Rare unopened pack of 1951 Topps Red Backs with the cards of #10 Mel Parnell and #32 Henry Thompson showing on the front, and the reverse of two Red Backs showing on the back. Baseball Card Exchange (owned by unopened-pack expert Steve Hart) has certified it as an original unopened pack and it comes shrink-wrapped with the BBCE seal. This pack is part of an amazing find of ten newly discovered unopened packs of 1951 Topps Red Backs, all of which are offered in this auction. While we have seen unopened wax packs of 1951 Topps Red Backs, we have never seen other examples of these packs, which are sealed in cellophane. The lettering on the front reads "Official Trading Cards" and "An Educational Hobby - Trading Card Guild."
According to the wrapper, sixteen cards are enclosed, however, in one of the other nine packs offered in this auction, there is a 1951 Connie Mack's All Stars Mickey Cochrane card showing on the back. The presence of the Connie Mack's All Stars card in that one pack poses several questions. Does the pack feature sixteen Red Backs, plus the Connie Mack card, or is the Connie Mack's All Stars card included in the count? Since only one pack out of the ten offered in this auction shows anything other than a 1951 Topps Red Back card showing on the reverse, can we assume that every pack includes at least one Connie Mack's All Stars card? Could there also be a 1951 Topps Major League All Stars card included? If the answer to these questions is yes, then the possibility exits that one or more packs might include a Connie Mack's All Stars Lou Gehrig or Babe Ruth card or a Major League All Stars Yogi Berra card, each presumably in high grade.
According to our consignor, his aunt purchased these packs for him in 1951, the year he was born. However, realizing that he was too young for the cards, she put them in a drawer and intended to give them to him a few years later. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately as it turned out), she totally forgot about them and never gave them to him. Incredibly, they were just recently discovered still sitting in the drawer when the family cleaned out the aunt's house after her passing.
Lelands originally sent each of the ten unopened packs in this auction to PSA for encapsulation, but apparently PSA did not have a holder that could safely house them. The first two packs they encapsulated jostled too much and portions of the front cellophane ripped (duly noted in the condition report for the respective packs). PSA, not wishing to damage any other packs, decided to return all ten to Lelands. They were then all sent to Steve Hart at the Baseball Card Exchange for certification.
This pack (5.25x2") is one of the two aforementioned packs damaged by PSA during the encapsulation process. As a result, there are two long, vertical tears to the cellophane that run up the right border (from the base to about mid pack), as well small corner tears. On our website, we have provided photos of the pack prior to its having been sent to the Baseball Card Exchange.