Help with a Mickey Mantle Item
 

Back in the early 60's Phillies Cigars ran a promotion where you could buy a baseball glove for $3.39 plus 20 cigar bands. As a bonus you also received a 6.5" x 9" "autographed" photo of the Mick. See a story about the promotion here-

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...mickey-mantle/

My Father bought me my first baseball glove under this promotion and I still have the photo of Mickey which is attached. It is admittedly in pretty rough shape. It has a horizontal fold about 3/4's of the way down and has multiple other creases. The scan I attached doesn't quite show it's true condition. Anyway I recently saw where one of these photos graded PSA 1 sold at auction for $1850 which got my attention. The story linked above indicates that these photos in decent condition sell in the $150-$250 range however the article was written in September of 2019.

Do you think my copy would grade less than a PSA 1 or is that even possible? I know Authentic is a "grade", but I thought that was only done by request. I am brand new to this grading thing so pardon my ignorance. I've seen pictures of cards that grade out at a PSA 1 that look like they have been chewed up by a dog so that makes me think my photo could get a 1 even in it's rough shape.

Also, how much does it cost to have a photo like this graded?

What do you guys think? Is it worth it to get this thing graded. If I thought I could get serious money for it I would be willing to part with it.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

I don't know too much about PSA grading, but I think yours would definitely grade higher than a 1. I googled the Mantle Phillies Cigar premium and found one in a PSA 1 grade that "sold" for $1,650. It had a pin hole which resulted in the grade of 1. Your copy looks like it has a very weak upper left corner and a heavy crease through it. I imagine it would probably grade no higher than a 2 or 3. People with more experience sending items to PSA should be able to give you a better answer to the grade.

However, the main reason I'm responding is to say that if you're going to send it in for grading in hopes of selling for a similar amount, do it now. In my opinion there is no way that item is worth that much. If it actually did sell for that amount it is because that particular buyer didn't know what he was doing. PSA recently added the Phillies cigar premium to their Mantle registry list. To date, only 15 have been graded. Hence an artificially low supply is available for those competing on the PSA Mantle registry. I would bet there are plenty of ungraded copies out there. I have one and I'm sure many others on this board have one. Anyone who wants one for their registry set should buy an ungraded copy and get it graded; at a fraction of the cost. As this occurs, there will be more graded copies, a lesser graded scarcity, and lower prices for graded copies. So if you're going to do it, do it sooner rather than later.