I like the process of upgrading and concentrating, but with less than 200 cards today, I wouldn't sell 80% for a grail.

I would do it.

80% of a collection is going to mean different things for most board members. If you’re able to keep the top 20% like you said, I think it’s a no brainer.

Good luck, hope you get what you want

-Don


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It was an IHOP which I figured was a bit more classy! And most of it was rolls of quarters

-Don


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I wouldn't do it for a 52 Mantle because I've never liked that card and consider it grossly overvalued. :p

But with that being said I have sold a chunk of items a few times to buy a rare/expensive piece that I wouldn't normally buy and have had ZERO regrets.

There's 2-3 items that come to mind right now where if they became available I'd happily sell up to 80% of my collection to acquire them. For me it's always quality over quantity.

Seven years ago, I sold off the cards from my Yankee Topps team binder (contained all but the 52 Mantle) and bought a PSA 1.5. Mantle. My reasoning was simple, as much as I enjoyed my Yankee binder, all of the cards in this binder were duplicates as I already had all of these cards in my completed Topps sets. The only Topps set I had not completed at that time was the 52 set. I knew if I wanted to finish the set, the Mantle hurdle would need to be cleared....after that card, the rest of the set was downhill and I now enjoy looking at my Yankee cards from my sets instead of my team specific binder. If your scenario involves feeling you won't miss the cards you sell, go for it.

52 Mantle
 

I did it years ago for a high grade 52 Mantle so it all depends on what you are giving up?

go for it!
I did it back in 2012 (before the boom)
(psa 2 mk- my avatar)

I personally appreciate the biographies of far too many other players and get a little tired of constantly hearing about the big names. If it was me, I wouldn't even consider it. I've heard enough about Mantle to last ten lifetimes.

I would sell my entire collection and purchase 10 cards. What those cards are doesn’t matter but I’d be hard pressed to own just one.
That day is soon approaching

Lots of different opinions here as there should be.

It really comes down to everyone’s individual collection and situation. If the pile of cards making up the 80 percent to sell doesn’t bring as much enjoyment as the grail would then go for it! There’s no one size fits all method of collecting. Do whatever your gut tells you to do, whatever will be more enjoyable for you!

Whenever I’ve sold cards or traded multiple to go for a bigger card I really wanted I’ve never regretted it, but I also collect sets and couldn’t part with my core sets. Everyone has different tastes and goals so like the fictional Babe Ruth says in Sandlot, “Follow your heart kid, you’ll never go wrong.”

To be fair, as the auction that got that card graded for the consignor, that may be a once in a lifetime 1.5 It also sold for a significant amount more than a normal 1.5, as could be expected.

For a 1.5, no. If it was higher grade, I would consider it.

Also, here's my 1.5. I could care less about technical grades. Love the eye appeal on mine with a nicely placed pin hole at top of the cap, likely by the original child owner!

Sounds like a good deal. Congrats on the Wagner.

---

To answer Fred's question, I guessed 20K, but prices vary based on condition without regard to the technical grade.

One thing to think about is that the card will be available when you are ready to spend for it.

Here's part of the problem with waiting for a high profile card: prices tend to outpace inflation. This is what $23,000 looks like in Mantle World

https://d1w8cc2yygc27j.cloudfront.ne...2945988217.jpg

$28,800

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/c...3/images/1.jpg

$35,000

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...antle%201.jpeg

Is the card going to drop over the longer term? Has it ever in the last 40+ years? Has anyone who bought and kept this card for a decade ever lost money? If I'd bought a lower grade one 14 years ago, it was five grand.

It seems like just the other day, but those examples were $1500 on eBay in the early 2000's. Red Cobbs and 21 exhibit Ruths were under 1k back then is my recollection.

This is the comp I was using. July 2021. Outdated, I guess, 22k all in.

The Mantle isn’t for me, but I effectively traded my entire collection for one card.

I had been looking for a few months for anything from a PSA 1-2. For sure, most 1/1.5 did not have the same eye appeal. But it can be done! :)
Best of luck on your search if you end up moving forward on your Mantle quest.

I'm still happy with the purchase. :)

That Mantle is a beauty for a 1.5

Great pickup Sean. A CJ Joe Jackson with the color popping

So long ago this seemed like such a risk!

