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

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by brian1961

By the way, there was one major card the Mint Man chose not to include in the photos, the Piece de Resistance of Barbara's collection. When Alan Rosen had the celebratory photo snapped of buying Barbara Grossman's massive Yankee collection, a smiling Barbara was holding thick wads of hundred-dollar bills, while Mr. Rosen had one arm at his chest holding three of the cards, and, with his other arm around Barbara, he held up one card, the crown jewel---the subject of chapter 13 of my book, a Mickey Mantle card so beautiful, so fascinating, and so profoundly rare in high grade, I gave it the deserving name, THE MALTESE FALCON OF BASEBALL CARDS. If you're fortunate to own a copy of Mr. Rosen's second and last book, TRUE MINT, you will find this celebratory photo on page 63. Not to be flagrantly coy, but if someone wishes to load up a scan of the photo, I'd be grateful. My tech expert is away, and I figured Mr. Rosen won't mind anymore, and there might be a few curious Mantle connoisseurs out there who might enjoy this photo from the fall of 1987...... ---Brian Powell

My dear son kindly edited a scan of the aforementioned TRUE MINT, page 63, to the requisite KB limit a jpeg is allowed to have on this forum. Here we have the celebratory photo being snapped upon the occasion of Mr. Mint's purchase of Barbara Grossman's collection. As you read The Mint Man's remembrances, and study the accompanying photo, note carefully what he's holding in his right hand, the card I have given the name, THE MALTESE FALCON OF BASEBALL CARDS, the most profound Mickey Mantle gem of all. Early in the millennium, this particular 1953 Stahl-Meyer Franks Mickey Mantle was graded by PSA. When the registered mail box was delivered to its owner, and he unwrapped the layers of bubble wrap to see PSA's verdict, he began weeping uncontrollably with utter joy, for the label said, "PSA 9 MINT"! A verified flawless, priceless, and king-sized blue diamond or ruby of a Mickey Mantle baseball card, this.

I trust you will find this more than a bit intriguing... --- Brian Powell

[WWG]

18 year old Mick with the 1950 Joplin Miners.

[IgnatiusJReilly]

Originally Posted by WWG

18 year old Mick with the 1950 Joplin Miners.

That’s awesome!


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[irv]

Originally Posted by WWG

18 year old Mick with the 1950 Joplin Miners.

Wow, is that ever nice! I take it it is yours, WWG?

[swarmee]

I rarely buy from PWCC, but had to when 1960 Topps Tattoos came up:

A very high percent of these have paper loss like shown due to being pulled open at the glue point. Writing on the back says "New York Yankees" in script, so not too bad for a MK. I actually had a much higher snipe set, so it went cheaper than I expected ($355). Image is really strong.

Got this to send in for grading; not centered, but clean. 1961 Topps Stamps single at $59:


This Holiday Inn Matchbook ($30) took 2 weeks to arrive from Canada:


Another one for Bobby's bulk submission.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by swarmee

I rarely buy from PWCC, but had to when 1960 Topps Tattoos came up:

A very high percent of these have paper loss like shown due to being pulled open at the glue point. Writing on the back says "New York Yankees" in script, so not too bad for a MK. I actually had a much higher snipe set, so it went cheaper than I expected ($355). Image is really strong.

Another one for Bobby's bulk submission.

John, I distinctly recall in the late 80s when Mr. Mint Alan Rosen announced to the hobby in the pages of SPORTS COLLECTORS DIGEST that he had just purchased several boxes of the rare 1960 Topps Tattoos. In actuality, one could not help tearing the tattoo paper at the top when he opened the pack, because of the way it was put together by Topps. Really, SINCE IT WAS PACKAGED IN SUCH A SURE-TO-DAMAGE FASHION, THE TATTOO SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRADED MUCH HIGHER BY PSA, AND IN POINT OF A STRONG POSSIBILITY, APPEARS SO FRESH AND OTHERWISE UNMARRED TO PROBABLY TRACE TO MR. MINT'S FIND. Just my 2 cents.

For what it's worth, I think it's a cool mark of respect to your Mantle collection!

Well done, mate. --- Brian Powell

[swarmee]

Yeah, for a 1, it's really nice. I had no problem paying up for it since it's such a rare item. The fact that it was graded many years ago (prior to the FAIR grade) may increase the chance it was from a Mr. Mint find. There is an eBay seller who still has a lot of the unopened packs, and continually lists them at high prices.
It's funny, I could jump ahead of some people on the registry for this card if I sent it in for review and it got bumped to FAIR 1.5 (MK). As of right now, 2(Q), 1(Q), and Auth all count for 1 point in the registry, but 1.5(Q) actually counts for 1.5. Never figured out why they added that loophole when they changed the point values 2 years ago.