Congratulations on getting the card slabbed.
Kudos to Beckett for slabbing it.
But more importantly, a big round of applause to Beckett for labeling it "1950s."
As mentioned earlier, the photo used on the card was taken during the 1952 World Series, on October 6, 1952. I've attached the photo and the back of the photo. So the card cannot be from 1951 and it is extremely unlikely that it is from 1952. It is most likely from 1953 or later. Whoever labeled the Mantle Wheaties issue with a 1951 issuance date has done collectors a huge disservice. And I definitely applaud Beckett for not going down that rabbit hole.
As far as saying Beckett should do some research and criticizing them for their "weak effort," how much research and effort did they put in to this card? I don't know, so I can't criticize them. I'm just happy they didn't follow PSA's lackluster performance and call this a 1951 issue thereby perpetuating and enforcing a definite error. I do agree it would be nice to have a definitive year for this card. But that would probably take many, many hours of effort and a definitive year may still not be found. And they would get paid how much for all that time? Whatever they charged to slab the card. And in the meantime, they hold on to the card to wait to slab it until they can find a definitive issuance year?
