Just ran across this thread and here's my story...In 1973 at 12 years old, I saved all summer to buy a 1952 Topps Mantle for $75.00. I think it was an ad in a magazine called Trader Speaks or Collectors digest or something like that?
My Dad thought I was nuts but I gave him the money and my parents wrote the check and I mailed it in. I would check the mailbox every day...
When my package finally came there was NO MANTLE in there. There was a 1955 Koufax, a 1955 Warren Spahn and a 1956 Roy Campanella...ALSO INCLUDED was a $25.00 CREDIT MEMO!!!
What almost was, left me with a bad taste in my mouth and it was shortly after that I quit collecting until the mid to late 1980's as a young adult. While everyone was collecting the new crap, I was buying all the sets from 60's and early 70's. They were in a house fire in the mid 90's and surprisingly where they were stored, none of them were damaged if you can believe it? Maybe smelled a little from smoke. LOL
I sold them after a divorce, just to get by in 1994 shortly after the fire. Now that I'm established with my own business and some expendable income, I have started to buy back some of my favorite cards from the 50's and 60's just to blow a few bucks now and then...So there you have it, a sickening story of what might have been.
75 bucks! OUCH THAT SMARTS reliving that.
