A near-complete run of uncut sheets from Topps Finest products from the mid-1990s will be headed to auction in two Heritage Auctions sales early next year.
The sheets, which total more than 30, will be part of Heritage’s January sports card auction (beginning Jan. 5) and its Platinum Night Sale (Feb. 24-25). They will include all four major sports from 1993 to 1995, plus a Star Wars card product from 1994. The sheets will be sold in separate lots. Some include full sheets of Refractors.
They were recently purchased by a sports card shop west of Atlanta from a laminating company in the Los Angeles area that originally produced the sheets as prototypes for Topps.
“To see these sheets, it’s like opening a time capsule,” said Tony Giese, consignment director at Heritage Auctions.
Here is the list of sheets, according to Giese:
- 1993 Topps Finest Baseball: Complete set, two uncut non-Refractor Sheets 1 & 2 (Proof sheets complete front/back);
- 1993 Topps Finest Baseball: All-Star Refractor proof sheet 89 cards (Marked proofs);
- 1993-94 Topps Finest Basketball: Complete two uncut non-Refractor sheets 1 & 2 (Proof sheets complete front/back);
- 1993-94 Topps Finest Basketball Refractors: Two uncut sheets 1 & 2 (Proof sheets complete front/back);
- 1993-94 Topps Finest Basketball: Insert uncut set Brick by Brick (Proof sheets complete front/back);
- 1994-95 Topps Finest Basketball: Non-Refractor sheets 1, 2, 3 (Complete with peel-off coating);
- 1994-95 Topps Finest Basketball: Refractor Sheets 1, 2, 3 (Complete with peel-off coating);
- 1994 Topps Stadium Club Chrome: Air Shuttle insert set non-refractor uncut;
- 1994 Topps Stadium Club Finest Chrome: Uncut Refractor sheet;
- 1994 Topps Finest Baseball: Complete uncut master set sheets 1, 2, 3, 4 non-refractor sheets;
- 1994 Topps Finest Baseball: Complete uncut master set sheets 1, 2, 3, 4 refractor sheets;
- 1994 Topps Finest First Half: Uncut non-Refractor sheet;
- 1994 Topps Finest Baseball: Complete uncut master Jumbo set sheets 1, 2 non-refractor;
- 1993-94 Topps Finest Football: Complete two uncut non-Refractor sheets 1 & 2 (Proof sheets complete front/back);
- 1993-94 Topps Finest Football: Complete two uncut Refractor sheets 1 & 2 (Proof sheets complete front/back);
- 1993-94 Topps Finest Football: Jumbo box loaders uncut non-Refractor sheet;
- 1994 Topps Chrome Finest Football: Non-Refractor sheet;
- 1994 Topps Stadium Club: Frequent Scorer nonRefractor sheet;
- 1994-95 Topps Finest Football: Non-Refractor sheets 1 & 2;
- 1994-95 Topps Finest Football: Refractor sheets 1 & 2;
- 1994-95 Topps Finest Hockey: Complete two uncut non-Refractor sheets 1 & 2 (Proof sheets complete front/back);
- 1994-95 Topps Finest Hockey: Refractor uncut sheet #1;
- 1994-95 Topps Premier Finest: The Go To Guy uncut non-Refractor sheet;
- 1994-95 Topps Stadium Club Chrome Hockey/Football: Non-Refractor sheet;
- 1994-95 Topps Stadium Club Finest Chrome Hockey: Non-Refractor sheet;
- 1994 Topps Premier Finest Hockey: Two sheets uncut non-Refractor;
- 1994-95 Topps Finest Premier Chrome Hockey: Uncut sheet non-Refractor;
- 1994 Topps Stadium Club Members Only Chrome: Multi-sport two uncut sheets;
- 1994 Bowman’s Best Baseball: Complete three Refractor uncut sheets 1, 2, 3 (Production proof sheets);
- 1994 Bowman’s Best Baseball: Complete three uncut non-Refractor sheets 1, 2, 3 (Production proof sheets);
- 1994 Topps Finest Wide Vision Star Wars: Uncut non-Refractor sheet;
- 1994 Topps Finest/Stadium Club Jumbo Promo Star Wars Legacy: One sheet non-Refractor.
The discovery of the sheets dates to August, when a customer walked into West Georgia Sportscards in Douglasville, located about 24 miles west of downtown Atlanta.
The customer was buying an autographed card and casually mentioned a friend who had the sheets.
“The owners of the shop figured it would be junk wax, but they did a Zoom call,” Giese said about the man who had held onto the uncut sheets for nearly 30 years. “The white coverings were still on top of the sheets.
“They had never seen the light of day.”
Realizing they had a real find, the card shop owners drove from Georgia to Los Angeles to pick up the sheets.
They contacted Heritage Auctions in early October, and the Texas-based auction house was definitely interested.
Giese said the owners at West Georgia Sportscards hopped back into their vehicles and drove the sheets from Georgia to Heritage Auctions’ headquarters in Dallas on Oct. 24.
They were not going to take any chances of shipping them and potentially losing a unique collection of memorabilia.
The card shop owners put the sheets on display at a show in Nashville before then.
“They didn’t sell any of them, they wanted to get a reaction,” Giese said.
They certainly did. They impressed collectors in Nashville, and Heritage Auctions certainly took notice.
“We’ll typically get one or two sheets — not 31 of them,” Giese said. “These are fresh to the hobby, which is from the junk wax era. The laminating company owner kept them for 30 years.”
“Unearthing these (in August) is shocking.”
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