Collector-grade near-set as assembled by its original owner, a young boy in the late 1950s who continued collecting for several decades.  Condition-conscious in his later years, as a youngster he took good care of his cards but was diligent in his habit of carefully writing the player's uniform number on the back of the card, in small ink or pencil handwriting.  The result is that approximately 130 or so of the cards from the set exhibit this writing on the reverse.  Though the cards are otherwise generally clean, it is a collector-grade set even without the writing; corner and surface wear are abundant, and as one would expect from a late-1950s Topps issue, centering and print defects are an issue.

A technical breakdown of the condition of the set would be 5% VG/EX; 22% VG, 34% G, and 39% F or lesser, taking into consideration that a good number of the FAIR cards grade that way due to the writing, and appear VG or VG/EX otherwise.  We submitted three of the set's keys to SGC for grading, resulting in #47 Maris grading VG/EX+ 4.5, #52 Clemente at VG/EX 4, and #150 Mantle at FR 1.5.  The remaining keys grade as follows: #2 Lemon F; #25 Drysdale F; #32 Porter YL (F - writing); #40 Kell (F -writing); #70 Kaline (F - writing); #85 Aparicio (F); #88 Snider (G); #90 Roberts (F); #100 Wynn YL (G); #115 Bunning (VG); #147 Slaughter (F - writing); #187 Koufax (G); #230 Ashburn (P); #238 Mazeroski (F - writing); #270 Spahn (G); #307 B. Robinson (G); #310 Banks (G); #320 Ford (F); #375 Reese (F); #400 Fox (VG/EX); #418 Mays/Mantle (F); #440 Mathews (F - writing); #482 Banks AS (G); #484 F. Robinson AS (VG); #485 Williams AS (G); #485 Mantle AS (VG); #486 Mays AS (P); #488 Aaron AS (VG).  Cards missing for completion are #1 Williams (HOF); #5 Mays (HOF); #19 Giants Team; #30 Aaron (HOF); #285 F. Robinson (HOF); #288 Killebrew (HOF); #321 Sluggers Supreme; #334 Mound Aces; #343 Cepeda (HOF RC); #370 Berra (HOF); #443 Harrell; #462 Geiger.  481 cards total.