This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/2/2013
Presented is the 1939 Play Ball #1 All-Time Finest graded set on the PSA registry, with a mind-boggling overall GPA of 8.71! This set was compiled over many years by an advanced collector with an eye for tremendous detail, who upgraded time and time again even if the cards were the same PSA grade! It is a superb blend of talent, both in terms of quality and content, and as such, it was awarded PSA registry Hall of Fame status in 2009. The year 1939 was pivotal in many aspects of baseball. It was the 100th Anniversary of the grand old game, it was the year Cooperstown, NY opened the Baseball Hall of Fame, and it was the year MLB said hello to the Splendid Splinter, while crying good bye to the great Lou Gehrig. This set is comprised of extremely high quality photos, set with a simple white bordered design. They were produced by Gum, Inc., making its first foray into the baseball card market, eventually becoming Bowman Gum. Even though the reverse state, "is one of 250 pictures of leading baseball players", there are only 161 cards in the complete set (card #126 was never issued). The set is based heavily on New York area players, with a cool 56 cards (more than one-third the complete set) belonging to the New York Yankees, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.
This offered set, the #1 All-Time Finest PSA Hall of Fame set, is pristine, with all cards possessing super sharp corners, tremendously crisp registration and superb centering on all. As we stated, our consignor has an eye for quality and did not hesitate to improve this set by improving the eye appeal of cards even though the PSA graded remained the same. While the 1939 Play Ball issue is often fraught with print lines, toning and especially centering issues, this set is free of all those problems. This set contains two GEM MINT 10 cards, plus a whopping 96 cards grading PSA MINT 9 including blazing MINT 9 examples of the two most important cards in the set, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, which is The Kid's rookie card. The remaining cards are split between 11 PSA NM-MT+ 8.5 cards and 49 cards graded PSA NM-MT 8. There are ZERO cards below the PSA 8 threshold. The much more scarce high-number series cards (#116-162) in the 1939 Play Ball set have always made the assembly of a complete set particularly challenging for collectors, but this group includes an exceptional run of 27 of crisp PSA MINT 9 high number cards. Includes: PSA GEM MINT 10 - 2 cards with #67 Joost and 94 Manush; PSA MINT 9 - 96 cards with #3 Ruffing, 4, 5, 9 Durocher, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 24, 25, 29 DiMaggio, 27, 29, 30 Dickey, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39 Ferrell, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48 Gomez, 49, 50 Gehringer, 51 Ott, 52 Henrich, 53 Hubbell, 55, 57, 63, 64, 66, 71, 72, 73, 74, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82 Klein, 84, 85, 87, 89 Lloyd Waner, 90, 92 Ted Williams, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 103 Moe Berg, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 112 Paul Waner, 114 Travis, 116, 120, 121, 122, 123, 127, 128, 129, 130, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 150, 153, 154 and 156; PSA NM-MT+ 8.5 - 13 cards with #17, 28, 36, 40, 47, 58, 95, 124, 131, 149, 152, 160 and 162 (the very tough last card); PSA NM-MT 8 - 49 cards with #1 Powell (a very tough card), 2, 7 Doerr, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19 Paul Dean, 20, 22, 23, 32, 45, 54, 56 Greenberg, 59, 60, 61, 62, 65, 68, 69, 70, 75, 76, 79, 83, 86, 88 Keller, 91, 100, 101 Doc Cramer, 102, 106, 110, 113, 115, 117, 118, 119, 125, 132, 135, 148, 151 Casey, 155, 157, 158, 159, and 161. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire one of the greatest PSA registered sets ever put together. Of the so few Hall of Fame PSA registry sets, most reside in private collections of which the owners will likely never have intentions of selling, and if they do sell, they will piecemeal their sets out. This is your one chance to obtain a high quality completely graded vintage Pre-War baseball card set, one of the best ever assembled. Complete 1939 Play Ball set of 161 cards, the #1 All-Time Finest graded set on the PSA registry, and a noted Hall of Fame set.