This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/27/2010
The current high bid for the complete set, $422,500.00, is greater than the aggregate total of the bids on the single cards that comprise this set, $294,310.00 (this lot is currently losing)
From our break-up of the #1 current and all-time finest 1914 Cracker Jack PSA Set Registry hails this unreal NM/MT 8 example of the famous #1 card featuring Otto Knabe. No examples have ever graded higher, nor have any graded like it, nor have any graded NM 7 or EX/MT 6 or even EX 5. Indeed, the next highest-graded example resides at the complete opposite end of the grading spectrum in the VG/EX 4 tier, a shocking distance that should immediately help interested bidders understand what we're really offering here, that is, absolute hobby royalty in the form of one of the single most significant high-grade 1914 Cracker Jacks extant. Collectors interested in any of the ultra high-grade, pop chart topping singles from our break-up of the world's finest 1914 Cracker Jack collection should constantly bear in mind that the 1914 Cracker Jack cards, unlike their 1915 counterparts, were inserted directly into boxes of the "Famous Popcorn Confection" without any protection. Consequently, the lion's share of examples show significant rust-colored caramel stains permeating their thin paper stock and polluting their cream-colored borders. Like certain types of print defects found on a variety of other issues, caramel stains are so pervasive in the 1914 Cracker Jack issue that many collectors wish graders would simply ignore their presence. The presented 1914 #1 Otto Knabe, however, like the presumably $1 million 1914 Joe Jackson graded SGC 98 GEM 10, is proof that stain-free 1914 Cracker Jack specimens are in fact possible. One of just 79 total examples to ever attain NM/MT 8 from the entire 1914 Cracker Jack submission pool of nearly 2,500 copies on record, with just 2 common cards ever grading higher at the MINT 9 level, and that's it, no PSA 10s, and no PSA 8.5s, though this prize sure comes close. NM/MT corners join MINT edges around an accurately centered NM/MT+ obverse, marred from perfection by some insignificant print in Knabe's powerfully registered facial details and, to an even lesser degree, its characteristically candy red backdrop. Flipping over to the reverse, we encounter some faint age toning on a surface that presents closer to MINT than to NM/MT. A monumental, indeed mythical, high-grade offering from one of the most celebrated American 20th century collectible picture card sets ever produced.