[jchcollins]

I started collecting cards at age 9 in 1986. At the time in the hobby, Mantle was the single most popular thing on the planet, despite the fact that he had already been retired for nearly 2 decades. Kids of my generation knew way more about Mickey Mantle than they did Babe Ruth, I can tell you that much. My first Mantle card was his '58 with Hank Aaron, which I picked up at a shop no doubt with my mother's help along about '88. I will agree as others have said, there is something unique about him and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I think it has to do with the fact that Mantle, unlike any other player - existed at the absolute climax of baseball, time and place in history - New York city in the 1950's. Had he been a Cleveland Indian in 1945 or a New York Met in the 1970's, I think we would view him today much as we do any other superstar. For kids everywhere 60 years ago, and doubly so for kids in random areas of the south or the midwest where there was as of yet no major league baseball - Mantle was the guy you followed. I will agree that the hype and prices for his cards and other memorabilia is disproportionate in comparison to others of his generation, but the intangible is part of that magic.