Even the most experienced collectors would be forgiven had they never heard of the 1961 Topps Dice Game.
Unlike the popular mainstream releases of the era, Topps didn’t distribute the set — meant as a sort of experimental trading card-tabletop game fusion — widely.
In fact, the set was not distributed at all.
It was a test issue. And apparently, it failed the test and was never actually released.
Just 32 cards from the set have ever been graded by PSA and SGC combined.
“So few have surfaced that hobbyists suspect simply that a handful somehow found their way out of the Topps factory at some point,” PSA writes in its description of the set.
“The set is believed to be complete at 18. There are no Topps-related markings on the cards, so it is unknown if the cards were still in the development stage when they made their way into the hobby.”
While the truth behind the origins of the test issue might never be fully known, a new hint arrived in the form of the only known uncut sheet from the set, featuring 18 All-Stars, which sold Thursday night at Collect Auctions for a whopping $252,000.
The emergence of this uncut sheet, which measures 18x14 inches and includes charts and games on its reverse, sheds new light on the production year of the issue, most commonly described as from 1961.
It’s the “crudely” airbrushed St. Louis insignia seen on Dick Groat’s cap despite him appearing in a Pirates uniform which provides the most salient clue of a mistaken date.
As Groat was traded from the Pirates to the Cardinals on Nov. 19, 1962, it would be impossible for this issue to be dated prior to that. Though neither PSA nor SGC has graded a Groat card from the set, this uncut sheet is not the first time collectors have noticed this clue, as the Groat card appeared, alongside two other previously unknown cards of Norm Siebern and Bill White, in a 2019 Mile High Auction.
“All of the 18 players in the set were All-Stars at some point between 1959-62,” Collect Auctions explained.
Regardless of the true year of its production, the immense value of the cards from this rarity has long been understood.
There are five known copies of the Mickey Mantle card from the issue encapsulated by PSA and SGC. The most expensive sale for the Mantle came in July 2022 for a PSA 1, which fetched a jaw-dropping $396,000 in July 2022 at Heritage.
Some of the other most valuable cards from the set to sell include the Frank Robinson, which sold for a top price of $143,748 in April 2021 and the Willie Mays with a top sale of $127,402 in April 2021.
The sale places it among the highest prices ever paid for an uncut sheet.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.