This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/10/2010
There was a time back in the late 1980's - early 1990's when the Nolan Ryan rookie card was the most popular card to own in the entire hobby. Forget the 1952 Mantle or the T-206 Wagner, which were out of the realm of affordability to the average collector. Plus, those guys were already retired, while Ryan was still mowing down hitters to the tune of over 10 batters per every nine innings. Whenever you came across a super sharp example, it usually revealed less that perfect centering on the front, but especially the reverse. Even many professionally graded MINT examples have an off-centered reverse. Offered is a nearly immaculate and perfectly centered example of Nolan Ryan's 1968 Topps rookie stars card which has been graded SGC 96 MINT 9. There have been just 5 like it and 2 higher on record from over 700 submissions. Four sharp corners are all MINT quality with only a tiny bit of lifting on the upper right corner is evident under a powerful 10x loop. The edges appear to border on perfection, with no deficiencies whatsoever evident on front or on the reverse, one of the nicest reverses in Ryan rookie card history. The obverse exhibits a scant few pixel-sized pin pricks of print, one a pink dot within the bold purple Mets circle and a few black specs concentrated in the white border surrounding the Jerry Koosman image. The centering on the reverse is almost perfect and projects better than 97% of the specimens in MINT 9 holders. A total of 546 pitching wins are represented on this card. If you've never owned this key HOF rookie in MINT condition, now is the perfect time to board "The Ryan Express."