This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/27/2010
After well more than 650 grade-worthy examples of Stan Musial's 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills subset issue have been submitted to PSA, finally one unique copy has surfaced that appears to be better than all the rest. Brand new to the hobby, and offered with our strongest recommendation, presented is the first and only PSA 10 GEM MINT example of card #470, which almost anyone who admired baseball cards during the game's revered Golden Age could easily name from memory: "Musial Raps Out 3,000th Hit." It happened the previous May, when the 38-year old stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter at Wrigley Field and smoked a double to become, at the time, just the 8th member of the hallowed 3,000-hit club. Another 19 have since joined him; can you name them all? Musial would of course rap out another 630 hits before retiring at the end of the '63 season, placing him second all-time in career hits behind Ty Cobb on the day of his retirement, though Pete Rose and Hank Aaron would eventually pass him as well, placing him 4th on the list, where he still stands today. Centered to perfection with a reassuring rough-cut perimeter around a brilliant, pack-fresh surface highlighted by colors so fresh they still appear wet. An enticing acquisition for the high-grade Musial collector as much as for the high-grade 1959 Topps Set Registry collector; hopefully, the winning bidder will be one and the same, and he will therefore consider himself twice as fortunate for laying claiming to this unparalleled 1959 Topps treasure.