) by PSA. Hall of Famer. This glamorous and rare collectible is one of fewer than fifty total examples documented in PSA's census reporting; just a dozen copies have exceeded the unqualified NM-MT 8 grading level. This is the ultimate trophy piece for the sophisticated Roberto Clemente collection and, indeed, for the entirety of the 1960s trading card era. The 1968 Topps "3-D" test issue's then-new "lenticular" technology created a spellbinding effect, transforming a subject's portrait photo into a spectacle that seemed to glow and breathe. In the case of a larger-than-life figure like Clemente, the "3-D"'s presentation is nothing less than irresistible.

     Compounding the mystique of this virtually never-encountered piece is its fabled rarity. The "3-D" issue was concocted by Topps as a pure experiment. A very few of the "Xograph"-trademarked items were made by Visual Panographics of New York, and it's suspected that - excepting, possibly, a tiny number sent out for test-marketing - none circulated beyond the hands of Topps executives. With respect to hobby-wide interest in one of baseball's most popular players, this was the bleakest of scenarios, and it ensured the item's perennial status as perhaps the most universally hungered-for trading card from the period.

     With a plastic-coated, shimmering surface, the "3-D's" must have required diligent care and attention at every step of the manufacturing process, and the offered example was clearly the beneficiary of effective quality control. Its vibrant illustration projects from within a frame of four ideally balanced, bright white margins, and its focus and detail aspects are simply pristine. On the card's blank back, the merest trace of blemish - actually, more of a faint "shading" - is revealed at the left border. The piece's overall aesthetic can be summarized by the word, "breathtaking." Near Mint to Mint condition, qualified as noted.

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