This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/22/2010
Up for grabs is one of the hobby's finest examples of Johnny Bench's 1968 Topps rookie issue. Recently graded 98 GEM 10 by SGC, the offered example is the first and still only copy to attain GEM MINT status at SGC from nearly 500 similar submissions. Centered to perfection on both surfaces, with GEM MINT corners and edges encompassing a brilliantly registered obverse almost entirely devoid of any imperfections. A few microscopic flecks of print dust can be observed on the Tompkins half of the obverse, but the Bench half is nearly immaculate, and both images have been sealed by a still-shimmering application of smooth, factory-fresh gloss. The colors, finally, are particularly impressive, as evidenced by the perfect saturation of the black ink of the player identification lines and of the blues and reds elsewhere, which typically show incomplete saturation, whether from print defects or from weak image registration. A truly sensational GEM MINT Hall of Fame rookie issue showing the 20 year-old "Little General" in his ROY season of 1968. Bench would also appear with the NL All Star squad that year, and for the next 12 consecutive seasons after that, earning two MVP awards and ten Gold Gloves along the way, not to mention six division titles, four NL pennants, and two World Series rings as the anchor to the famed "Big Red Machine" of the 1970s.