The Mantle Rookie That Wasn't

I was straightening some stuff out and came across this neat little item:

This was actually included as an insert into Baseball Cards magazine in October 1984. It was a mock-up of a minor league picture of Mickey Mantle that was designed to look like a 1949 Bowman card. The other side had the back:

Fortunately, there was a line explaining that the card was made in 1984. There isn't a lot to stop somebody from cutting this up and trying to pass this off as an "authentic" but unissued/unnumbered '49 Bowman card.

I'm guessing that this was an early project of Bob Lemke, who was the editor of the magazine at the time and who still creates custom cards on his blog. I know Bob is an occasional reader of this blog; perhaps he'll leave a comment if this was truly one of his projects.

Quite a Gift

Today, I give props to my wife.

It's not yet Christmas, but my wife comes from a different religious background...and Chanukkah came early this year. For my gift, she won this eBay auction for a lot of baseball cards.

Since the auction description won't be available forever, here's what the seller wrote:

"Hi! Up for bid is a lot of 133 1966 Topps baseball cards, including Mickey Mantle, Ron Santo, Bill Mazeroski, Ferguson Jenkins rookie, Roy White rookie, Buc Belters (2), Gil Hodges (3), Elston Howard (2), Strikeout leaders (Koufax/Gibson) and RBI-HR leaders (Mays).  Also includes the following semi-high numbers in nice shape: 516 Eddie Bressoud, 498 Pirates Rookie Stars, 461 Roy Face, and 519 Bob Friend.  Condition runs the gambit, most are in nice shape after 44 years. A couple dozen or so have creases or tape, many have corner issues.  Some duplicates.  Mantle is not in great shape, with a few creases and green paper glued on the back (I can e-mail a scan on request)(same with Jenkins rookie, all of the rest of the cards have clean backs).  A great starter set!!!  

As a bonus, I will include 19 1954-1956 Topps baseball cards (poor condition)!!!

Buyer adds $8 for shipping.  Continental U.S. bidders only (lower 48 states).  PayPal only.  Good luck!!!"

The seller didn't mention Mantle or Jenkins in the auction title. He also didn't include separate pictures of those cards. As a result, my wife was the only bidder and the auction ended at its opening $49.99 price. So, it arrived here last week and I was given the gift on the last day of Channukah.

The final tally, including shipping was $57.99 for a total of 152 cards (including the poor 1950s toss-ins). That comes to 38 cents a card. Not bad, except this is all I was able to take off my wantlist:

Three cards from the stack of 1966 Topps cards, plus:

Three ragged cards from the mid 1950s. Hey, a hole in the card is better than one in the binder, so I'll take them. I also managed to get 25 cards to upgrade the ones I already had, which means that the total cost to my collection was more like $1.87 a card. However, one of those upgrades was this guy:

A little ragged, but those of you who read my blog regularly will know that the Mantle I already had looked like this:

So...if I were to go to a seller and ask for the 31 cards added to my binder -- including a Mantle -- it probably would have cost me more than what my wife paid to get these. What's more is that I've added over 100 cards to my dupes box (which should lead to some more cards later), including the very first time I've ever been able to place a vintage Mantle there. Wow. Plus, tossing a rookie card of Fergie Jenkins and a few other cards featuring stars and Hall of Famers into the box will give me better trade fodder than some of the dog-eared and written-on cards that are in there already.

Thanks, Ellen. I'm not usually the type to be impressed by gifts, but that was a real surprise. I guess I should also thank the seller who neglected to put Mantle's name in the auction title.

Anybody looking for some '66 Topps cards? Drop me an email. (Just remove the number and spam control to get the correct address.)

Yet Another Card With "Character"

Since I've been doing this blog, I've occasionally shared some of the cards I own that are...how do I say this...

They're not exactly investor-grade material.

(This is where long-time readers roll their eyes and say, "No kidding!")

And here's one of those cards:

Mickey Mantle cards are quite expensive, due to him being a legend among Baby Boomers (especially with the ones that fueled the Hobby Explosion in the 1980s). He may not have been the best player of his era -- I think Willie Mays was better all-around, Hank Aaron hit more home runs, Jackie Robinson was the bigger hero and Sandy Koufax rates high as well -- but he's still the biggest Hobby name even 15 years after his death. Don't get me wrong, he was a great player. And being a Yankee great certainly didn't hurt his stature.

But...when you aren't looking to spend a lot of money, sometimes you have to be content with a card that looks like a road map of his native Oklahoma.

Another Card From My Collection

As I'm adding to this blog, I'd like to share some of the gems I have sitting in my collection. While some bloggers will show you their top-condition, big-name star cards, I like to show off some of the cards that can tell stories. I guess I'm just different that way.

Here's one:

This card was evidently pulled out of a fire (look at that burn mark in the upper left corner). Someone was also kind enough to let us know exactly which team Mick played with. Sadly, the scan doesn't show the vertical crease in the card very well, or else I could toss out something about how it's no wonder that he was so often injured later on.