A large and colorful border at the bottom of the 1963 Topps baseball cards lend a distinctive design element and a condition challenge simultaneously, as the brightly-colored bottoms are susceptible to chipping and wear.  Presented here is a large portion of the 1963 set, from an original-owner collection, collected from packs in the year of issue and put away for decades.  The result is a sharp grouping of cards with sharp edges and corners, and very little of the border wear seen so frequently with cards from this issue.  While there certainly are some corner dings and signs of light touches and chipping, the primary condition issues within this group lie with print defects and centering.

A condition breakdown of the group would be as follows: 2% NM or better, 10% EX/MT, 36% EX, 41% VG/EX, 9% VG, 1% GOOD with a few lesser, primarily two marked checklist and a small number of miscut or trimmed cards.  It should be noted, however, that the cards are largely clean and relatively sharp, the primary reason for condition downgrades resulting from centering, miscuts, or print snow.  We selected four cards to submit to SGC for grading: #200 Mantle (SGC EX+ 5.5), #210 Koufax (SGC NM 7), #300 Mays (SGC NM+ 7.5) and #553 Stargell (SGC NM 7).  The remaining keys would grade as follows: #25 Kaline (EX), #115 Yastrzemski (VG/EX), #120 Maris (EX), #135 Ashburn (EX), #138 Mays/Musial (VG/EX), #173 Bombers (EX), #242 Aaron/Banks (VG/EX), #250 Musial (EX), #275 Mathews (VG), #340 Berra (VG/EX), #345 B. Robinson (EX), #353 B. Williams (VG/EX), #360 Drysdale (EX), #440 Marichal (EX/MT), #472 Brock (VG/EX), #490 McCovey (VG), #500 Killebrew (EX) and #520 Cepeda (VG/EX).  

Cards missing for completion include #4, 111, 124, 377, 380, 382, 384, 385, 390, 393, 398, 399, 400, 401 ,403, 406, 407, 411, 412, 413, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 421, 422, 426, 427, 429, 430, 432, 433, 435, 436, 437, 438, 439, 443, 444, 446, 449, 453, 460, 470, 471, 478, 484, 492, 495, 512, 513, 514, 516, 521, 522, 526, 527, 530, 534, 535, 536, 537, 538, 540, 542, 543, 544, 546, 548, 550, 551, 552, 554, 555, 556, 557, 559, 563, 564, 565, 567, 570, 572, and 573.  481 cards total.