The massive popularity of the 1952 Topps baseball set presented a unique challenge to Topps' designers: how do you follow up a near-perfect set?  The answer was the beautifully-designed 1953 issue.  With card art consisting of hand-painted renditions of player photographs, each player's team and position information appears in a dark border at the card bottom (red for American League and black for National League) along with a team logo.  The reverse contains statistical and biographical information as well as a trivia question.  The designs were so beautiful and vivid that many collectors today prefer the 1953 set to its predecessor.  The 274-card 1953 set includes a number of challenges to completion, including second-year cards of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, an extremely tough run of high-numbers, a host of difficult single prints, an extremely condition-sensitive #1 card of Jackie Robinson, and tough rookie cards of Johnny Podres and Jim Gilliam.  While the 1952 issue can be a nightmare to complete, the 1953 set is certainly no picnic.

Presented here is an extremely attractive collector-grade complete 1953 Topps set.  With a condition breakdown of 1% EX-MT, 6% EX, 16% VG-EX, 34% VG, 30% GOOD, 11% FAIR, and 2% lesser, the set certainly leans toward the lower end of the grading scale, however, the set was carefully assembled by its consignor, an extremely advanced collector who took great care to choose very attractive examples within the grade range.  The result is an extremely attractive set with exceptional eye appeal for the grade.  

Nine of the set's keys have been graded by PSA, as follows: #1 Robinson (PSA GOOD 2), #37 Mathews (PSA GOOD 2), #54 Feller (PSA GOOD 2), #82 Mantle (PSA PR 1 MK), #114 Rizzuto (PSA VG-EX 4), #207 Ford (PSA VG 3), #220 Paige (PSA VG 3), #228 Newhouser (PSA VG+ 3.5), and #255 Mays (PSA VG-EX 4).  Additional keys grade as follows: #27 Campanella (P), #41 Slaughter (F), #61 Wynn (VG), #62 Irvin (G), #66 Minoso (G), #76 Reese (VG), #77 Mize (G), #78 Schoendienst (VG), #104 Berra (P), #125 Williams (G), #138 Kell (VG), #151 Wilhelm (VG), #147 Spahn (F), and #191 Kiner (G).  An exceptional complete set, boasting outstanding eye appeal within the grade.  274 cards total.