What is everyone's personal white whale card?

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by The Cardfather

Here's mine:

1978 Topps / Zest Soap - Willie Montanez, PSA 10

Are you/have you collected the "whole" set in that condition, or just want that card in a 10. Amazed to come across another person who is even aware of, let alone has that set

[steve B]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Are you/have you collected the "whole" set in that condition, or just want that card in a 10. Amazed to come across another person who is even aware of, let alone has that set

I have the set too, but not graded. Nice little set that seems just so odd today.


Steve B

[brian1961]

1987 Perez-Steele Great Moments Mickey Mantle graded PSA 9 MINT!

I love the original 1910s-era set these cards were based on, the immortal T-3 Turkey Red tobacco cabinet premiums, regarded by collectors as the most elegant series of cards ever conceived, printed with all the brilliant color and care that was possible then, which was considerable.

Fast forward to 1987. The adult baseball card hobby was at its zenith. I mean to tell ya, everything was BOOMING. Of all the artists involved in our hobby, probably the very best was Dick Perez, whose partnership with Frank and Peggy Steele formed a hobby powerhouse, producing a wide variety of dazzling, absolutely scintilating creations that captured the nostalgic beauty of the games' great players of the past.

It is my firm opinion that their finest creation was a series entitled Perez-Steele Great Moments. Using the same style and format as the aforementioned T-3 premiums, the idea was to buy these stunning high-quality cards and have the now-retired baseball great autograph his card for you at any of a number of sports collector conventions taking place, each week it seemed, where they might be appearing as an autograph guest.

The Perez-Steele Great Moments were limited to 5000 cards each, which now seems like a whale of a lot. However, the hobby was going like gangbusters and these impressive, thick cards sold like hotcakes!!!!!!!!!

Now, I was quite taken with the Mickey Mantle card. When I saw it for the first time in the pages of SPORTS COLLECTORS DIGEST, instantly I fell in love with that radiant piece. Collecting vintage Mantle cards and coins at the time, I was definitely one of those raving "MANTLE MANIACS!" Well, I saw in that card something beautiful enough to put with my period Mickey Mantles.

The far majority of the Great Moments sold were used as a most appropriate print to get autographed. In this case, Mickey Mantle signed many of them, and his always legible, beautiful, flowing autograph looked swell on the Great Moment. One day on eBay, I came upon an unsigned PSA high grade example. I was so moved by it again, but deliberated a few months because of the BIN price tag-- $107.99. The seller wouldn't budge on his price. Looking at the many autographed examples and the extremely few unsigned ones available, I began to appreciate the gorgeous PSA 9 MINT card itself. Finally, in April of 2015 I bought it, and absolutely love it. It's sure hefty in the thick PSA T-3 holder they employ for these. Brings back fond memories of that stage of the hobby, and I'm very pleased to put this piece with the period Mantles I still have left.

Buying for investment was farthest from my mind; simply not my intention. I just love how the card looks. I've seen what I believe is the original picture Dick Perez based his painting from for this card, which dates to around 1960, right in the heart of Mick's great career. Mantle is batting, the pitch coming in, and Perez captured Mickey's split-second eager joy of seeing one he likes and can cream! Yanks' manager Casey Stengel is seen in the dugout, watching him about to send one into orbit. The box seat fans were portrayed, giving the imagery perfect balance and a story so evocative of what us Mantle Maniacs love! As I recall, Mr. Perez couldn't single out "a great moment" for Mr. Mantle, there being so many. Instead, he wisely portrayed the scene we his fans cherish---watching the man bat! Even when Mick was taking batting practice, OPPOSING players would stop what they were doing, and just watch him. Respect and admiration.

So many of those Great Moments were autographed by Mr. Mantle, and I am in no way insinuating it is defaced if autographed; that's what it was meant for! Notwithstanding, as an update, it is December 13, 2016, the height of Christmas selling and buying. From the eBay listing, there are 14 individual Great Moments Mickey Mantles offered, and EVERY ONE OF THEM is autographed! As a further update, it is March 9, 2017, and I count 19 Mantle-autographed Great Moments cards, with one non-autographed. However, the non-autographed is part of a set, and nobody would want to plunk down $1,000 just to get the Mantle, on the slim chance it would grade out PSA 9.

I prefer a different Mickey Mantle-autographed piece. Mickey's own favorite photo of himself was a Ray Gallo picture taken in the Red Sox visitors' dugout in September, 1956. Around 1980, Gallo had the photo expertly colorized, and issued a limited run of colorized prints autographed by Mickey. Early in 2017, I was extremely fortunate to buy one that had been properly preserved. It's already been PSA / DNAed. I intend to have PSA holder it with their 8 X !0 photo holder. I had my sights set on that Mickey Mantle autographed item for over a year.

Back to the Perez-Steele Mantle Greatest Moment, the fact remains I am a baseball card collector first and foremost, and I determined I wanted an ultra-high grade example of just the unsigned card itself. Also, the few unsigned survivors I have seen listed on eBay often have a dinged corner, being an over-sized card that was very hard to protect from all harm in what has now been 30 years since its release. I noticed several were sun-bleached from being displayed directly where the sun's rays would hit it each day for likely at least a year. Sad.

The Great Moments is such a breathtaking Mickey Mantle card. Relieved when I bought it; glad I didn't wait a second longer. Chances are ify it would still be on eBay. Be that as it may, I came to the point where I desperately wanted that ultra-high grade specimen for my collection, and consider it one of my "white whales" from 1980 to the present day. For that matter, I genuinely regard the Ray Gallo autographed photo as a memorabilia white whale. They are somewhat plentiful, true; but let me paint a brief picture. If everyone on my block had one except me, as beautiful as it is, I would be depressed!

Cheers. At this point, thank you for reading this LONG post.

---Brian Powell

[drmondobueno]

Pete Rose signed baseball "I'm sorry I shot JFK"

Or

1989 Fleer Billy Ripkin **ace double print PSA 10

[TheNightmanCometh]

1967 Venezuelan Topps Hank Aaron base card. Any condition.