1964 Mantle Topps Giant understanding the economics
 

This is a question:

Someone won 891 1964 Mantle Topps giants in Lelands last night for almost $40 per card. Description of condition: 10% VG-EX or lesser, 25% EX, 45% EX-MT, and 20% NM or better. That quantity represents about 20% of the current PSA graded population. Can someone help me understand what a potential reseller is thinking?

Here is the lot:

https://auction.lelands.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=98247

Giants
 

That's not bad
How about $100 a card for mays and koufax raw
Also only 20% nm or better

They barely sell for $50 right now in EX-MT. Sounds like a hoarder purchase rather than a reseller.

One of my favorite sets, and I like that Mantle card, but .....

I'm with you Howard. I don't see it. I bought both versions of that card within the last 2 or 3 years. I paid $47 for a PSA 6 and $81 for a PSA 8. Unless prices have risen substantially since I bought mine, the buyer is guaranteed to lose money on 80% of the lot (after adding grading fees) and might make a profit on 20%. And that's IF they grade as described in the listing.

As a side note, I see one of the six cards pictured is of one version of the card (top row, far right) and five are the other version. I wonder if that ratio holds true for all of the cards. Probably not, but I am curious as to what percentage of the 891 cards are one version and what percentage are the other version.

I hadn't heard there were two versions of the Mantle, and after looking at the picture I admit i don't see the difference. Can you describe what the difference is that I should look for?

For the 1964 Topps Giants Mantle and other cropping variations, check out my 'discovery' thread from a few years back...

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=218122

Geez, was that thread 4 years ago. Ok, I bought mine 4 (the PSA 8 because of your thread) to 5 (the PSA 6 for my Mantle collection) years ago, not 2 to 3 as I stated earlier. Time is going by too fast.

Look at the baseball with Mantle's name.

Thanks,. Somehow I missed this discussion four years ago.

Reminds me of the joke my dad used to tell: "My friend was buying a bushel of corn for $3 each, putting it in a dollar basket, and using a dollar's worth of gas to get it to the market where he sold it for $4. I asked him how he was going to make any money doing that; he said "I'll make it up in volume!" "

64 Mantle
 

I think the whole " mantle" phenomenon ..and also someone getting their jollys of having the thrill/means to grab 800+ plus vintage cards in one swoop

I’m jealous of whoever got these. I definitely think these went to a collector rather than someone looking to split things up. The price still seems a bit crazy though.

Chris---if someone is strictly a collector with no intent to sell them why would he want 891 of them ?

Wallpaper for a jail cell?
or art exhibition?

Maybe it was Tim Carroll, who cuts up cards to make artwork.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a Mantle poster that was made up of cut-up Mick cards?

Where else do you get that many vintage Mantle cards, for any price?

And price wise, it would make sense

Boy, have times changed.....November 1981 issue of The Trader Speaks:

I wouldn’t want 891 of them — I’d tried to get it to an even 1000. I love Mantle cards and have roughly 500 with duplicates. I think it would be great to have a few hundred more. And a large stack of the same card would be special. I don’t know. It’s weird but I see the draw.

Yeah, and that ad is how the Leland's seller ended up with so many. That's stock market-level returns!

(or what about the fools who paid the extra dollar back then for Yazs over Clementes...suckers!)

Chris-- got it. No weirder than my pursuit of trivial recurring print defects :)

64 T Giants
 

Anyone recall that old story of a hoard/discovery of thousands of 1964 T Giant cards..in the mid-west ??

At least one dealer on each coast had a truckload or more of these back in the 60's and 70's. Another find in the midwest would not be out of context. This set barely sold and Topps had huge overstock/returns. I would not be surprised if the aftermarket raw pops added up to low six figures for each impression on the sheet.

I believe I've seen an uncut sheet with the Mantle double printed. With that and the 'truckloads' of extra product, this Mick could be the UD Griffey of the '60s - printed in seemingly unlimited numbers.

BTW though, I do love this set. I put it together and then my son put one together as his first vintage set. We've since worked on acquiring it in autographed form and are currently standing at 56/60.

Merv Williams used to advertise tremendous quantities in the old Trader Speaks in the 1970's. The 64 Mantle is a very accessible card and actually makes sense to make a run because you can find copies fairly easily if you look hard enough.

Mantle is actually a Triple Print

I didn't understand the resale calculus, either, especially with transaction costs for resale figured in. Even someone gambling on a PSA 9-10 hit in there has a tough row to hoe. PSA shows Mantle 9's are $300-$400 cards pretty consistently. You'd have to move 150 PSA 9s just to break even given the PSA submit costs.

In 1971, the Dodgers were selling the 64 Giants in white envelopes marked "Old Time BB cards". I was visiting on a teen tour and that single repackage led me to explore the organized hobby (e.g. Gar Miller).