Red Robin

Three major Topps rarities of the Postwar era were auctioned earlier this month by Heritage Auctions and I have to say, the results were a little lackluster overall. As previously documented here (and in any major price guide of the last forty-five years) the 1951 Topps Major League All Star subset of Baseball Candy contains three cards that were never released to the public: Hall-of-Famer Robin Roberts, 1950 NL MVP Jim Konstanty, and Eddie Stanky. Two Phillies and a Philly native, which may be why they got yanked, the City of Brotherly Love being home to Topps arch-rival Bowman.

These may be the sixth examples of each subject to emerge from the depths of the Topps files and Woody Gelman's massive ephemera collection but more research is needed on that front to confirm.  No matter, they are truly rare and desirable. Which is why I am a little surprised at the prices each realized for two of them.

Let's begin with the Roberts card:

Like the other two offered, it's graded by PSA as Authentic-Altered.  The alteration can be seen here:

The backs are important as it helps trace each example. Someone heavily taped the hinge and die cuts on this one as it had been used as intended.  This intrigues me as it could indicate a kid got ahold of it originally. 

Next up is The Brat, Eddie Stanky, a vastly underrated and somewhat unknown ballplayer these days but not by those that played against him or appreciate baseball history (he retired with a .410 lifetime OBP):

Same story here, it's popped and taped:

Finally, the Konstanty.  I have to say, if you pointed this guy out in a police lineup and said he was a major league pitcher, I probably would have cracked up if I didn't know better:

As with the other two, a quite thorough tape job was performed:

Now for the prices, which include the buyer's premium:

Roberts: $66,000

Stanky: $43,200

Konstanty: $19,200

The Stanky ended about where I thought it might, perhaps under by about 10-15% but Roberts and Konstanty seem like they went pretty low.  The fronts look quite presentable to me and the tape jobs probably didn't help but these cards emerge for public sale on average maybe once every eight or ten years.  As a rough comparison, sloppily hand cut proofs of each, which were not die cut, sold in an REA auction in 2018 for:

Roberts: $132,000

Stanky: $45,000

Konstanty: $45,000

So the current result is a little lackluster it seems.

Each of the Heritage examples also have their own unique smudge on the front which means they can be matched against previous examples. The backs are unique as well but the main problem here is the lack of good, his-res scans of all known examples. Hopefully some images will surface and a comparison can be made.  Meanwhile, congratulations to the winner(s) of these extremely difficult cards!