Too hard to answer for anyone else. If you're a new collector and really want the Mantle, maybe? If you have any really rare and irreplaceable cards, probably not.

For me I don't have any interest in the Mantle but I have traded for or sold things to buy a few cards in a similar value range. It seems to me if you can't think about it and come to a decision, then it's probably a no?

I love that it went to a collector!

I want to thank everyone for their points of view and advice - do enjoy and value the opinions here always!

But sadly, I don’t think I can pull this off - I finished updating the value of my overall collection and decent looking low grade ‘52 Mantle would just take too big of a bite out of my collection. Once I account for the “can’t/never will sell” items, the math just doesn’t add up.

It’s a bit of a bummer but was worth exploring - if anything changes, I’ll finish my story here… but for now, I plan to stand pat!

Thx again, all

Jeff

Interesting reading all the replies. I don't think there's any wrong or right in this situation. Just personal preferences is all. Me, personally, I would go for it. As someone mentioned, everyone who has bought that card and sat on it for at least 10 years has always done well and come out on top. That part isn't even up for a debate. Just know that the excitement of owning one will eventually wear off just like any other big purchase (like a new vehicle for example). If you are the type that who gets bored easily and would perhaps sell it in a year or two, then I would not purchase one but would rather have a variety of cards in my collection.

The main issues I see about doing something like that are:

1 - You have to make sure you'll get/win the card you are wanting. To sell off about 80% of your collection and then not get the card you wanted would straight up suck.

2 - A card that big usually continues climbing in price as time goes on. By the time you sell off everything, that card in the grade of a 1.5 may not even be in your price point anymore and so you now would either have to settle for a 1 or even an "authentic". Would you be willing to accept that.

Well, I'm a single player collector and I'm glad he's not a HOFer or I would be a zero card collector. I can without a doubt tell you if I ever purchased a high dollar card anyone else that held that card would be in trouble. You would see the market tank like no other time period in history, that's just how "luck" in my world, works. At some point there will come an end, there always is and I'd hit the market at that exact point. Every hobby I've been a part of hits that point and it usually happens when deep pockets take over the hobby. The normal Joe gets left out, and fewer people that loved something, just can't justify or afford it any longer. The $ ruins everything for most of us. Can you imagine what any of these players would think of the $ people pay for an old piece of cardboard? Boggles the mind.

I would buy these 3 for 40k
 

1914 cracker jack ty cobb
1933 goudey ruth any pose , but I like 181
1948 leaf paige

That Cobb in a 2 might be close to 40k now.

yah I was thinking 1 grades on all of them but the window is closing

If you don't need the Mantle to complete your 1952 Topps set or a complete run of Mantle cards, what's the point? There are far better looking Mantle cards (1953 Bowman, 1956 Topps, etc.) available for a fraction of the price. If you're looking at it as an investment, a good argument can be made that the 1952 Topps Mantle card is the most overrated of all cards. It's not very rare at all, just super-hyped. I believe the 1951 Bowman Mantle or the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson are far better investments if that's what you're after. The same goes for 1951 Bowman and 1952 Topps cards of Willie Mays.

+1 Well said and I could not agree more.

As a collector, I've always been about more cards of lesser value: why have one really nice Ruth when I can have ten messy ones instead? 10 Ruths are better than one, duh! As a collector, give me a run of Mantle cards instead of a 1952 T. If I am trying to make money, though, I don't see it that way. I would rather put my eggs in one marquee card than in a card I hope might some day become a marquee card. The Mantle is so expensive that a small % movement on price equates to a much larger % movement on a cheaper card. A PSA 1 Robinson can be had for about $3,000-$3,500; a Mantle is $25,000+. A 10% bump on the Mantle is an 80% bump on the Robinson, in $$ terms. Is it more likely that a Mantle will go up 10% or a Robinson will go up 80%? I realize that the investment on Robinson is much smaller, but is it necessarily a better way to make money? If that's the goal. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Adam-

Not sure I completely agree with your math here, or at least the premise behind your math seems flawed to me. If you were to spend $25k on either one 311 Mantle or spend the same $25k on a fistful of Robinsons, then a 10% change in either one gets you to the same result.

