#303 Harry "Fritz" Dorish

#303 Harry Dorish
Progress: 1st of this card
234 of 407  57.5% complete
How acquired: $7.50 on eBay
Condition: Fair
1952 Topps cards numbered 300-310 aren't high numbers.  But there seems to be an artificial bubble around them that treats them as something in between regular fifth series cards and hi number cards (311-407).  The amount of research put into, and information available on the various print runs of 1952 Topps is nothing short of amazing.  I took the image below off of Twitter (I've forgotten who deserves credit, and would like to attribute, so please let me know if you know who made it).  It's a run down of the four sheets that comprised the 5th Series of 1952 Topps.  The end result from the four sheets is that 251-280, and 301-310 were each printed 3x and 281-300 were each printed 4x.

I recall the twitter thread going into the various other theories on the run down, but the authors believing this to be the definitive alignment due to researching mis-cut cards and how they lined up.  

The point being, cards 301-310 aren't any more scarce than 251-280, and card #300 is actually a quadruple print (given the print runs of the series weren't all equal, a 4x print in series five, is still less common than a double print in series 2).  So why have we all decided to pay more for 300-310?  I don't know.  It just looks cool I guess.

I find a similar occurrence with 1970's hi numbers.  Cards numbered 700+ tend to sell for more than cards in the 600's despite being from the same hi series.  I'm planning on finishing 1-310 in this '52 set and moving on to '53.  I doubt I'll ever be in a position to make any sort of run at the hi numbers.  I imagine the cards 400-407 will demand the same illogical premium, but I'm decades away from getting too worked up about it.  I guess us card collector's are just the sort of people who like looking at numbers.

Stats: 10 seasons, 45 wins, 43 losses, 3.83 ERA, '52 AL Saves Leader (11)

Best Hall of Fame Showing: N/A