This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/14/2024
The 1948 Leaf baseball card set contains a bumper crop of important rookie cards, but Jackie Robinson's debut outpaces them all. While the Leaf rookie cards of Musial, Spahn, and Berra are certainly significant, Jackie Robinson's debut card is notable for two reasons; his importance in baseball history and the fact that he does not appear in the rival 1948 Bowman collection, leaving Leaf as the only mainstream producer of a true Jackie Robinson rookie card. The featured card is graded PSA 6.5, a high grade for 1948 Leaf standards given the set's list of quality control problems. This example is not immune to some of those issues, shifted toward the left edge mildly with some common stray print within the glowing yellow backdrop. The perimeter is the real draw here, NM around the edges and corners, which is hard to match at its grading tier. The reverse shows the same mild centering shift but the print is bold and the canvas is surprisingly clean. A truly exceptional card of an amazing baseball pioneer!