Caleb Baker stood in awe, staring at a grainy photograph on a flip phone. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Looking back at him was a 1961 Fleer Basketball Wilt Chamberlain rookie card owned by a customer. It was hard to tell from the photo, but from what Baker could tell, the card appeared to be in impeccable condition.
It was too good to be true.
“My jaw just dropped because you could tell it was centered,” Baker told cllct.
Though it was perfectly centered — a miracle for cards from the 1961 Fleer Basketball set — there were still so many questions. According to the customer, who has asked to remain anonymous, the card had sat inside a grocery store’s closet for nearly 60 years before being retrieved four or five years ago.
Even if the card was well-centered, there was almost zero chance it could be in good condition 60 years later.
The customer returned later that day with the card in-hand for Baker to examine. Kept in a top loader, the man produced the card from his shirt’s front pocket.
It was well-centered, the corners were sharp, and Chamberlain’s photo was clear. The impossible was happening.
“In my head, I said, ‘Oh my God, this has a real chance.’”
Baker, the co-owner of DK’s Sports Cards in Crosby, Minnesota, and now part-owner of the card, sent the Chamberlain to SGC for grading two weeks ago. For Baker, who has Supraventricular tachycardia, a type of irregular heartbeat, the phone call he got Thursday night could change his life.
“My heart’s pounding out of my chest,” Baker recalls. “I’m just hoping I don’t have to go to the ER after this to reset this thing.”
A new hobby treasure has been found! pic.twitter.com/Rm0HcHDak8
— SGC (@sgcgrading) August 23, 2024
No hospital trip was necessary, and SGC shared news the Chamberlain graded a 10, the only 10 for not only that card, but the only SGC 10 awarded to any card from 1961 Fleer Basketball.
Prior to Baker’s submission, SGC had only awarded a single 9.5 to 1961 Fleer Basketball, a set crippled by a number of quality control issues.
According to SGC president Peter Steinberg, Baker’s card is the best Chamberlain rookie card in existence. Beyond SGC, the card has a PSA 10 population of just three, none of which have ever sold publicly.
“Working for a grading company as long as I have, I’ve seen a lot of WIlt Chamberlain rookies, and it’s a jaw-dropping moment,” Steinberg told cllct. “It’s pretty incredible to see a Wilt rookie that has virtually any aesthetic appeal at all. Unfortunately, although the design of the 1961 Fleer set is incredible, the manufacturing of it wasn’t so incredible.”
Considered to be one of the most important card sets ever produced, 1961 Fleer Basketball is anchored by rookies for Chamberlain, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson. The veterans impress, too, with cards for Bob Cousy, Elgin Baylor and Bill Russell. In all, the 66-card set features 44 total players, 24 of which are Hall of Famers.
Quality control issues have prevented the set from securing high grades, however.
Cards from the release are rarely centered properly while the photographs often register poorly. The cards also often feature “snow” with a number of print defects creating white dots across the blocks of color.
Rough-cut edges are a regular feature for 1961 Fleer, with dull blades leaving behind what looks like fraying. SGC doesn’t deduct for rough-cut edges from the technology of the time. However, according to Steinberg, the feature is something the company looks for when evaluating if the card has been altered in any way.
“In this particular example, it’s a lot closer to even bonus points than just something that’s negated altogether,” Steinberg said. “It’s something our graders love seeing, because it’s just a very difficult cut to replicate, and a cut that so many of these 1961 Fleers should have if they’re truly in original condition.”
Condition issues aside, the card almost never made it to Baker at all. The customer originally took the card to another local shop, Sports Card Central, in nearby Brainerd, Minnesota.
Sports Card Central owner Laura Bisted didn’t buy or sell single cards at the time, but she knew someone who did. Baker frequented the shop with his grandmother as a child, and was often the person Bisted directed potential sellers to.
The owner of the Chamberlain originally visited Sports Card Central several years ago, but didn’t call Baker until recently. Now, just a few years after DK’s Sports Cards opened a physical location, the shop has already had its hands on one of the hobby’s most important cards.
It’s a concept Baker still continues to grapple with.
“It's just something that's so unbelievable that you don't think it could actually happen to you.”
Baker and the original owner haven’t decided the next steps for the card, though they are open to consigning it with a major auction house.
There have been no public sales of PSA 10 examples, while the record for the card at public auction, a PSA 9 copy, is $198,000 at Heritage in May.
A private sale for a PSA 9 example with a Top 5% eye appeal designation was brokered by PWCC in 2022 for $670,000.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.