There certainly is no shortage of iconic Mickey Mantle baseball cards. He wasn’t the best player — although he certainly is in the conversation — but he is the king of the hobby. Hands down. And along with that status comes a large following for his vintage cardboard.

Many factors could play into which is your favorite.  I mean each of his cards from the 1950s and 1960s has a certain aspect that draws in a particular collector.
For me, that card is the 1956 Mantle. Of course his 51 Bowman and 52 Topps cards are more desirable, but next in line is the 56.

   
I added this 56 Mantle to my collection early last year for less than 10 percent of high book value, which is a standard formula I like to use when buying poor condition vintage. 

Well, not all “poor” condition cards are created equal.  A deal arose in COMC.com that I could not refuse. I went about 12-15% of high book for this one, but look at this upgrade.

The original Mantle I owned was creased beyond belief and had four “corners.” My new one has some issues, mainly some minor creases, but presents so much nicer. 

Today I am heading to the post office to ship off the old Mantle as it has already found a new home, somewhere in Arkansas. Congrats to the new owner.

This entry was posted on December 10, 2015 at 9:09 am and is filed under Vintage Upgrade with tags baseball, baseball cards, Mickey Mantle, New York Yankees, Topps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.