What did everyone think about Memory Lane’s strong Mickey Mantle on card autograph s

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Yeah, you could buy an index card that Mickey also held (for 10 seconds) for $700. Just sayin.

Honestly, by comparison to the shiny stuff he signed, Mantle index cards are extremely rare and severely undervalued. Same for Mays. Now, if you want a fake one of either guy, or a rubber-stamped Mantle or a wife-signed Mays, then sure, those abound. From my decades of observation, I'd put the population of signed Mantle 3X5s under that of signed vintage cards. With Mays, exponentially less than even Mantle!

The reasons are simple:

Both Mantle and Mays were superstars early on and were done with fan mail after their first few seasons. Even prior to that, they certainly weren't answering every letter that came their way. When they stopped responding, there was a lull for some time. Then, shortly following their retirements, you started seeing the classic red/orange rubber stamped Mantle replies and Mae Mays signing everything that came to Willie's Atherton mailbox. Later on, the card show era started up. People had to pay for the autographs, so just as they weren't interested in "ruining" their baseball cards with autographs, they wouldn't dream of "wasting money" on having an index card signed when they could get a ball or photo instead.

You do see a lot of 3X5 sized Mantles in slabs, but these are just cut down from his signed books which were autographed by the thousands. They're not true index cards, nor are they on the proper stock.