My first Mantle, collection unearthed with a cherry on top

maddux69

Over the years I have done quite a bit of moving, from NC to Alabama and back again along with quite a few significant moves in state. When I moved to Alabama I had a crate with a lid that housed many of the cards from my early collecting years. I always kept tabs on it until I moved from Alabama when my company hired a moving company to box everything up and move it. I thought that crate wouldn’t be touched since it was secure and sturdy. Well upon unpacking I see the crate is now empty and I couldn’t find my cards anywhere. I figured they were in another box, but hopefully not stolen as that was always a possibility. Well after having things in storage, I started to go through them all to no avail. Well a few moves later and I find myself unboxing things once again and I look in a box marked DVDs and books and lo and behold there are the 400 count boxes holding my early Maddux collection and also the first Mantle that I bought! This Mantle is sacred as I bought this in the late 80’s/early 90’s at the Webb road flea market in Salisbury, NC with my dad. That is one memory that I cherish even more so now that he is no longer with us. So here it is in all its glory, my 1963 Bombers Best!

nam812

Glad you found it Jason. It definitely deserves a Newport Beach vacation.

ScoobyDoo2

@nam812 .... for about 3.5 months...

brad31

Congrats- note the joke Mantle is playing at the bottom of the card with his bat.

remedylane

I've been to Webb road many times. I live not to far away from it. Great story!

rounding3rd

Awesome story and memory! I still have my first "vintage" card I purchased at a local card show that my dad (also passed away) took me too in the 1980s...a 1970 Tom Seaver. I had it slabbed a while back and it will be always be one of my favorites...enjoy yours.

brad31

Still have mine too - a beater ‘69 Carlton and ‘62 F Robinson AS from the local antique store. At the time having a 20 year old card in my collection was amazing to me (of course 20 years was twice the length of my life so far back then).

Thanks for sharing both the card and the story. My dad was there with me then and at all the local card shows growing up. Great memories.

maddux69

Glad to hear that there are others who still have their first cards and memories with dads to go along with it.

To think that my collecting journey has led me to his '52 and '53 Topps is mind boggling and something I would never have imagined back then. Still that '63 outranks them all!

ahopkins

@maddux69 said:
with my dad.

Jason,

'Nuff said.

It's beautiful and priceless.

stevek

That's a great story.

I still have many of my original cards as well, including a few whereby a neighbor who worked for Topps, would once in a while bring home an uncut sheet, and we'd go over there and take our little scissors and cut it down into the individual cards...usually with a lot of inaccuracy - LOL

The cards were "played with" and aren't worth that much money, but they are priceless to me.

maddux69

Going through the Greg Maddux cards that I have had since way back when I came upon two pearls. First is a 1997 Bowman's Best Mirror Image Inverted Refractor, only 3 have been graded by PSA so far so it is quite rare. I don't think I knew it was an inverted refractor when I bought it, can't recall if the inverted cards were common knowledge back then. I had to buy it soon after it was released as that was my prime collecting time for me and my friend Bobby. Next up is a 2001 Topps Traded Chrome Retrofractor in the 1987 design. Just a quick glance, there doesn't look to be any graded by PSA yet...lots of base and chrome but no retrofractors. This has to be one of the last cards I bought in my collecting years, along with the PSA 10 1987 Traded and Traded Tiffany, before I took a hiatus until 2012 or so. Both look great and have kept over all the years, the mirror image was still in the recessed one screw case that was so popular at the time.

fattymacs

The numeric grade the card will get will never reflect it's true value. Congrats on finding your lost treasure!