We’re in the process of aggressively seeking consignments for our winter, 2013 auction, and we’re thrilled to report that for the second auction in a row, we’ll be offering an example of the hobby’s most valuable football card: the 1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski.
This beautiful mid-grade example is one of the nicer ones you’ll ever see, largely because of the centering. Most Nagurski cards are off-center left to right, and some even top to bottom, but as you can see, this one is very well-centered. The color is also very vivid and strong, something that is hit-or-miss with this issue.
The ’35 Chicle Nagurski gained its notoriety by being the first card of a noted Hall of Famer and professional wrestler. The card, one of the set’s notoriously scarce high-number series (it is rumored that second series packs were only made available in the cities in which the second series players played), is by far the key card in one of the hobby’s most popular and highly sought after football sets. Similar in design to National Chicle’s 1934-36 “Diamond Stars” baseball card set and their “Sky Birds” non sports set, the famous art deco designs of the Chicle cards have transcended football collecting and become one of the most widely collected sets in the sports hobby in general. A National Chicle Bronko Nagurski is, simply, one of card collecting’s treasures, a “holy grail” card for all collectors.
The card’s notoriety was augmented by a 2006 sale of a MINT copy for $240,000. The card has since been re-sold for $350,000 in a private transaction, with sales of lower-graded copies following suit. Just last month, Love of the Game set the record for the highest-priced sale of a NM-graded copy on record, selling a PSA 7 copy for $24,780. One of just 20 examples graded EX 5 by PSA, we expect spirited bidding for this example, as a card in such high demand as this does not make itself available in the more affordable middle grades very frequently.
Our winter auction is slated to close on February 2 of 2013. We are accepting consignments for that auction until early December. If you have quality material that you are considering consigning, now is the time to reach out to us at [email protected].