Most valuable card

[egbeachley]

If a true PSA 8 was ever found, it would crush the PSA 10 Mantle by a factor of 3.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

If a true PSA 8 was ever found, it would crush the PSA 10 Mantle by a factor of 3.

+1

A Wagner PSA 5 sold for over $3,000,000. I can't imagine what an 8 would bring.

[glynparson]

I wouldn't bet too much on this because i am honestly not sure. if the wagner didn't have its sketchy past i'd bet on that, but it does, so I'm not sure in all honesty.

[iowadoc77]

Originally Posted by glynparson

I wouldn't bet too much on this because i am honestly not sure. if the wagner didn't have its sketchy past i'd bet on that, but it does, so I'm not sure in all honesty.

This is where I am at as well. So much of this also depends on whether there are 2 interested parties who have to have the card.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by iowadoc77

This is where I am at as well. So much of this also depends on whether there are 2 interested parties who have to have the card.

Well, there are 2 that have to want the Wags 8 for all that money KNOWING it's trimmed. It wouldn't be for me but many collectors wouldn't care because PSA said it's not trimmed.

If it wasn't trimmed the Wags in an 8 would blow away a Mantle in a 10, imo.

[Neal]

Originally Posted by jfkheat

PSA 10 52 Topps Mantle

agreed

Originally Posted by egbeachley

If a true PSA 8 was ever found, it would crush the PSA 10 Mantle by a factor of 3.

agreed

[RedsFan1941]

as someone who has little to no faith in grading companies as a whole and PSA specifically, even i find it hard to believe they would give a 10 to cards they saw being hand cut from a sheet minutes before.

[Bestdj777]

I thought the three Mantles came from Mr. Mint's find?

[SMPEP]

I'm sorry to say I do not remember where I heard this. Honestly, I thought it was common knowledge because I picked up years after it happened from some public forum (net54 before it switched format?), and so I didn't make great notes of the source.

The original source though was more a story about how someone came into one of the early shows with these uncut sheets (4 or 5 sheets of 25 cards of all uncut high numbers) and the room went wild. The cutting of the Mantles from the sheet and submitting them for grading was an after thought in the accounts I read.

The original owner still had one sheet with Mantle left on it years later ... and sold it 4(?) years or so back on Ebay. (Given the prices today, it was a great buy!)

I wish I could offer more proof - but I do not appear to have saved the original information.

Cheers,
Patrick

[MattyC]

It strikes me as pretty reckless and irresponsible to truck in such unsubstantiated smearing of Fogel's card and the other two 10s, saying— without proof— that all have been doctored and/or cut from sheets.

Here is all I could find; this first information quoted below is from an article on Sports Collector's Daily:

"Fogel’s card, among the earliest graded by PSA, had originated with the famous 1980s Massachusetts find made by Alan “Mr. Mint” Rosen, who purchased hundreds of high-grade 1952 Topps cards –even the original Topps case they were stored in– from a man in Quincy, MA in 1986."

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...psa-10-mantle/

This Forbes article also traces the Fogel specimen's origins to the Rosen Find...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidse.../#29c6ebc43a99

From PSA's website:

Fogel-Murphy Specimen. The card came from the fabulous 1952 Topps collection of Mark Murphy. It was then sold by dealer Bill Hughes to Collectors Universe CEO David Hall for $50,000 in 1993. When Hall's collection was auctioned by Superior in 1996, renowned collector Marshall Fogel purchased the card for $121,000.

Wormser-Candiotti Specimen. This specimen was from Ed Wormser's wonderful collection. Sold in the Wormser sale by Robert Edward Auctions in 1996. Resold by Superior in 1998 to former major league pitcher, Tom Candiotti, for $104,500.

Roehrig-Garcia Specimen. First sent in to PSA for grading by dealer Craig Roehrig. Sold to Peter Garcia in 1999 for $160,000. Resold by Superior to an anonymous collector in June, 2001 for $275,000.

[ullmandds]

WOW! all three purchases of the 10's were a long time ago! Nice...real nice returns on those babies!!!!

[ergoism]

Originally Posted by MattyC

From PSA's website:

Fogel-Murphy Specimen. The card came from the fabulous 1952 Topps collection of Mark Murphy. It was then sold by dealer Bill Hughes to Collectors Universe CEO David Hall for $50,000 in 1993. When Hall's collection was auctioned by Superior in 1996, renowned collector Marshall Fogel purchased the card for $121,000.

This lines up with the history I have heard about the card.
Mark Murphy consigned his 1952 Topps set to Richard Wolffers Auction House, owned by Duane Garrett. There was a $250,000 reserve on the set and it didn't sell. Bill Hughes was then in charge of brokering the set. He broke up the set to various collectors, David Hall being the one that purchased the Mantle. The card was then graded a PSA 10. It was decided that Hall owning PSA and being a collector was a conflict of interest so he auctioned his collection through Superior and that's where Fogel purchased the Mantle. The card was not from the Rosen find.
I enjoy the hobby history that goes along with cards like this and I have had some incredible conversations with Marshall Fogel. I went to his safety deposit box to look at his 52 Mantle. I brought a ruler, I brought a 40x lighted loupe, and I brought a UV flashlight. I was ready to pick the card apart. The only 2 slight imperfections I saw were a very subtle tilt and back centering that was a little off. The card is truly a remarkable specimen and a high end 10. It measures the full size of 2.65" x 3.75", the color is bold and bright, the corners and edges are sharp yet natural. Having never seen a high resolution scan of the card I was totally skeptical about was I was going to see. "David Hall bought a 1952 Mantle and graded it a 10? Uh huh. Ok Marshall, I'm sure it's great." But it is. I would think if they were cutting these from sheets they wouldn't have left a small tilt like the one on Marshall's, or a bigger tilt like the one on Kendrick's.
I also looked at Marshall's 1953 Mantle 10 with the same detail so I know which of the two in existence is superior.

[MW1]

Originally Posted by MattyC

It strikes me as pretty reckless and irresponsible to truck in such unsubstantiated smearing of Fogel's card and the other two 10s, saying— without proof— that all have been doctored and/or cut from sheets.

Agreed. I never recall this being "common knowledge" and I don't ever remember it being posted on any major forum. Certainly, based on the condition of the 1952 Topps sheets, there's no way that white, sharp-cornered Mantles could come from unseparated, toned, creased cards. It defies reason. Not all, but many of the high grade 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards do indeed come from Rosen's find.