2020 Holiday Auction Closing December 12-13
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/12/2020
Encapsulated and assessed "Authentic" by SGC. (Competing third-party grader PSA has not documented the existence of a single copy.) Presented here is a presumably "common" 1960 Topps card that is, in truth, so blindingly rare that many price guides describe the piece (probably quite accurately) as a "Proof" card. Here's one of the most diligently hunted variation cards in the baseball-collecting specialty: how many innocent-acting, show-going hobbyists, thinking themselves to be oh-so-shrewd, have pored through stacks of '60 Topps commons with the hope that lightning would strike, and that one of these distinctive Hadley items—with an elephantine A's team logo in the space that should be occupied by the star-spangled top hat and "Yankees" script —would serendipitously emerge? The discrepancy followed Hadley's involvement in the trade that sent Roger Maris to New York from Kansas City; during the card-making layout process, the team's name on the entry's front was properly changed to "Yankees," but the corresponding logo didn't follow in the design's earliest incarnation. This prized rarity presents very favorably, conceding only mild hints of wear and a slight curvature to the bottom-edge border. This is an outstanding "find," and an item that's been feverishly and vainly sought-after by several generations of avid Topps card collectors!