Topps debuted their package design cards on the back of Bazooka Bubble Gum boxes in 1959 and a year later introduced the familiar and classic 3 card panel look that carried on each season through 1967. Only a tiny fraction of Bazooka cards were printed each year compared to their flagship regular issue baseball cards - in all likelihood no more than 1 or 2 percent. The Bazookas were mostly sold in groceries and supermarkets and were subject to a different, rougher kind of handling than their wax and cello products, even before the boxes were casually dropped into a shopping cart.

Natural enemies of these cards are pressure creases and sometimes, on end-of-panel cards, tape. If you've somehow avoided all of those potential pitfalls, now you've gotten to the part where they had to be hand cut from the boxes, which makes this PSA EX-MT 6 example of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks all the more remarkable, as it has avoided such indignities.

The surface is quite nice on the obverse, with nice clarity, bold color, and only a tiny hint of light handling wear. The back, which can often be prone to its own issues, is superb. With a fairly orderly trim around the dotted line outer borders, this Banks oddball issue is a clearly cut above. This is one of the nicer examples of this card you will encounter.

PSA has only ever graded 45 total examples of this 1960 Bazooka, with only TWO receiving a higher grade than the EX-MT 6 offered here of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks.