The 1953 Topps Master Set Break

Last month, we decided to conduct a randomized break of our 1953 Topps Complete Master Set through our Facebook group. It was an exciting and successful event, selling out within two weeks and all cards shipping within 72 hours of the break running. 

About the 1953 Topps Set

The 1953 Topps checklist contains 274 unique subjects, with a total of 354 unique cards include the Black and White back-biography text variations. It's one of Topps earliest baseball card sets with only 1948 Magic Stamps, the 1951 Topps sets (there's five, more on those later) & 1952 Topps Baseball sets preceding it. While it doesn't have many notable RCs, it does have several early-year cards of notable Hall of Fame players listed below. View our set's full checklist with conditions of each card.

1953 Topps Master Set Highlights

• 120 cards slabbed by PSA, SGC and Beckett
• 17 authenticated on-card autographs
• SGC A Mickey Mantle
• PSA 2 Willie Mays
• SGC A Jackie Robinson
• SGC 2.5 Satchel Paige
• BVG Auto Warren Spahn
• SGC Auto Bob Feller
• All black and white back Biography variations
• All 54 high-number cards

How the Randomized Break Worked

For those not familiar with breaks, participants purchased a spot which guaranteed them one random card from the set. After we filled the list of participants and payments were collected, the list was randomized and each spot was assigned their random card from the set. A spot hit the Mantle, a spot hit the Mays, ect. 

We didn't want anyone participating to be unhappy with the results, so we we decided to add "Skunk Protection." All spots that hit raw cards in Poor-Fair condition received additional prizes as detailed in this Facebook post, including chances to win prizes such as a SGC A 1953 Bowman Color Mickey Mantle.

1953 Topps Break Results

As explained above, every participant received a random card. Full results can be reviewed in the Main Results tab of the Google doc. The big winners were:

• SGC A 1953 Topps Mickey Mantle – Bob Pelley
• PSA 2 1953 Topps Willie Mays – John Gerbracht 
• SGC A 1953 Topps Jackie Robinson – Eric Drew 
• SGC 2.5 1953 Topps Satchell Paige – Gene Brandon 
• BVG Auto 1953 Topps Warren Spahn – Allen Krueger 
• SGC 2.5 1953 Topps Warren Spahn – Nick Cafagno 
• SGC Auto 1953 Topps Bob Feller – Bob Pelley 
• PSA 4 1953 Topps Whitey Ford – Karen Andrea 
• PSA 7 1953 Topps Duane Pillette – Memorabilia Woodworks C Patten
• Clem Labine + SGC A 1956 Mickey Mantle – Josh Collins

What's Next

After the 1953 break, we decided to break our 1954 Topps Complete set, again primarily through Facebook. It sold out even more quickly, and we're also proud to report that over a dozen spots for it sold through the site.

In the future, we look forward to scheduling multiple breaks in advance and keeping records of all breaks on the site. We have several other epic sets lined up to break next, and look forward to growing our operation of creating unique opportunities to win amazing cards!