The Super Rare 1972 Carlton Fisk Rookie Card PSA 10
A cornerstone in the vintage baseball card hobby, the 1972 Topps Carlton Fisk Rookie Card celebrates the debut of one of the game’s great catchers to play the game. The card itself, which features a young Fisk alongside Cecil Cooper and Mike Garman, was just three short years before his iconic 1975 World Series home run which to this day still sits as one of the greatest home runs ever hit in world series history.
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So what takes this card to the next level? Its not so much the availability of the card in its rawest of forms, but rather its condition-based rarity. Of the 8,044 versions of this card that have been graded by PSA, only eleven (11) have ever received the grade of a PSA 10 (Gem Mint). The population ratio of PSA 10s to the entire population of these cards is 0.0013% which is a tell tale sign that cards from the 1972 set are both incredibly hard to grade and even harder to grade well.
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Why are these cards so incredibly hard to grade? Cards from the 1972 Topps Baseball set have been known to have extensive centering flaws, extreme print blemishes and defects, and the edges experience chipping which is in large part due to the dark colored borders of these cards.
As both an MLB Hall of Famer and 11-time All-Star there’s no doubt that Fisk has left a lasting impact on the game while also serving as an influencer for many of the games top catchers of the 1900’s and early 200’s such as Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez.
From a collecting perspective his rookie card serves as a prime example of how scarcity continues to drive demand throughout the vintage card marketplace especially when it comes to higher-grade low-population cards such as Fisk’s PSA 10 Rookie Card, which has recently sold for over $55,000.
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From a broader market pricing perspective you can find PSA 4s starting at about $20 - $25 and PSA 8s selling for roughly $200-$280, but for those of you in the market the fairly rarer PSA 9 version of this card (only 242 of the 8,044 exist), you can expect to spend anywhere between $1,400 and $2,000.
Standing as a benchmark of vintage scarcity the 1972 Topps Carlton Fisk Rookie Card graded PSA 10 (Gem Mint) is certainly a diamond in the rough as it offers collectors the opportunity to own of the most sought after cards of the early 1970's.
Passionate sports card collector and writer based in Queens, NY. Lifelong fan of the New York Mets, Jets, and Rangers. Covering sports cards and collectibles with deep industry knowledge and enthusiasm, while bringing a fresh perspective to the ever-evolving hobby world on http://SI.com/collectibles.