How much do you think 52 mantle should be worth?

[HaloFan]

Craig---I think you make great points. I have completed the 67 Punch out set and am about done with the 67 ( scarcer than the 64s) Stand Ups. I have the two Mantle pose variations in the Punch Outs and the 67 Mantle Stand Up. I also have a set of the 67 Discs with the Mantle. All of these are much tougher than the 52 Mantle and yet I paid less for each of them than the 52s

The Punch Outs have small pictures and the discs have never been too popular, but the 67 Stand Up is a great Mantle picture. Still scarcity and lack of knowledge likely does hold down "demand"...and they are not part of an iconic set.

I do not have the 61 Dice Mantle, but have seen it sold twice for well under what a top condition 52 would get. I only have one of the Dice cards, Kaline.

I also picked up one of the Mantle Masks, listed in SCD as a 63 Topps send away. It is also really scarce ( and may not actually be a Topps product ) . I paid a lot for it, but know of one that went unsold on ebay for .99 cents due I think to to a poor description.

One of the 52 Mantles I have is ungraded, from my younger days, and might grade a 3-4. The other, which I got to get the 2nd variation is an OC 8. Almost all of my cards and sets are ungraded for album display purposes


Al--very nice.

I'm not sure the value of the '52 Mantle will drop all that much even after the older collectors are gone. There is at least one other younger person <35 on this board who acquired the card because it took him back to when he was 12 years' old and rummaging through the new Beckett to check to see its value. There are more younger admirers of Mickey Mantle then we think.

I know a girl from Mexico who when I mentioned the card, she immediately knew who Mantle was and understood its value. Granted she learned of his iconic status via Antiques Roadshow, but this shows that his legacy is not withering anytime soon.

Craig

[zljones]

Originally Posted by HaloFan

Craig---I think you make great points. I have completed the 67 Punch out set and am about done with the 67 ( scarcer than the 64s) Stand Ups. I have the two Mantle pose variations in the Punch Outs and the 67 Mantle Stand Up. I also have a set of the 67 Discs with the Mantle. All of these are much tougher than the 52 Mantle and yet I paid less for each of them than the 52s

The Punch Outs have small pictures and the discs have never been too popular, but the 67 Stand Up is a great Mantle picture. Still scarcity and lack of knowledge likely does hold down "demand"...and they are not part of an iconic set.

I do not have the 61 Dice Mantle, but have seen it sold twice for well under what a top condition 52 would get. I only have one of the Dice cards, Kaline.

I also picked up one of the Mantle Masks, listed in SCD as a 63 Topps send away. It is also really scarce ( and may not actually be a Topps product ) . I paid a lot for it, but know of one that went unsold on ebay for .99 cents due I think to to a poor description.

One of the 52 Mantles I have is ungraded, from my younger days, and might grade a 3-4. The other, which I got to get the 2nd variation is an OC 8. Almost all of my cards and sets are ungraded for album display purposes


Al--very nice.

I'm not sure the value of the '52 Mantle will drop all that much even after the older collectors are gone. There is at least one other younger person <35 on this board who acquired the card because it took him back to when he was 12 years' old and rummaging through the new Beckett to check to see its value. There are more younger admirers of Mickey Mantle then we think.

I know a girl from Mexico who when I mentioned the card, she immediately knew who Mantle was and understood its value. Granted she learned of his iconic status via Antiques Roadshow, but this shows that his legacy is not withering anytime soon.

Craig

You are correct I am 30 years old and I have always dreamed of having a Mickey mantle card now I own three. As long as the hobby remains in general then the love for the vintage cards will last. I am now a grown man and have a real job and can finally afford cards such as Mickey Mantle cards. I remember when I scraped up $35 in 1991 at the age of 10 and peddled on my bike to a local card shop and said to the shop owners "I want a Hank Aaron rookie card" they told me I could not afford it and instead they talked me into buying a 1962 Topps Warren Sphann. I knew nothing about Warren Sphann back then but I bought it because it was from 1962 and it was old, and the men running the store were persuasive even though I did not really want it. When I took it home my mother was furious with the baseball card shop for selling me a card I didn't know squat about. She drove me down to that shop and told the owners to give me my money back, I was actually hoping they would because I had the buyers remorse and just wanted to save up for a Hank Aaron rookie card, but they refused to refund her and I got stuck with a card that eventually got stolen from me 6 years later. I am glad that I now own a 1954 topps Hank Aaron, but see I remembered those cards that I dreamed about 20 years ago and I persued them.

[Theoldprofessor]

One of the best teaching opportunities of your life stands before you right now. When my son was about 10, we began going to the National every summer. (That was so long ago that "Beckett" meant the Beckett-Eckes Price Guide.) Pretty soon he was picking up cards, asking "What's this one worth?" "What's that one worth?" Easy. "Son, it's worth exactly what you can get for it, no more no less."

The '52 Topps Mantle is worth a lot because people are willing to pay that kind of money for a really good copy. In the Thirties, the T206 Wagner was worth about $50, because that's what people who bought cards were willing to pay for it. Now some Wagners are worth millions. What changed? The card? Nah. Just its notoriety. Its value is determined by how badly people want it and how much they are willing to sacrifice to get it.

This can't be hard to understand.

[vintagecpa]

Put me in on the side of people that think the 52 Mantle is overpriced also. However, every Mantle from the 50's and 60's is also overpriced IMO, but it is what it is.

I believe there are a fair number of non-baseball card collectors that own a T206 Wagner or a 1952 Mantle, much like a rich non-art person might buy a Picaso. I would speculate that a decent percentage of 1952 Mantle owners don't own a single other 1952 Topps card, and several probably don't own another baseball card, period. When you add these groups together, you have created a demand that justifies the current price level.

[ChiefBenderForever]

It's the postwar card of all cards, not overated at all in my opinion, $2500-3000 for a nrmt ? Add another 90k and you will be able to get one. Rare, no but high demand, yes !! Might not be his true RC but is his Topps RC and Topps is king just like T206..............

[ALR-bishop]

Given the ready supply, a seller who "overprices" a 52 Mantle simply won't sell it. But if people are saying those that sell are overpriced, given that sales occur weekly, they ought to publish their theory in an economics journal. Seems like wishful thinking to me. Of course the market ( demand) could go down for that card or all cards in the future. Same as could happen for stocks, bonds, gold, art or any other precious stones, metals or collectibles.

[doug.goodman]

Supply and demand. Pretty simple. I think the Mantle probably qualifies as one of the hardest cards to "overprice".

But, as with any item that is in demand, not only will there always be people asking for a price that may be defined as "too high", there will often be people willing to pay that price.

I'm pretty sure that more Mantles exist than the other 1952 high numbers, but that doesn't change the fact that the Mantle is "worth" more than the other "more rare" cards.

Too bad that I "need" both variations for my set.

Doug