A Christmas Miracle - My first (and only) collector "find"

[Smarti5051]

About 15 minutes ago, I was joking with my Mother in Law about the Babe Ruth M-105 auction and suggesting they could replace my Christmas gift if they wanted to get it. She asked how much it cost and I gave her an estimate. She then asked, "how much is a signed baseball of Mickey Mantle go for?" I asked why, and she told me the story of how she was friends with Mickey Mantle's cousin Luke, and one day he brought in two baseballs signed by Mickey Mantle. One says "Bill, Best Wishes. Mickey Mantle" and the other said "Will, Best Wishes. Mickey Mantle" (my BIL and FIL). I asked if she still had them and she said yeah, they were upstairs in the cabinet somewhere. She goes upstairs, pulls out this old Maxwell blank cassette box, and inside are two signed baseballs embedded in some tissue paper. The beautiful thing is they have lived in that box in the closet and were never exposed to light for the past 50+ years, so the ink has not faded at all. Not quite a mint condition 52 Topps Mantle, but not a bad find that was discovered by accident.

[batsballsbases]

About 15 minutes ago, I was joking with my Mother in Law about the Babe Ruth M-105 auction and suggesting they could replace my Christmas gift if they wanted to get it. She asked how much it cost and I gave her an estimate. She then asked, "how much is a signed baseball of Mickey Mantle go for?" I asked why, and she told me the story of how she was friends with Mickey Mantle's cousin Luke, and one day he brought in two baseballs signed by Mickey Mantle. One says "Bill, Best Wishes. Mickey Mantle" and the other said "Will, Best Wishes. Mickey Mantle" (my BIL and FIL). I asked if she still had them and she said yeah, they were upstairs in the cabinet somewhere. She goes upstairs, pulls out this old Maxwell blank cassette box, and inside are two signed baseballs embedded in some tissue paper. The beautiful thing is they have lived in that box in the closet and were never exposed to light for the past 50+ years, so the ink has not faded at all. Not quite a mint condition 52 Topps Mantle, but not a bad find that was discovered by accident.

Nice Mother in law! Enjoy Them!

[BobC]

Nice Mother in law! Enjoy Them!

Congrats, great find. And also keeping it "in the family". Happy New Year.

[Shoeless Moe]

If you could post a pix or 2, would love to see them.

[todeen]

congrats - very cool. my father didn't collect. But he told me I have a cousin who stole his Atlanta Braves pennant signed by Hank Aaron he got in person while stationed at Fort Benning.

Sent from my SM-G9900 using Tapatalk

[ooo-ribay]

Awesome story but it’s too bad your name is Scott. :p

[Smarti5051]

If you could post a pix or 2, would love to see them.

I will try and figure out how to post pictures tomorrow morning. Assuming I take them with iPhone, what is the easiest way to get them to show up in this thread? I can add them to a Flikr acct, but not sure what to do from there. Thanks

[Vintagedeputy]

I will try and figure out how to post pictures tomorrow morning. Assuming I take them with iPhone, what is the easiest way to get them to show up in this thread? I can add them to a Flikr acct, but not sure what to do from there. Thanks

Use the “manage attachments” button when posting and add the photos there.

[Smarti5051]

First ttempt to get photo up.

[Smarti5051]

Second picture.

[Joecoco]

Wow. Those are clean! Beautiful.

[rand1com]

The "To Will" is really nice. "To Bill" a little less so but still a nice find of Mantle autograph baseballs.

[ooo-ribay]

Those are great.

Question for the experts: if someone wanted to, is there any way to completely erase a personalization?

[Smarti5051]

As an added bonus, my FIL has a great color picture from 1968 with a picture of my Grandfather-in-Law and Willie Mays showing off pheasants they shot on my Grandfather-in-Law's ranch in Central California.

[mrreality68]

Those are awesome and I wish I was that lucky some time.

My luck would be a fake lol