Having said that, there's always room to argue about which of those pieces are more likely to move up (or down). But on percentage terms, if you're investing similar amounts overall in cardboard (whether one piece or multiple pieces), then you should get to the same place.

The only way your math makes sense is if a hypothetical comparison involves pocketing the savings and investing it elsewhere for little or no return, or somehow leveraging up on the Mantle but not on the Robinson. But I'm guessing that for most of us, if we have $25k to invest in cardboard, and if the first card we buy only costs $3k, then we're going to spend the remaining $22k on additional cardboard.

I've sold chunks of cards for 1 bigger card many times. I tend not to go for a HUGE cards though. They tend to be tougher to unload in the future.

Nah - wouldn't do it...prefer the '51 Bowman card anyway - better looking card IMHO....think the '52 is overvalued.....

Now if we are talking a Mantle Game Worn Jersey? Now you are talking....

Nicolo, I agree with your comments on the math, but I am not sure whether it makes better sense in the context of a card investment. The math is not the end of the game. Heck, I wish you were right, because I have lots of lesser cards but none of the super-duper ones; I wish my collection had grown in value like the marquee cards have. It hasn't. There is also the mechanics of realizing my gains. I can sell a $100K card in one auction and I probably can negotiate back a piece of the BP too. That is not realistic if I have 100 $1,000 cards to sell. If I have multiples of the same card, even if they went up a lot, it is even worse. I can't just throw them all into a single REA auction; I'd get killed. I have to sell them over time in different venues.

I don't think there is one good answer to the question. Liquidity is an element that definitely comes into play. I've never been one for having a 25 or 50 card collection, but in considering how to unwind a collection of thousands of items, dumping 80% for one or two items sure does sound appealing conceptually. If I wasn't planning on doing a multiyear-controlled liquidation once I retire, I might consider it.

If you have no mortage, no car payment, no debts, why not?

Otherwise you (may) put your family in peril over a piece of cardboard

Fair enough!

And those are certainly important elements for us to all ponder in our collecting adventures. I'm guessing for a lot of us, we stick to the "more is more" maxim. Because more really is more!

Well, I found my answer: yes, I would trade a big chunk of my collection for this:

https://auction.lelands.com/images_i...8_1_328236.jpg

i've been considering doing this...selling many babe ruth cards for 1 special one...i can't pull the trigger!!

wowsers! now...to get it signed!!!

No frigging way.

I asked this same question to John Spencer, Hey Yoda(about 25? yrs ago?) when I was buying his E102 Cobby for 1k.....more small value or less large value....so, I went with best value for me....
.

Nope. Never wanted one.

Easy no for me too.

Leon, even though I can't remember the names of my grandchildren, I do recall well selling you you my E102 Cobby for about a grand. At the time, we both considered it his RC, that is until Rob Lifson came out in favor of the Dietsch PC and muddied the waters. I still believe the E102 is his first card in the traditional sense. I hold one now, but it is not as nice as the one I sold to you. I also recall that, about the same time, you stole a beautiful '38 Goudey JD for pennies but I don't hold a grudge. Yoda

When I'm gone my "collection" goes to my son. It's almost entirely made up of complete sets.
He's not a collector. If I'm gone, selling it would be difficult for him since he knows nothing about the hobby and breaking up the sets to get maximum value would be out of the question..

I have toyed with the idea of selling off all of my collection and converting it to a few key notable graded cards that would be much easier for him to track and sell when the time comes for him to do that.

PSA 10 1 of 1 ONLY! I'd sell it allllllllll:)

I have just 1200-1300 cards, 1/2 raw and 1/2 graded. Guys I've always "Liked". The 52 Mantle was a must. I do hate selling, but if that was the only way I could afford the purchased or justify it, I probably would just make a 6 month-1 year project out of it and downsize all the crap for cash?

For me, less is more. I only own a few cards after 1975 and I don't need the house cluttered with landfill material. I'm a seasoned hoarder.

That's a Beautiful Card !!

The Gehrig is already at $198,000 plus vig, so 80% of my collection won't do it. More like my collection plus a quart of blood and a kidney.