This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/7/2009
Sandy Koufax's coveted 1955 Topps rookie card merits distinction as the #1 most submitted 1950s era Topps rookie issue on record at PSA, far surpassing both the 2,345 copies of Hank Aaron's '54 rookie issue as well as the 2,409 examples of Bob Clemente's '55 inaugural cardboard appearance submitted to the date of this composition. In fact, the expansive total of 3,704 Koufax rookies currently on record with the Newport Beach grading firm falls just a few hundred copies short of rating as the #1 single most popular baseball card known to PSA through 1959. Surprisingly, that honor belongs to the '58 Topps All Star issue of Mickey Mantle, which reports 4,112 examples on record. Proudly offered in this lot is just the 22nd example of Sandy's 1995 Topps rookie issue to grade MINT 9 at PSA. Recently graded, it features a pleasing mix of high-end MINT to MINT+ qualities for the opinion. MINT corners all around join delightfully chip-free MINT+ to even GEM MINT edges on all sides but the marginally MINT rough-cut right. The reverse presents a noticeably bold print impression with absolutely no traces of extraneous print in excess of the opined evaluation, while the front surface boasts equally impressive print qualities, highlighted, no doubt, by a pristine registration of the images with colors so intensely bold they still appear wet. Indeed, staring intently at the black print of Sandy's socks, sleeves, cleats, hair, and eyebrows is like looking into an abyss or a black-hole in space. The colors elsewhere are equally as hypnotic, as evidenced by the noticeably bold and thoroughly saturated hunter green nameplate at bottom as well as the bright red Dodgers logo, top right. The infamously susceptible two-toned lemon meringue backdrop is clearly clean enough for the MINT opinion and shows just a few traces of microscopically fine print dust primarily concentrated between the two images and hardly even evident when held at half an arm's length. A minimally MINT to MINT+ example overall, having just recently passed through the grading gauntlet at PSA, which any collector can confirm has become exponentially more difficult than in the early days of the trusted grading firm's existence, even tougher than just a few years ago. Moreover, the aforementioned population data confirm for all collectors what we at Mile High have long surmised. Ranking just behind Mickey Mantle and perhaps just ahead of Nolan Ryan, the great Dodger southpaw is quite convincingly the second-most collected post-war figure in the entire hobby. Now, finally, here's your chance to acquire a thoroughly MINT example of Sandy's celebrated rookie.