This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/11/2019
One of the most sought-after modern baseball collections, cards from the expansive 792-card Desert Shield set are difficult to find because they were intended solely for American soldiers fighting overseas and not meant for the general public. The Topps company didn't produce baseball cards until a decade after the United States entered World War II, but it only makes sense that Topps would create a set to honor our military as a nod to the over 500 major league baseball players that served at the time, including Hall of Famers like Yogi Berra, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, and Joe DiMaggio. Distributed in individual wax packs sent to troops in the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield, the cards appear identical to the standard 1991 Topps set, but each card has a gold foil embossed shield and palm tree logo in the upper right corner, with the words “Operation Desert Shield” underneath. It is estimated that less than 6,800 of each card was produced and was never offered as a complete set. Due to the limited production and a distribution system that scattered these cards all over the world, attempting to assemble a complete set has proven to be a daunting task. To this day, its popularity and scarcity consistently drive the value to new heights. The featured collection is completely PSA graded and ranks #3 overall with a 9.784 set rating. All but 24 commons are graded PSA 9 or higher, and the set includes 320 cards graded PSA 10 with GEM MINT examples of #1 Ryan, 3 Fisk, 68 Sheffield, 79 F. Thomas, 130 O. Smith, 150 Ripken, 225 R. Johnson, 295 Palmeiro, 300 Puckett, 391 R. Henderson, 393 Fisk, 397 Murray, 398 Sandberg, 530 Clemens, 540 Brett, 575 Yount, 600 B. Jackson, 630 Winfield, 639 F. Robinson, 670 R. Henderson, 730 Larkin, and 740 Sandberg with a PSA 9 MINT example of the all-important #333 Chipper Jones rookie card and 790 Ken Griffey.