Lot # 1: Exceptional 1952 Topps Unopened Five-Cent Wax Pack Collection (8) - Cellophane-Wrapped "Brick" From 1990s Seattle Find!

Few items in the entire world of sports collectibles inspire the imagination quite like an unopened 1952 Topps wax pack. While individual cards from the landmark issue have become hobby icons, sealed packs represent something altogether different: a direct, untouched connection to one of the most important releases in the history of baseball-card collecting and the combination of extraordinary rarity with the enduring possibility that one of the hobby's greatest prizes may still be waiting inside.

Presented here is an extraordinary collection of eight unopened 1952 Topps wax packs, a group so significant that it transcends traditional collecting categories and enters the realm of true hobby treasures. To describe these packs as rare would be an understatement. They are among the most elusive surviving artifacts from the formative years of the modern trading-card era. This group of eight has been carefully preserved in cellophane, establishing a single “brick” of hobby gold. While their existence is remarkable alone, it is their origin story along with the exceptional tales relating to the 1952 Topps set that make this group a fascinating and extremely special collecting opportunity.

The significance of the 1952 Topps set cannot be overstated. Widely regarded as the most important postwar baseball-card issue ever produced, it established the visual and marketing template that would define the hobby for generations. Its colorful designs, larger card format, and checklist of more than 400 players transformed baseball cards from simple childhood novelties into enduring collectibles. The set's legendary status is further enhanced by its roster of Hall of Famers and stars, highlighted by the hobby's most celebrated postwar card, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, which continues to break records and remains a benchmark against which virtually all vintage baseball cards and sets are measured.

Yet while hundreds of thousands of individual cards have survived over the decades, unopened packs are another matter entirely. Designed to be purchased and opened by children more than seventy years ago, countless packs were torn open shortly after leaving store shelves. Additionally, Topps employees and executives, including Sy Berger, who is credited along with Woody Gelman as the brainchild of the 1952 Topps set, are on record as having discarded hundreds of cases of excess inventory into the Atlantic Ocean in order to make room for the supply of new sets. The survival of even a single authentic 1952 Topps wax pack is a noteworthy event. To date, PSA has authenticated only 32 examples. Compared to the 2,815 examples of Mickey Mantle's #311 card from the same year authenticated by PSA and SGC combined, it is staggeringly apparent how rare an unopened pack is from this set. In fact, PSA and SGC have combined to authenticate nearly twice as many examples of Mantle graded NM-MT or better (58) than single wax packs (32). The existence of eight examples together is nothing short of astonishing.

Adding to their mystique is the origin story behind many of the surviving 1952 Topps packs known today. In the early 1990s, a group of original packs surfaced through extraordinary finds made by some of the hobby's most influential dealers. Dozens of packs entered the hobby thanks to old grocery store owners who decided to cash in on renewed interest in baseball cards. Mark Murphy, one of the pioneers of the unopened pack and box hobby, was involved in a find in Seattle, Washington, that yielded 84 total packs, including twelve single packs and nine cellophane bricks as offered here. Most of these packs were opened at the time, yielding incredible examples, including the only PSA GEM MINT 10 of #1 Andy Pafko, and contributing to the formation of some of the hobby’s highest-grade sets and collections as well as confirming the offered packs as low-series examples. Three bricks were sold intact to a private collector, and to the best of our knowledge, as well as that collector's personal recollection of the events, they represent the only three bricks of eight wax packs that remained together. He dutifully kept them in his personal collection until releasing two of the three to other collectors. In 2019, this brick was offered for sale privately and transacted a short time later, and in 2023, another brick was sold at auction for $852,000.

While condition is secondary in a situation such as this where rarity is paramount, it is especially thrilling that the offered group of packs has remained in outstanding condition for decades. The cellophane wrapping has preserved the original colors beautifully, with deep red and dark green permeating the wrappers. Ideally, the "Topps Baseball Picture Cards" logo is boldly printed and well positioned to create a stunning visual emblematic of the 1952 Topps set. It is our opinion that any one of these packs would immediately vault to the higher end of known examples if offered individually, but the allure of the "brick" and its unparalleled rarity and significance is too great to consider disassembling it.

From a historical perspective, it is difficult to envision a more important grouping of postwar unopened baseball-card material. Few collectibles combine such profound rarity, iconic status, and universal recognition among hobbyists. It also speaks volumes about the enduring significance of the 1952 Topps issue within the broader collecting landscape.

Ultimately, these eight unopened 1952 Topps wax packs represent far more than sealed pieces of cardboard and wax paper. They are surviving relics from the dawn of the modern hobby, tangible artifacts from the most important postwar baseball-card set ever produced, and an opportunity that may never be available again.