Lot # 1561: 1957 Topps Salesman-Sample Three-Card Advertising Panel - PSA

From an original childhood collection, offered is a rare three-card salesman-sample advertising panel for the 1957 Topps series, featuring cards #87 Tom Gorman (Kansas City Athletics), 31 Ron Northey (Chicago White Sox), and 71 Murry Dickson (St. Louis Cardinals) on the front. Encapsulated and certified as Authentic by PSA. Salesman-sample panels were issued for use exactly as their name suggests: Salesmen were provided these panels in very limited numbers to show and distribute (in person or by mail) as samples to prospective vendors to illustrate what the upcoming series would look like in the hope of promoting sales. The front of the panel appears just like regular-issue cards, and the reverse features a small advertising pitch about the new product in one position and then a sample card back (in this case Clint Courtney) in another. That portion, however, displays "87" as the card number while Courtney was #51 in the final issue set. Complete salesman-sample panels have always been extremely desirable and quite rare as they were obviously produced in very modest quantities due to their intended purpose of advertising only to vendors. The offered panel features superb image clarity and scattered creasing. The reverse is entirely clean. This is an exceptional Topps advertising panel that would be at home in any salesman-sample panel collection or would serve as an ideal companion piece to any 1957 Topps collection. Dimensions: 7.5 x 3.5 inches.