Semi Tough

One of the more fascinating, popular and somewhat studied byways of the 1952 Topps Baseball set is, of course, the high numbers spanning #311-407.  Planned to coincide with the 1952 World Series, the set is heavy with New York and Boston players -- more than half of the high numbers at 49 in total -- reflecting the main, limited distribution areas of the time. The highs followed on the heels of the semi-high numbers, a fifth series spanning #251-310 and the last one planned to be part of the now legendary 1952 set until Sy Berger allegedly/possibly/definitely talked Joe Shorin into issuing a sixth and final series (or "second" series as Topps referred to it at the time).

The highs fanned out from the Northeast, spreading south and west and some didn't hit the West Coast until 1953, but the general gist is sales were extremely subpar.  I believe there was vending produced too, although any Topps vending numbers at the time were miniscule. I have never seen mention of a penny pack or ten cent cellos for the high numbers and some highs were issued in a blue and red wrapper, distinct from the green and red wrapper that held cards from #1-310. This wrapper is probably the source for the stories of 1952 cards being found in 1953 wax packs. Conversely, Topps did sometimes use older wrappers for newer product, a practice they followed into at least the mid-1970's. There would have been returns for the highs from the wholesale jobbers, consolidators and direct accounts as well and Topps likely had a bunch that never left the warehouse floor.  

Topps kept their set counts lower in the following years and didn't issue a set as large as the 52's until 1957, when they matched its 407 cards, albeit without what we would call high numbers today. That was partially due to lack of players under contract prior to the acquisition of Bowman in 1956 and there may have been some gun shyness involved as well. The first set to really go all in again on high numbers would be issued in 1958, as baseball expanded to California, and they continued through 1972 (or 1973, sort of) in patterns that sometimes defy logic. Topps attempted to smooth out the availability issue of the highs in 1968 and '69 but 1970-72 resulted in traditional high numbers being marketed before they went to issuing all their cards at once following a phase-in during 1973. But make no mistake about it, the 1952 high numbers are the daddy of them all, in large part due what is assuredly a Sy Berger tall tale detailing how a couple truckloads of high numbers were loaded from Topps HQ on a garbage scow one day in 1960 or so, after various creative attempts to dispose of same failed, and towed out to the Atlantic Bight, where they became fish food.

Topps certainly could have hired a barge to dump their stock as there were ample dock facilities available to them at Bush Terminal, which commands a large stretch of the Brooklyn waterfront along Gowanus Bay.  There are, to my mind, several problems with the barge story though:

1) Topps would never have spent money to discard something they could have just tossed out or flash fried in the incinerator at Bush Terminal back in the day.

2) The excess 1952 inventory was probably not located at Topps HQ in Bush Terminal. rather, it probably ended up at one of their historical Brooklyn locations, all still in use as storage and distribution facilities during the Swingin' Sixties.  I would think either 60 Broadway (the Gretsch Building) or 383 3rd Avenue (the old Shapiro Candy plant) would suffice for such purposes and then whatever was left just sat around for several years until it was either rediscovered or someone came up with a plan, to wit:

3) Card Collectors Company, Topps preferred secondary selling market for leftovers and the like, and operated by Woody Gelman, ran out of the '52 highs by the late 50's.  They then restocked sometime after 1960 and were selling singles and full high number runs through at least 1968. That many highs being sold for that long?  They would have to come from Topps in such quantity, especially as they were already known to be hard to find by the time of the alleged dumping at sea.

4) Topps never tossed anything unless they had to.  They would just put it out in Fun Packs, or some other type of setup.  The one set I am aware of them dumping is the 1968 B&W Football Team cards, which look more and more to me  like they had to be destroyed on orders from the NFL.

So I call shenanigans on the barge story!

