An unopened box of 1991 Topps Desert Shield Baseball cards sold for $37,200 to pace Robert Edward Auctions’ third Encore sale of 2023.
Desert Shield boxes are among the rarest modern era baseball products thanks to their distribution to only military communities, primarily overseas. The cards are essentially the same as the regular ’91 Topps Baseball issue, except for a gold Desert Shield logo in the upper left.
REA also offered numerous Goudey Babe Ruth cards. SGC 4 versions of the #149 ($21,000) and #144 ($18,600) topped bidding while a PSA 3.5 of #144 netted $15,600 and an SGC 4.5 of #181 sold for $13,800.
The auction, which ran from March 9-19, saw over $1.2 million in sales and more than 58,000 bids that were placed on nearly 3,400 offered items.
“Our first three encore auctions of 2023 have been immensely successful, with a steadily growing customer base, offerings on a number of different types of memorabilia, and heightened interest in items such as tickets and unopened boxes,” remarked Brian Dwyer, President of REA. “This has been the best start to a year in REA’s history and will be a great lead into our loaded Spring Catalog Auction that kicks off on April 6.”
REA’s first three Encore auctions of have seen about 9,000 lots go on the block with over 168,000 bids entered.
Other sales in the Encore auction included:
- 1948-1949 Leaf #79 Jackie Robinson Rookie PSA VG-EX 4 – $17,400
- 1957 Topps #95 Mickey Mantle PSA NM-MT 8 – $12,600
- 1933 R319 Goudey #149 Babe Ruth PSA GOOD+ 2.5 – $12,600
- 1933 R319 Goudey #53 Babe Ruth SGC GOOD+ 2.5 – $12,000
- Group of 5 1981 Topps Football unopened cello boxes $10,500
- 1934 R320 Goudey #37 Lou Gehrig SGC EX 5 – $10,200
- 1909-1911 T206 White Border Ty Cobb Portrait Red Background PSA VG 3 (Old Mill Back) – $9,900
- 1969-1970 Topps Basketball #25 Lew Alcindor Rookie PSA NM+ 7.5 – $9,600
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