The official Mickey Mantle Pickup Thread. All Mick, all the time!

[begsu1013]

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[irv]

Originally Posted by begsu1013

the 65 is off to be red flipped hopefully...

tried to stick to centered cards the best i could.

the 57, 59 and 64 were toughies.

really hard to balance my patience, my standards when it came to availability.

as far as centering goes, those are tough years to begin w/ but then throw in the sig

and it's get's really tough.



but signed basic topps run is officially complete
and fig'd this be a good place to dump it:


side notes of the project:

* never woulda guessed the 65 woulda been the final nail.
* the 52 was second to last.
* almost bought a 52 beater in a blue flip from a guy in canada. might be a psa mistake and is labeled 52t but it might be a "trading card"
* there's a 62 that i balked early on in the project that still haunts me.
* in sheer availability, the 57 was the card i saw the fewest available examples of.
* 64/68 seem to be the most readily available.

Bob, a couple questions. First off, how are a few of your card graded a PR-1, and secondly, are these all purchased cards or did you get some of these autographs yourself from Mick?

Aside from what I can only imagine the cards are worth, you have an unbelievable collection.

[begsu1013]

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[irv]

Originally Posted by begsu1013

most of them were blue flipped originally.

so i had to pretty much take a gamble on a good bit of them that they would crossover as a numerical grade.
i did not want any altered cards for this project.
was happy even if they came back as 1's. some of them i scored big on.
especially on some of the bowmans, which i'll post later...

but as far as the technically graded 1s:

the 56 has paper loss.

the 53 has some transparent tape on left hand side.
hard to see, but it is there. however, was a relative steal considering overall eye appeal, red corner and centering.
all which were harsh personal standards for me on that one.

so those two are pretty much automatic 1's because of those factors.



the 59 was probably a 3, but considering the oc factor that
probably bumped it down to the 1.

and same goes w/ the 67. i think the severity of the crease
mixed w/ the oc appeal granted it the 1.



as for cards personally signed by mick, i only have one...

and i contemplated for a couple of years on whether or not to send it to get graded/entombed.

ultimately, i decided against it for several reasons...

1. i got it in person. and have heard horror stories about how people
have had items they got signed as a kid get kicked back as "non-authentic".

2. im a psa guy, they are not perfect, but i certainly didn't want to
have a black cloud of that magnitude happen not only to this collection
i was putting together but to such a memorable childhood memory as well.

3. most importantly, i didn't need psa's opinion on this one. my dad was
great about saving my cards and recently got them back. i still haven't
finish organizing them or going thru them. but i have pulled all sorts of cards
that would probably grade pretty high and carry some decent monetary value if graded.
but they never will be sent off. i keep the two collections separate and always will.

so w/o further ado, here is that signed 58 that i mowed countless yards to obtain just so i could get signed.
my dad bought the auto ticket but i had to buy whatever i wanted him to sign...it spent $50 on the 58
which was absolutely huge for me back then and even @ $50 the dealer took care of me. his name was
kit young. still in business i believe and for obvious reasons. i will never forget him.

Great story!

Thanks for sharing your info about your cards.

[Stonepony]

If a board member won the Tip Top Mantle in Huggins Scott at $24,250.... congrats and WOW!!!!!

[sflayank]

Dont believe he is a board member
Was it your card?

[CW]

Phenomenal run, Bob, and thanks for posting the side info. The great thing about a run like that (other than being a bunch of cool signed Mantle cards ) is that it takes a lot of effort and dedication to find and acquire those cards. It's a lot more than just having the financial means, and shows a real collecting spirit.

[bswhiten]

Originally Posted by Stonepony

If a board member won the Tip Top Mantle in Huggins Scott at $24,250.... congrats and WOW!!!!!

It went to the #1 Mantle psa master set collector. I didn't think it would go that high though. Wow.

[bswhiten]

What an incredible Mantle auto run. Thanks for sharing.