This all got me curious about the potential universe of 1952 semi highs and highs, so I did a canvass of eBay on October 4, 2019 which yielded some interesting figures.  Here's the raw data:

SEMI HIGHS					HIGHS
CARD	COUNT		PLAYER		CARD	COUNT		PLAYER
251	62				311	42		MANTLE
252	92				312	22		ROBINSON
253	80				313	51		THOMSON
254	100				314	23		CAMPANELLA
255	81				315	26		DUROCHER
256	107				316	27
257	57				317	22
258	83				318	37
259	87				319	31
260	84				320	30
261	72		MAYS		321	26
262	38				322	26
263	57				323	37
264	99				324	22
265	83				325	31
266	78				326	47
267	87				327	21
268	52				328	23
269	69				329	20
270	92				330	16
271	49				331	20
272	31				332	7		BARTIROME
273	36				333	37		REESE
274	28				334	22
275	60				335	13
276	35				336	38
277	41				337	39
278	53				338	25
279	57				339	14
280	25				340	24
281	36				341	23
282	30				342	23
283	54				343	27
284	55				344	33
285	67				345	24
286	48				346	38
287	25				347	22
288	61				348	26
289	20				349	41
290	41				350	34
291	53				351	38
292	67				352	28
293	61				353	27
294	36				354	17
295	27				355	29
296	27				356	28
297	48				357	19
298	49				358	48
299	60				359	17
300	50				360	28
301	51				361	31
302	51				362	16
303	43				363	41
304	45				364	37
305	42				365	48
306	53				366	45
307	31		CAMPOS		367	52
308	33				368	60
309	34				369	13
310	37				370	17
TOTAL	3,310				371	30
					372	30
					373	28
					374	28
					375	26
					376	16
					377	54
					378	23
					379	38
					380	28
					381	32
					382	22
					383	22
					384	21
					385	38
					386	16
					387	41
					388	38
					389	36
					390	38
					391	39
					392	8		WILHELM
					393	33
					394	34		HERMAN
					395	30
					396	19		WILLIAMS
					397	31
					398	16
					399	30
					400	20		DICKEY
					401	29
					402	27
					403	19
					404	24
					405	29
					406	19
					407	15		MATHEWS
					TOTAL	2,776

There were between 25 and 107 of any individual semi high's available on the 'bay on October 4, vs. 7 to 60 of the highs. The decadal tranches reveal cards #251-270 were the extra prints in the semi-highs (seems like it should be four of them for every three between #271-310 but oddly it's not that smooth from the derived counts):

COUNT		TRANCHE			AVERAGE
833		251-260			84.3
727		261-270			73.7
415		271-280			42.5
437		281-290			44.7
478		291-300			48.8
420		301-310	>	3,310	43.0
253.5		311-320			26.4
269		321-330			27.9
239		331-340			24.9
291		341-350			30.1
279		351-360			28.9
360		361-370			37.0
301		371-380			31.1
304		381-390			31.4
260		391-400			27.0
219.5		401-407	>	2,776	23.0

It further works out to 55 semi highs on average compared to 28 highs (I accounted for the DP's of #311, #312 and #313), or almost exactly a 2:1 ratio. If you factor three missing cards in the 401-407 range, that comes up to about 285 on an estimated count extrapolated out to ten cards in the tranche BTW. Furthermore, the PSA pop reports show several hundred of each high number have been slabbed. I would think there is a bit of a skew toward a higher percentage of high numbers being listed on Ebay vs. semi-highs and also in the pop reports but the 1952 highs can certainly be found without much of a problem. Your experience may vary, especially if you want a certain card in a certain condition, but they are out there.

Popularity certainly seems to be a big driver with the highs.  They were hard to find in 1952, could eventually be found at Card Collectors Company (or more accurately "Sam Rosen" prior to Woody's Step Father passing away on New Year's Eve 1958) and eventually saw a rebirth in the 60's at CCC.  Woody really amped up the CCC presence once he took over in 1959 and was a big advertiser in The Sporting News, Boys Life and other publications, raising visibility of the hobby and the 1952 high numbers. The other thing driving them could also be appearance-they look super, at least to me.