This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/15/2017
Baseball had the 1952 Topps set, for basketball it was the 1986 Fleer series, and if there ever was a defining assemblage that brought football to the forefront of the card collecting community, it surely was the incredible 1965 Topps "tall boy" collection. Carrying over the idea of supersized cards from their hockey series of the previous season, Topps had added incentive to do something a little grandiose with the introduction of Joe Namath to the New York spotlight. Before Namath threw a pass or even signed a contract as a professional, his cockiness was on display when he rejected the NFL by signing a record $427,000 contract with the New York Jets of the American Football League (AFL). Established NFL players were angered at Namath's insolence and vowed to seek revenge on the brash quarterback should they ever get the chance to line up against him. That day came in January of 1969 when the New York Jets and Joe Namath stunned the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Despite being an 18-point underdog, Namath guaranteed victory to a group of unruly Colts fans, then followed it up with a improbable 16-7 victory. Of course, the 1965 Topps collection of 176 cards contains plenty of Hall of Famers and difficult short-print cards, but the Namath rookie card stands as the hallmark of the collection and arguably the most important football card ever produced. There has yet to be a GEM MINT example of Namath's rookie card graded by either PSA or SGC and some experts speculate it would immediately become the first million dollar football card. It certainly does seem like if there was ever a chance, it would have to come directly from an unopened pack, of which there are few known to exist. Until now! Welcome to "Beer Box Find II" and the grand prize, perhaps even more incredible than the 1948 Bowman baseball near complete box offered in our last auction. Presented is a full unopened wax box of 1965 Topps football cards, NM to NM/MT overall with some even better, sealed and authenticated by Steve Hart of Baseball Card Exchange. As stated earlier, a few 1965 Topps football packs are known to exist and one surfaces from time to time but the thought of a complete, unopened box would have been nothing but a pipe dream. As you can see in the photos taken before being sealed by BBCE, both the box and the individual packs are extremely impressive, appearing as they could be sitting on a store shelf right now. Each pack contains five cards along with a magic rub-off emblem. With only 13 total PSA 10's for the entire 1965 Topps series on record out of well over 25,000 submissions, it certainly would be enticing for a real riverboat gambler to go hunting for the next GEM MINT example. And if that should turn out to be the very first Fred Biletnikoff, Lance Alworth, checklist card, or even Joe Namath himself, to score a grade of PSA 10, the value of such an example would be left up to the most advanced collectors with the deepest pockets. Then again, by socking it away for the future, it already is a unique item that can only increase in value, just as it steadily has for the last half-century. Not a bad conundrum with which to be faced, wouldn't you say?