We’re continuing to offer more great Callahan baseball cards from the very popular 1950s set including a real gem this week: a Honus Wagner graded PSA 9. No Wagner card from the Callahan series has ever been graded higher and only nine have reached the level of this particular card. This one looks like it was taken out of the box yesterday. Razor sharp corners, no surface flaws and very nicely centered. Callahan cards were first issued in 1950 as a boxed set of 62 cards that were sold primarily through the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. They were also available at some ballparks around the country. Smallish in size (1 ¾” by 2 ½”), the cards have become very popular with collectors who appreciate their scarcity, the quality of the players and the unique way they were created. Artist Mario DeMarco used thousands of tiny pencil dots to create the images. Hard as it may be to believe, they’re not sketched. Each year, the newest members of the Hall were added to the set, but the series stopped after the class of 1955, which included Joe DiMaggio. They’re called Callahan because it was B.E. Callahan, publisher of Who’s Who in Baseball, who first got the wheels in motion to create such a product. There are 91 cards in all with nine variations among the group. There are few high grade Callahan card sets produced and even fewer are still around. Collectors do try to acquire complete sets on the rare occasion when they’re offered but it’s also one that collectors of high grade cards and registered sets piece together, searching for the best of the best. They’ll definitely latch on to one of those with this Wagner card.
