I previously wrote about wanting to collect the 1952 Topps baseball set and mentioned Sy Berger’s interviews as a support for the story of Topps destroying a boatload of high number cards at sea. I recently came across some good detective work at The Topps Archives in which the author throws some compelling cold water on the story. It’s a great read and I highly encourage those interested in the set to take a look.
The same blog produced further excellent writing on the subject of 1952 Topps with information from a lawsuit used to calculate how many high numbers may have been produced. What is clear is that the high number series was printed in lower quantities than those preceding it. Through various avenues (overseas shipping, warehouse fires, and population attrition) there very well could be only a few thousand of each card remaining available to collectors.
