1952 Topps Mantle Tons Of Questions...

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by tedzan

The story now jumps to 1979 when the "Rookie card" craze started. As a lot of things in this hobby, this craze started in Philadelphia
when Pete Rose was traded to the Phillies. Overnite, Rose's rookie card went from a common 1963 card price to $50. Then, in 1980
at a Philadelphia auction, 3 - 1952 Topps Mantle cards sold for a total of $10,000.

This sale was unprecendented in the hobby back then. And, the rest is history. This card was never really rare, but it was touted
as being so. However, it was not his real rookie card. The 1951 Bowman was (and it was tougher to find than his Topps card).
But, for unexplainable reasons, Mantle's Bowman card at that time did not get its deserved respect by collectors and dealers in the
hobby.

The person who bought those cards was Rob Cohen of R&B Cards *IIRC* the companies name correctly. And from what I understood; he had a buyer to flip those cards to. It is possible that the profit was very small on the flip, but never the less, that really helped to explode the hobby. One of the issues was that Gold was making what whas then its record run and Silver WAS on its major run. Cards were lumped in at that time as a collectible to go with Gold/Silver.

Twas funny; a couple of months after the sale, we were laughing when seventeen 1952 Mantles were available for auction/sale in the next Trader Speaks printed after that auction was concluded and $3K became the new benchmark for a 52 Topps Mantle.

Someday, I'll relate the story of the 1st time I ever met Lew Lipset and yes a 52 Topps Mantle was involved

Regards
Rich