Keith Lenn Project

Hank Aaron was one of my favorite players, along with Reggie Jackson and Fernando Valenzuela, growing up. This 1975 Topps ‘74 Highlights card commemorates the breaking of Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record set 29 years previously. This is card #1 of the 1975 Topps set and the design is both iconic and historic. I'd like to put this set together someday.

1961 Topps Willie Mays #150 PSA 5 (EX)

I vaguely remember Willie Mays as a player, but of course I've read about his legendary career and seen film… and some will argue that he was the best ever. Ever! I was lucky enough to acquire this card before prices on vintage began to explode and its been a favorite in my collection for a long time and owning a card of an all-time great from his prime is pretty cool.

The front of the card presents nicely. Some centering issues for sure, but it does not detract from the overall eye-appeal of the card. Note the early PSA serial number.

The reverse of the card is pretty nice, clean. The centering is decent and it just adds to the overall sweetness of this card.

1935 Diamond Stars Lefty Grove #1 (PSA 3)

The National Chicle Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts released the Diamond Stars set which features 108 cards including over 30 Hall-of-Famers. This Lefty Grove #1 card is arguably the key card in this set and you will notice that this card was packaged by PSA as part of the eBay Authenticity Guarantee for all cards sold over a price of $250. Lefty Grove is a legendary pitcher who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox across 17 seasons. Grove is a 300-game winner and won the AL MVP in 1931. This is a set that I have been slowly chipping away at, but some of the high number cards are challenging to find in “affordable” condition!

The Lefty Grove card is super tough to find in acceptable condition. You can see that this is a low serial number, the card having been graded when standards for grading were not as strict as they are today. Then again, with PSA, you never know how grading will go as certain issues are given tolerances for a variety of reasons. Regardless, this is a super cool card to own and a cornerstone of my collection.

Here is one of my issues with the eBay Authenticity Guarantee - the eBay stickers obscure the reverse of the card. After spending a minimum of $250 for a card, as a collector, I would love to be able to remove the card from the packaging and examine it in its entirety. But I am reluctant to remove the card from the packaging. Why couldn't the stickers be made smaller and placed strategically so that the card is fully visible?

1933 Sport Kings Gum Howie Morenz #24 (SGC 2.5)

The 1933 Sport Kings Gum set includes 48 cards, the most famous of them being the Babe Ruth #2 card. There are many cool athletes in this set including Ty Cobb, Jim Thorpe, Bobby Jones, and Knute Rockne. The card featured below is of hockey star Howie Morenz, a Hall of Fame Center for the Montreal Canadiens and briefly for the New York Rangers. Morenz is considered the “Babe Ruth of hockey” and this card is simply iconic in any condition!