Hi all,

After five recent additions, my 1953 Who-Z-At-Star set finally broke through the 7.0 barrier, after ten years of work. It is the first set I am aware of that has achieved this level.

7.0, Big Deal!, did I hear you say?

Well, before you pass judgment, listen to some stats from the PSA Pop report. About 1,000 Who-Z-At-Star cards have been graded by PSA so far. Of that, only 65 (!) have been awarded the PSA-8 grade, NQ. As for higher grades- well there aren't any! NO 8.5's no 9's, no 10's, not even a 9 with a lousy qualifier.

Is this series tough or what?

I love this series. As far as I know, it is the only 50's series which features screen greats of the 30's and 40's- Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, William Powell, Howard Keel, Rek Skelton, Esther Williams, Ann MIller, and so on. It's tough to get high grades because of the grey borders on the front and the blue backs, both of which which easily chip at the edges. The backs of the cards are terrific, too- great reading, with a quiz to boot!

Clearly, since the series consists of 80 cards, an 8.0 set is impossible today- with only 65 8's, the cards simply don't exist. And because some numbers have multiple 8.0's graded, and some don't have any (in fact, the top grade for almost half the set, or 35 cards, is 7)- if you owned all the top grade cards in existence, your set would be no better than a 7.52.

So, I don't feel so bad about my crummy little 7.056.

I will try to post some pictures of my new additions soon. The highlight is the PSA-7 William Powell, who of course was "The Thin Man" of the movies. Unfortunately, neither Myrna Loy nor Asta have cards in the series. C'est la vie!

Best in collecting, Bill Bengen

knocked down 2 sets this week. whats next? congrats

Congrats Bill--great accomplishment.

Keep at it.

Jim

Hi all,

Thanks for the congrats. I hope to exchange the favor for you in the near future. Reaching a target grade for a set is almost like having a baby. Same thrill, no diapers.

I guess after ten years working at many of my sets I am finally getting to some milestones. But that's how tough some of these early 50's sets are. I still have miles to go on other sets, like Freedom's War, and Bring 'Em Back Alive. It may be another 10 years before I can get them up to 7, and I am reconciled to the fact that I may come up short. That's a pity, because I would love to see what those sets look like in "as new" condition, with bright white borders and sharp corners.

I am really curious what the #1 sets on the Registry for the early 50's will look like in another 20 years. I may not be here to see them. Will there be major finds? Has someone got a few monster sets in his attic?

I see a PSA-9 Wild Man card up on ebay for $2,400 with a BIN. Love to own it, it's a gorgeous card, but that's a lot of bread for one card. Strangely, the owner ignored by $500 offer. Hey, we coulda negotiated! $600 maybe?

Best, Bill Bengen

Bill, fantastic achievement. Another of my favorite sets and I would be happy if my set contained one or two eights. For those that don't know, the blue backs are extremely suseptible to damage/dings, the grey bordered fronts also show dings and the cards are often off centered. I've been trying to upgrade four cards for close to five years with no luck just to get to EX/MT. Bill, which three or so cards are the toughest to find in top grades? Again, way to go!

7.0, Big Deal!, did I hear you say?

You read my mind. That's exactly what I was thinking. But your analysis educated me. So congrats.

BTW, some of us collectors of different era cards have no idea what cards from this set look like and what you are referring to with the front/back borders. Can someone post a scan? This would apply to many posts since I supose the 50's guys don't know what most N-cards look like too.

Hi all,

This is in response to Bill Christensens' query about the toughest cards in the WZAT series. According to the PSA Pop report, these are the toughest to obtain in high grade (PSA-7 or above):

#13 (Eve Arden, "Our Miss Brooks"): no PSA-7, 1 PSA-8, none higher.

#17 (John Lund) highest card graded is PSA-6!

#42 (Van Johnson) highest grade is PSA-8(OC) no PSA-7

#48 (Carleton Carpenter) highest grade is PSA-8(OC) no PSA-7

#50 (Walter Pidgeon) 1 PSA-7, nothing higher

#54 (Lana Turner) 1 PSA-7, 1 PSA-8 (OC) nothing higher

#80 (J Carol Naish) highest grade is PSA-8(OC) no PSA-7

It's clear from the above chart that you couldn't even build a "straight 7" WZAT set, let alone a "straight-8"!

Perhaps not the names you might have expected. Some of the more well-known names, such as Gene Kelly, Clark Gable, etc have had many more cards graded and as a result, have more higher-grade cards than the obscure names. That's an example of what I call "grading bias": people generally grade only what they think is more valuable. There may be plenty of high-grade specimens of the above cards around, but they just haven't made it to PSA because the owners have never heard of most of those entertainers.

Best in collecting, Bill Bengen

Hello to All ,

Bill , add my congrats to the others . Nice one .

----
Mark

Bill - you have a wealth of patience and it's clearly paying off. Congratulations on, well frankly your whole run of 50's sets! And to answer your question, I suspect it will be you topping the charts 20 years from now.

Best of luck.

Sorry Myrna Loy and Asta aren't in Who-Z-At-Star, but here's a card showing Myrna Loy and Asta as well as William Powell from one of the Thin Man movies. This card is from the Wix 2 set issued in South Africa.

First off, I want to congratulate Bill on his accomplishment! I can verify that this is a very difficult set to achieve in TOTAL High Grade.

My set is completely graded by SGC (save #50) & can also verify that Bill's list of tough cards in PSA are also some of the toughest in SGC! (I guess that is a GOOD thing--it shows some consistency between the 2 Graders!

While I have 41 of the 80 cards in 7 or better and another 14 in 6, the vast majority of cards below 7 are because of the poor cutting methods (OC or below tolerances allowed for a grade) rather than worn corners or blue chipping.

Am posting F&B scans of 4 cards from Bill's TOUGH List to support his contentions! Notice the corners are sharp--it's the OC that gave them the grade! (The 1st 2 yellow background cards are not streaked, they just scan that way as yellow is tough to scan)

BUT---I don't care!---They are my original purchase from back in the day, sent for grading just as they came from the packs w/ nary an upgrade, and to me, are a beautiful set to look at because every card is fresh, clean & virtually blemish free!!













As for statistics, my set is Avg SGC Grade 77.19 on their Registry and Avg weighted 77.47, whatever that means! LOL!!

Fred, those cards are fabulous. I wish PSA had a grade qualifier "(PF)" for "Pack-fresh". That is really the quality I am looking for in cards, above all, even more so than the technical grade. Thanks to you, generations of future collectors will know why it was such a thrill to pull those beauties out of packs.

Best in collecting, Bill Bengen

For those who may have missed it, this is the thread from back in May w/ some of the comments & the pictures/scans are still active for some of the key cards.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/526604/thread/1242694817/last-1243039764/Recent+SGC+submission--%2753+Who-Z-At+Star

A PSA 9 has been unleashed . Well done to the guy who found it .


----
Mark

and it was one of the Stars.....Ava Gardner