1973 Topps Uncut Card Sheets
GUEST: I was about 11 or 12 years old. Uh, I was playing out in my parents' front yard and a man just showed up out of nowhere in a pickup truck. He got out and he asked me if I wanted some baseball cards. And I said, "Of course." (chuckles) He had a big stack of-of, uh, these uncut sheets of cards. And he peeled off, uh, maybe ten or 12 of 'em and handed 'em to me. I ran into the house and showed them to my mom, and she said, "Where'd you get those?" And I said, "A guy just gave 'em to me." And she-- I-- she looked out the kitchen window and I-I heard her say, "Oh, hi, Larry." And it was a guy that worked with her.
APPRAISER: So it wasn't just a stranger driving down the street handing these out, like candy?
GUEST: No, it wasn't. He worked with my mom in a small print publication. It had, like, coupons and local advertisements in it.
APPRAISER: This is the 1973 Topps Baseball High Number uncut sheet. And then closest to you, we have the 1973-'74 Topps basketball uncut sheet of 132 cards. These cards were printed to be cut into-into individual cards, and then distributed in wax packs with a-- with a stick of bubble gum. So how this stack of cards that Larry had is really a mystery. And there's not a whole lot of these uncut sheets that have filtered out over the years because of that. So first we talk about the 1973 Topps. Cataloged as the 1973, it's technically the 1973-'74 Topps basketball series. Your key card on that sheet is the Wilt Chamberlain card. That same sheet with the same players in the same order, there's only been one to come up for auction.
GUEST: I see.
APPRAISER: That one there would sell at auction for $6,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: Really? Okay. (chuckles)
APPRAISER: Now let's get to the 1973 Topps baseball. This is the rare High Number sheet. This has two of the Mike Schmidt rookie cards, right here. And right here. The reason that's so important is because Mike Schmidt is widely considered the best third baseman in the history of baseball.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: He had that rare combination of power hitter and exceptional fielder. This is the High Number sheet. The Mike Schmidt rookie card is card number 615.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: There were 660 cards in this set. They were printed in lower numbers, the Higher Number series. With the baseball sheet, there's been only two...
GUEST: Two.
APPRAISER: ...to come up for auction. I would expect at auction that this one would sell for $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST: (chuckling): Really? Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: The next question people always ask me is how does this translate, this uncut sheet, translate to the prices of the individual cards? Right. And that's r-- very controversial topic.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Baseball purists don't want to see anything done to this sheet. There's other people that are tempted to have this taken to a professional and having it cut into individual cards.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: The reason for that is an individual Mike Schmidt rookie card, that's a Gem Mint 10 of the Mike Schmidt rookie, which has been five-graded, and the last one sold for $234,000.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: It's really impossible for me to say what they would grade at here because we have so many factors. That's quite a debate that's still ongoing. If the card should be equivalent in value, if they're cut post-factory.
GUEST: Yeah. Well, I can tell you what not to do. (chuckles) When I was a kid, the other sheets, some of them I cut by hand with scissors because I didn't want a big sheet, I wanted the cards.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh. So you hand-cut a couple.
GUEST: More than one, yeah. (chuckling)
APPRAISER: More than one, yeah.
GUEST: Three, yeah. (chuckles)
$16,000 - $23,000 Auction
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