Andy Pafko died today

[Redskins Rick]

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/09/ex-cubs-dodgers-and-braves-outfielder-andy-pafko-died

RIP

[Redskins Rick]

Sorry for the typo on the thread, I tried to change it, and it wont let me.

Mods, can you fix the title?

[OFFNY]

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In the comments section, somebody stated that Pafko was the last surviving member of the 1945 Cubs team ........ the last Cubs team to get to the World Series.

O

[slakattack]

Watching the Giants celebrate on that old film, I couldn't help but remember my Father telling me he won $20 on that game. In 1951 he was a 20 year old soldier serving in the Korean War and they listened to the game on AFR. When Thompson hit that HR, the other soldier threw a crumpled up $20 bill at my Father and didn't speak to him for a month!

[bobmc]

He was a good-looking guy and a good player. I remember him with the Bums and the Braves. In 1951, I was an 8 year old NY Giant fan traveling to FL with parents on US Route 1, somewhere in NC when Thomson hit the dinger. My dad had to pull off the road and scream incessantly as we listened to Russ Hodges and the aftermath. The shots of Leo Durocher dancing at third base (back then managers were third base coaches) was hysterical. Them were the daze....

92 years old for Andy Pafko - nice life!

[CA-ORIOLE]

Andy Pafko. Still the most valuable card in the 1952 Topps Baseball Card Set.

RIP Andy.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Rob Neyer:

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/10/10/4822356/andy-pafko-dead-obituary-don-dellilo-novel-underworld

[SeaBird]

Andy Pafko. Still the most valuable card in the 1952 Topps Baseball Card Set.

RIP Andy.

The Pafko card is valuable but certainly not the most valuable card in the Topps set.

For the younger fans, back in the 1950's, card collectors, myself included, sorted cards numerically and then wrapped rubber bands around the stacks to keep them organized. Pafko's card was # 1 in the set. Needless to say, the rubber band damaged the card making it very difficult in later years for serious card collectors to find Pafko cards in "mint" condition. His card can command $ 7,500 or more.

The same holds true for the rookie card of Eddie Matthews (# 407) which was the last card in the set and also suffered from rubber band damage. That card can reach $15,000 or more. Not only because it is the last card in the set but because the card was part of the 2nd series of cards which were numbered 311-407 and were released late in the season.

Topps had a hard time selling the 2nd series due to the late release date. In an article in Cardboard Connection, they wrote that "In 1960, during a "spring cleaning" at Topps' Brooklyn Headquarters, Sy Berger, the Father of the Modern Baseball Card and the man who designed the 1952 Topps Set from his kitchen table, rented a large Garbage Boat and loaded it with 300-500 Cases of 52' Topps High Series. A Tug boat then pulled Berger and the doomed cards from the Jersey Shore into the Atlantic Ocean, where Berger presumably dumped each and every case."

But thanks to the "1st and last cards" in the set, card # 311, Mickey Mantle, was pretty well protected from the rubber band torture and can routinely sell for $50,000 and more.

[CA-ORIOLE]

The Pafko card is valuable but certainly not the most valuable card in the Topps set.

For the younger fans, back in the 1950's, card collectors, myself included, sorted cards numerically and then wrapped rubber bands around the stacks to keep them organized. Pafko's card was # 1 in the set. Needless to say, the rubber band damaged the card making it very difficult in later years for serious card collectors to find Pafko cards in "mint" condition. His card can command $ 7,500 or more.

The same holds true for the rookie card of Eddie Matthews (# 407) which was the last card in the set and also suffered from rubber band damage. That card can reach $15,000 or more. Not only because it is the last card in the set but because the card was part of the 2nd series of cards which were numbered 311-407 and were released late in the season.

Topps had a hard time selling the 2nd series due to the late release date. In an article in Cardboard Connection, they wrote that "In 1960, during a "spring cleaning" at Topps' Brooklyn Headquarters, Sy Berger, the Father of the Modern Baseball Card and the man who designed the 1952 Topps Set from his kitchen table, rented a large Garbage Boat and loaded it with 300-500 Cases of 52' Topps High Series. A Tug boat then pulled Berger and the doomed cards from the Jersey Shore into the Atlantic Ocean, where Berger presumably dumped each and every case."

But thanks to the "1st and last cards" in the set, card # 311, Mickey Mantle, was pretty well protected from the rubber band torture and can routinely sell for $50,000 and more.

Been out of the hobby for a while, but the last I cheked there was ONE PSA 10 Andy Pafko card in existence. There were no PSA9's. Sounds like some of the PSA9's Mantles are going for high prices lately, but I'd imagine that PSA10 Pafko card would break all the records for 1952's if it were ever put up for auction again. It is considered one of the Holy Grails of baseball card collectors.