Lot # 1073: 1952 Topps "Canadian" Gray Back Philadelphia Phillies PSA-Graded Complete Team Set (3)

Complete team set of 1952 Topps "Canadian" Gray Back Philadelphia Phillies, each graded and encapsulated by PSA. This set consists of the following: #158 (POOR 1 [MC]), 185 (FAIR 1.5), and 187 (POOR 1). The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards presents a theory that gray back cards from #131-190 (typically printed on cream-colored stock) within the 407-card 1952 Topps set have come to commonly be known as Canadian issued. The same phenomenon exists with 1954 Topps and an abbreviated set printed on gray stock designed for issue solely in Canada that year. Some collectors feel that this is a misnomer, instead theorizing that Topps produced a run of cards in this manner for one of two reasons. One theory is as simple as a temporary shortage of regular cream-colored stock in the factory during production. The other focuses on the slight differences in the card fronts which, as the Standard Catalog notes, are "subjectively darker or more muted than the 'U.S.A.' versions." Some collectors believe that these cards were designed as part of a distribution arrangement with Doeskin tissues in which cards were inserted with packages of tissues. While no concrete evidence of this relationship has been unearthed, it is known that the "Rails and Sails" nonsport issue produced by Topps in 1955 was issued along with Doeskin tissues at the time. Bob Lemke, former editor of the Standard Catalog, presents a detailed analysis of these variations on his blog (http://boblemke.blogspot.com/2011/05/1952-topps-not-canadian.html), which includes input from several longtime collectors and hobby researchers. Whatever the explanation for these cards, it is without dispute that they are extremely rare and even a single example can be hard to find. Total: 3 cards.