(LOT 33)
1949 Bowman #24 Stan Musial PSA 9 MINT – Highest Graded Example on the Combined PSA & SGC Pop Charts!
STAN THE MAN!!! Of the roughly 1,500 encapsulated 1949 Bowman #24 Stan Musial subjects existing on the combined PSA and SGC Pop Charts, not a single example has managed to achieve the hallowed 10 GEM MINT assessment. Indeed, the perfect 10 grade simply does not exist, with only ten PSA specimens achieving the miraculous 9 assessment. The St. Louis Cardinals called up their 20-year-old phenom Stan Musial in 1941, who, in only 49 plate appearances, provided a glimpse of things to come by posting an incredible .426 average. Indeed, Stan the Man was here to stay, and interestingly enough, there are no baseball cards of the immortal Stan Musial from that rookie era, with his inaugural mainstream cards issued some seven years later by the Bowman and Leaf Gum Companies.
The remarkable qualities of this '49 Bowman marvel are synonymous with Musial's uncanny lifetime statistics, including a .331 average, 3,630 hits, 475 home runs, nearly 2,000 RBIs, seven batting titles, three MVPs and an amazing 24 All-Star game appearances. A perfect testament to this momentous Hall of Famer's batting excellence, Stan the Man's imposing batting pose literally bursts off the card via the richly-hued violet background, with the well-centered image revealing a slight favoritism towards the right edge and the left edge revealing a somewhat rough factory cut. Pack-fresh to say the least, the razor-sharp corners and near-immaculate surfaces complete this world-class heirloom, with another PSA 9 fetching $28K in a 2022 Memory Lane Auction!
MIN BID $7,500
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