More Mickey Mantle submission goodness for 2020...SUB #2 PHOTOS ARE UP!!!!

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Just before Christmas, I fired off two Mickey Mantle Jumbo submissions. I thought it would be fun once again to share with the CU Forums.

The first submission contains two items; both are from the 1960s. One is a sort of funny, sun in his eyes shot from the Sports Pix Set of 1960 and the other is a classic, though in a way anachronistic, posed photograph from the 1961 Manny’s Baseball Land set (Manny’s was a sports themed store located across the street from the old Yankees Stadium). Both items have had the signature authenticated - the former by PSA and the latter by Beckett. This will be my first experience with a PSA/DNA submission; I’m excited as I like the extra eyes of approval on the signatures (I like them, too, as have most who viewed them) plus the dual authentication for the Registry aspect and combining that with the value of the protective PSA slab.

1960 Sports Pix Premium Mickey Mantle

1961 Manny’s Baseball Land Mickey Mantle

I’ll post the second sub later tonight or tomorrow.

Wish me luck...
...and I am wishing you all the BEST OF LUCK in 2020.

mrpeanut39

Looks like Norm Cash photobombed him in the Sports Pix pic.

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Submission number 2 is a great assortment of pieces that show what a truly ubiquitous pitchman Mickey Mantle was; if you had the cash, Mickey would sell it for you. Beer, tobacco, baseball equipment, casinos, golf outings, card shows and on and on. One of the fun promos from his playing days revolved around getting a Rawlings glove and facsimile signed photo from the makers of Phillies Cigar in exchange for proof of purchase and a few bucks. It was fairly successful and ran a while, as evidenced by the number of these floating around. This one has some minor corner wear and a diagonal bend (starts left center and angles upward ending on the right side nearby the bottom of the NY on his cap) and will most assuredly be low grade but the bend did not break the surface and the darkness of the baseball hat does a good job hiding the flaw in plain sight. As a result, this example retains a pretty solid look, being sharp and clean otherwise.

1961 Phillies Cigar Premium Mickey Mantle

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@mrpeanut39 said:
Looks like Norm Cash photobombed him in the Sports Pix pic...

...and if the stories are true, I think his lip may have been photobombed by herpes virus.

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I am excited about this one, which is also going to be lower grade, because it is the scarcer of the two 1964-66 Rawlings Premium Photos of Mickey Mantle. It came from an album with ribbed pages and was in there for a long time. While it's in really nice shape in most aesthetic and technical ways and features no significant creases or any paper loss with a few scuffs spotting on the back, it's being in the album has left the 'ribbing', so speak, impressed into the card and created some striped toning on the back - whatever tack it may have had is gone as the photo was no longer stuck to the page. While you guys don't have it in hand, it's not so noticeable until you tilt it in the light and then you can see it quite clearly. I know I have never subbed anything like this so I don't know what to expect grade wise. Below, these are high resolution scans (front and back) so you can see for yourself and play along; I welcome any respectful opinions or guesses, especially if you have something similar and/or experience. These are cards and they're supposed to be fun, after all. There haven't been too many graded yet so I'm just happy o have one, anyhow. But, I know it falls into a finite range of possibility (1-3) and have personally set the absolute lowest of expectations to avoid disappointment. Still, it's easy on the eyes and Mickey and will be much better protected in a few weeks.

1964-66 Rawlings Premium Photos Mickey Mantle w/Black Undershirt

bswhiten

Nice pickups Tim. That Manny’s is beautiful and from the looks of it will get a high grade auto and item grade. And the black undershirt is definitely a tough one. They rarely pop up anywhere. Congrats!

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@bswhiten said:
Nice pickups Tim. That Manny’s is beautiful and from the looks of it will get a high grade auto and item grade. And the black undershirt is definitely a tough one. They rarely pop up anywhere. Congrats!

Ben - thank you kindly!

I would hope both autos are 10s, but there’s a small wrinkle above the center of the bat which limits it’s upside some. Presents like a six or seven but probably grades out lower.

Happy New Year to you! Land anything good lately? You’re always pulling diamonds from the rough...

Be good!

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The last item in this submission that I will post today is a very good looking copy of a classic pose. I had picked up a few over the years and this one is free of many of the tape and pin hole condition issues that often plague these. The corners are a little soft and there’s some indentation but nothing too bad. I think the population report will grow on these so this will probably be the 5th or 6th graded.

1956 NY Yankees Action Pictures Mickey Mantle

bswhiten

Happy New Year to you too man.
I picked up the batting variation of the 68-70 Country Cookin’ postcard. I’ll add to the registry once graded.

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@bswhiten said:
Happy New Year to you too man.
I picked up the batting variation of the 68-70 Country Cookin’ postcard. I’ll add to the registry once graded.

Whoa! Cool piece. Congrats on that one, Ben!

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In tandem with the Rawlings above, this is the ‘original’ - the one with the black undershirt was the secondary release and is the harder to find of the two. This one is pretty clean aside from a few minor dings and presents really well. Remember that these came with the purchase of a signature glove and as they updated the models to include more players, Mickey received a second pose. Research indicates this one (below) was supplied with gloves from 1964-65 with the other pose (possibly late ‘65 and) primarily supplied in 1966, making this the more available of the two versions.

1964-1966 Rawlings Premium Photos Mickey Mantle No Undershirt

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Here’s the 2nd group just before packing and shortly before departure:

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We have loggage on the first order.

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We have loggage on the second order.

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I should hear back on these any day. Process is near complete. Can’t wait. Based on submission level, I think the first sub will come with PSA generated scans, too.

Stay tuned...

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Once again, I just want to say that I am delighted with the results. They look even better than I thought they would, in hand. Just beautiful work.

