March Premium Auction Ending April 3, 5 & 6
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/5/2021
Graded PSA NM-MT+ 8.5 by PSA. Hall of Famer, depicted in his debut-year gum card appearance. This entry hails from the 1967 Topps issue's tougher "High Number" series. Among more than 3,000 copies recorded in PSA's census reporting, fewer than two percent have been placed at a higher, unqualified tier. The offered, beautifully centered card will have several generations'-worth of hobbyists gritting their teeth in envy. The '67 Topps set is indisputably a classic, and it's a production sought by every enthusiast of modern baseball who wishes to possess high-grade representations of the sport's important sets. Many, truly top-quality assemblies have been constructed in pursuit of this objective, and virtually all of them have one feature in common: the Carew rookie is hopelessly off-centered. (Don't believe it? One glance at the high proportion of "qualified" specimens in the PSA Population Report will confirm the item's perhaps under-publicized tendency.) A thoroughly challenging card, likely as a consequence of production-sheet placement, the coveted memento of Carew almost always exhibits haphazard alignment. The collectible can be found with its image out of kilter from top to bottom or, even more vexing and just as frequently, with such a "diagonal cut" that it won't even fit properly into a holder. That, though, is the rest of the world. In the here and now, this exemplary card is squared-away in the extreme, and is properly addressed only in the most glowing terms. Its gloss is impeccable, its reverse is crystal-clear, and its corners are as sharp as little knives. This is a superb exception to the normal state of affairs with respect to the popular Carew's rookie card, in gloriously well-centered Near Mint to Mint-plus condition.