I just received my purchases from the Legendary Auction. They included a complete set of eight of the 1950 Topps Hopalong Cassidy "foil" cards. These are the tough-to-find header cards for the eight movie serials which are the sources of the images in the 230-card main series. I added the two that were missing to my Hoppy set, upgraded two more, and voila! my Hoppy set is now complete, after many years of searching and upgrading.
This is the first complete Hoppy set to appear on the PSA Registry. However, I would not be surprised if there were other complete sets; as has often been pointed out on this Forum, many cards are never graded, and even collectors with complete graded sets may elect not to list on the Registry, for whatever reasons.
I am particularly proud of this set, as at a GPA of 7.6 it far exceeds the grade level I though I could ever achieve. When I began collecting it about 12 years ago there seemed to be very few high-grade cards available, particularly in the elusive "high numbers", the multi-colored 187-230. Now, after assiduous searching, those high numbers are the best part of my set.
As for the foil cards- forget about it! Of the 91 foil cards graded by PSA, the highest grade for any card is EX-MT 6. But now I entertain hopes of cracking 8.0, the goal for all my sets, although it will probably take me another ten years to do it. But who's in a rush?
There doesn't appear to be too many collectors for this series, which is a shame. They are fun, particularly if you view the cards in conjunction with the original movies, which I obtained some years ago. Not Oscar material, but as a boy they had me riveted to the TV.
Sixty years ago William Boyd and the character he created were as popular as anyone in show business today. I consider Leroy Jethro Gibbs of "NCIS" his cultural successor, living by a code and tracking down bad guys. I wonder who Gabby Hayes (appeared with Boyd in several Hoppy movies in 1935-38) would be on that show? Would it be Gabby Abby Sciuto? Not Dinozzo!??
Best in collecting,
Bill Bengen
This message has been edited by billbengen on Jun 7, 2012 6:59 PM This message has been edited by billbengen on Jun 7, 2012 5:52 PM This message has been edited by billbengen on Jun 7, 2012 5:51 PM
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