1960 Sports Pix Premiums Large Mickey Mantle

1961 Manny’s Baseball Land Mickey Mantle

I’m turning my webcam on so you guys can see me:

JoeBanzai

Beautiful!

bswhiten

Nice ones Tim!

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@JoeBanzai said:
Beautiful!

@bswhiten said:
Nice ones Tim!

Thanks, Joe and Ben; you guys rock. Still waiting on these and I’m expecting another month or so. Maybe I’ll get lucky!

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By the way, I was COMPLETELY MISTAKEN.

When fooling around with the registry as I wait for sub #2 of this thread to move to phase 4, I decided to click the certs on the prior sub. Lo and behold...

They did capture beautiful images of the two items.

My mistake!

JoeBanzai

That Manny's is TOTALLY SWEET!!!!!

bswhiten

Their jumbo scans are awesome. Most people don’t have scanners that can scan the oversized slabs. Awesome.

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Sub 2 in Assembly phase as of Friday...

...we’re getting there, baby!

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Hit QA2 yesterday...

AnkurJ

Have you ever seen a 1951 wheaties signed by Mantle?

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@AnkurJ said:
Have you ever seen a 1951 wheaties signed by Mantle?

Never.

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You may not think it to look at them but I am delighted with the results; they’re ALL really rich in eye appeal despite the low technical grades.

I will post once in hand; should be early next week. Until then? I’ll be like this guy...

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Better scans...

JBrules

Love that Rawlings Advisory staff. Some great picts of the Mick.

rmilin

I got a PSA Joe Dimaggio autograph on a old card I'll trade you for one of MIckey.

brad31

Those look great as usual. I do not know how those are graded but really look nice for the numerical grades given.

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@brad31 said:
Those look great as usual. I do not know how those are graded but really look nice for the numerical grades given.

First of all, I cannot stress to you enough what a wonderful feature the PSA provided scans are as they’re just a bit too big for the standard size scanner bed. As such, the vibration of my scanner coupled with it not being flat on the glass produce a less than desirable and blurry scan. Point being, you can zoom in and catch the flaws on most of these. I am a firm believer in buy the card not the holder and these are that - all the way. Because I love them and have nothing to hide, I’ll afford you my thoughts on the grading of Jumbos in general and these specific five.

As someone who has now submitted many, I think I can safely say that a jumbo item seems to have the exact same standards as cards applied to it. However, the issue with the low grades has a lot to do with the enormous surface area within which flaws can hide. Add to this the fact that most items were ‘used’ and are not often cardboard. When I say used, I mean kids didn’t protect stuff in the 50’s and 60’s. Cards were flipped and spoked but some went unsold and hung around unopened (expect the ‘52 Topps High number series) and demand for them grew at a time when protection for them existed and collectors wanted ‘nice’ copies of the cards they ruined as kids. These are different. They’re cheap to make, they’re what I call ‘cork board and closet door’ material - even today. You’re a kid and maybe you pick some oversized baseball photos as a stadium souvenir and tape them to the wall and throw them away when you paint or replaces them with pretty young starlet when baseball cards are replaced by babes as that thing you want to chase. Bikes become cars.

As for material, it varies from issue to issue. There are some that are like like baseball cardboard. Then there’s ones of like ‘modern day, purchased in the mall wall poster thickness’ stock. A few are old school ‘get them developed from film and have them prepared at your local pharmacy’ photo thickness, others more like loose leaf/printer paper thickness and others still are like a magazine paper (very thin and glossy). So the 8x10 surface area coupled with easily damaged material is going to result in most copies having taken some wear. Pinholes and tape stains are more common, as is writing on front and back. Indentations and age related toning are almost unavoidable while edge nicks and tears, corner wear and creases follow closely behind on pieces like these. Why? Kids loved them like they were supposed to. They were a souvenir or a free premium or mini poster with purchase. As a result, they often got posted.

The technical grades on these are perfect on all except the ‘56 which I thought would be a 2 or even 2+. It looks wrong in that holder - as has been repeated to me by all who have seen it. I’m not knocking PSA at all as I love the product in every way and that’s including even when I don’t agree with the grade assigned. So that’s as far as I’ll take it on that as I like it here.

The 1950-70 Rawlings has some faint creases here and there. They don’t destroy the eye appeal (at all) but they are reflected in the grade.

The 1961 has a thin and barely visible crease but it runs diagonally across the entire card and through the cap.

The two Rawlings color photos have some edge nicks, some corner wear and a small crease here or there. And the one with black undershirt was in an old scrapbook. It hasn’t lost any of its backing at all but it is “ribbed” as a result.

With the awesome scans provided along with these descriptions, you can have fun finding the flaws. I mean that sincerely - zoom and search. Phillies is obvious but others tougher.

Forgive me for not being able to spot them more specifically anymore as they all seem to melt away in the holder, to me

Thanks for the likes and kind words, Brad. You have a great collection from what I have seen.

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For posterity, I wanted to add that the beautiful PSA 1 ‘56 Action Picture above was involved in a trade for this beauty:

IndianaJones

Wheaties ---- Now THAT is what I call a beautiful Mickey Mantle card! Those 1960 Post, for me at least, are the closest post-war equivalent to a pre-war T-3. It's just as I titled my chapter 2 of Never Cheaper By the Dozen, devoted to this very card:

THE MAJESTIC GIANT SEQUOIA MANTLE

Heartiest of congratulations, sir. Take it from me, you'll never tire looking at this gem. --- Indiana Jones (Brian Powell)

judgebuck

The most attractive Mantle card of all. Congratulations on getting this great card, Tim.

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@IndianaJones
@judgebuck

Very kind of you both. Really.

Thanks everyone!