Wednesday, May 12, 2010

1971 Bazooka Baseball (Numbered) #5, Carl Yastrzemski

Card front (blank back)

Here's the rare-but-affordable card from the poll "Would you keep a counterfeit card?" Bazooka created two issues in 1971, one readily available set without numbers, and a limited proof run with "No. X of 48 cards" on the bottom. As mentioned there, a few problems stand out for this Yaz.
  • Front ripples: the card should be smooth--odd gluing shows up even in this scan
  • Re-printed paper: there's ink on the paper behind Yaz, prior to the front being glued to its cardboard backing (not out of the question for a proof set, but unlikely for Topps)
  • Dotted printing: Color printers leave a haze of dots around black areas, which stands out along dark lines and text areas. (A magnifying glass helps big time here.)

Value: Picked it up for about $20 on eBay, thanks to its likely fakeness. It's hard to set a price for numbered Bazookas thanks to rarity; I've seen asking prices $10-$40 for singles and $100+ for stars. (For comparison, unnumbered non-stars cost a few dollars.)

Fakes / Reprints: Indeed, this is probably not the only 1971 Bazooka Numbered card of questionable provenance out there. Be aware!

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