The 1952 Topps Eddie Mathews is an absolute "perfect storm" for card collectors: it represents the rookie card of a Hall of Fame player that is part of the hobby's most desirable gum card set.  Adding to its desirability, it is part of the tougher "high number" series, and the 1952 Topps high numbers are the stuff of hobby legend.  Lastly, it is the final card in the set, which carries the dubious legend of being more condition-sensitive due to living its life at the bottom of a stack of cards - as a result of this legend, the first and last cards in a set generally are valued higher.

This card is all those things, making it one of the most desirable cards in all of rookie card collecting.  And in the case of this particular card, it is remarkably sharp, clean, and well-centered, all incredibly desirable characteristics of any card, much less one of the key cards in the most important postwar baseball issue.  It has the eye appeal of a NM-MT or perhaps even MINT example, however, it resides in a PSA AUTHENTIC "Altered" holder.  We are aware that the card has been resubmitted to PSA and given the same grade, however, it measures properly and shows no sign of alteration that we can see.  At some point, we need to buy the card and not the holder it's in, and in this case, we would be hard-pressed to find a finer example of this card, one of the three keys to this important issue.

NOTE: A very close examination under magnification and UV light reveals what could be a very faint addition of color in the cheek area near Mathews' left ear.  This tiny blemish is not at all distracting, but could be the reason for the AUTHENTIC grade.  As clear an example of "Buy the card, not the holder" as we have ever seen.