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its hard to believe how cheap aaron and mays cards are in comparison to mantle..

just picked up a nearly perfectly centered 1968 aaron psa 8 for $195. if this were a mantle that looked this nice it would sell for $2,000. just doesn't make sense to me. but ill take it. any thoughts?

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Comments

  • ElvisPElvisP Posts: 1,052 ✭✭✭

    Actually '68 Mantle's usually sell in the $700 range. A perfectly centered 8 just sold for $702. Your point is well taken though, there is a huge difference.

  • ugaskidawgugaskidawg Posts: 882 ✭✭✭

    The difference in my opinion is that mantle has a following that is unmatched by any other player. There are people out there that will buy a Mick, but could care less about card collecting in general. Mantle is usually always the exception...

  • garnettstylegarnettstyle Posts: 2,143 ✭✭✭✭

    Playing in all those World Series didn't hurt.

    IT CAN'T BE A TRUE PLAYOFF UNLESS THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONS ARE INCLUDED

  • olb31olb31 Posts: 2,900 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think most of can agree that both aaron and mays had better careers or at least as good. I hat to say this but does Mick's death add to it, some. I remember when Maris passed his cards went crazy and never really came down.

    Work hard and you will succeed!!
  • Jimmy_CommonpantsJimmy_Commonpants Posts: 386 ✭✭✭

    Mickey Mantle was arguably the most popular athlete of the 1950's and 1960's. He was every kid's hero. He would have had an even greater career if not for his body breaking down and alcoholism. The difference between his popularity and that of Aaron/Mays is due to several factors including Mantle was white and a NY Yankee while Mays and Aaron were black and played for lesser teams.

    I actively collect Kirby Puckett. I have collections of Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith, Roberto Clemente, Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Errict Rhett and Evan Longoria.

  • divecchiadivecchia Posts: 6,525 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think the biggest reason is the popularity of Mantle will always have more collectors and non collectors seeking him out causing more competition and therefore the higher prices.

    Donato

    Hobbyist & Collector (not an investor).
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  • IndianaJonesIndianaJones Posts: 346 ✭✭✭

    Perceptive and right-on comments, Jimmy.

    As the card collecting hobby seemed to grow to mega-proportions from the early 70s onward, the popularity of collecting Mickey seemed intensify all the more. His death perhaps added a bit more to the frenzy, but then Topps felt it wanted to pay tribute to Mick. Even if you say it was to make more money, the demand for Mickey was there, and perhaps the many tribute cards only served to intensify the demand for all his cards, et al. By that, I mean the tribute reprint cards got many newer collectors to desire the original Topps and Bowmans.

    Chat forums have discussed and argued why Mickey is number one. He was a generation ago. He is today. Again and again, many collectors argued that Mick's numbers weren't close to the aforementioned Mr. Aaron and Mr. Mays, and therefore cards of those guys should be at least as valuable or more so than Mr. Mantle. Get a life---Mickey was number one in the hearts of us kids in the 50s, in the 60s when I collected and in my neighborhood of Chicago suburbia, and on into the 70s, 80s, 90s, Y2K, 00s, and thus far into the 10s, The people's choice. If you want to make the argument a racial issue, go right ahead, but it's a road that leads to emptiness. Why? Because you will win the argument with career numbers, but you won't win the argument for a heart's desire. You would expect a Black American collector to gravitate to Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Henry Aaron, Bob Gibson, if they grew up in my time. I liked them all. As I said, I grew up in Chicago suburbia, and my favorite player was Ernie Banks, not Ron Santo. But again, the one card I wanted to get each year when I collected Topps, OR ANY SET YOU COULD NAME THAT HAD HIM IN IT-----WAS MICKEY MANTLE!

    The matter of autograph signing attitude, manners, and ability to relate well with your adoring fans at shows has also been discussed here, and at Net54baseball,com. With the help of that lady that accompanied Mickey Mantle to a kazillion shows, Greer Johnson, Mickey did as great as he did as a player. I've heard a few sad stories of paid autograph seekers for Mr. Aaron. But Say Hey Willie comes in about dead last as an autograph signer. He has murdered the "little boy within the grown man" so often it would fill the largest graveyard in the world. Some collectors not only quit collecting Willie Mays after a permanently hurtful experience, they sold their lovingly crafted collections of this great superstar. Nice buying opportunity for cheapskate collectors.

    Hyperbole? I've been reading about surly Willie for 30 years. Do you really think Willie is going to change? I guess Mr. Aaron is still very bitter over how he was treated when going for the Babe's home run record. So, maybe he treats every White as if he was one of the people who wrote him hate letters, and screamed all sorts of horribly wrong names at him from the comfort of their stadium seat. Is that right, to treat your adoring fans (I mean the ones that love you, or at least think your autograph is worth taking a chance for appreciation some years down the way) that stand in line and pay over a day's wages, or more, just to meet you, and get your autograph? Two wrongs don't make a right, or so I was raised. Reverse prejudice is as wrong as the first prejudice, or so I was taught.

    You are either part of the problem, or part of the solution.

    Bringing this to a swift conclusion, the whole mix moves the collector to collect who he wishes, and pay what he agrees to pay, and right now, and for the foreseeable future, more collectors want Mickey the most, and will pay the most for him. Many still want Henry and Willie, and will continue to,

    Again, look at it as a buying opportunity for you. At the heart of it, the cards you buy of Hank and Willie might not appreciate as much as Mickey, but you should still do well. Or is that not good enough for you? I can't help you there.

    That's my nickel-pack's worth. Congratulations on getting a PSA 8 of The Hammer for a good price.

    ----Indiana Jones (Brian Powell)

  • brad31brad31 Posts: 2,530 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Have never understood the disparity. Spend my $ on Aaron and Mays.

  • SirLurksALotSirLurksALot Posts: 119 ✭✭

    It's because he had the best baseball name ever to go along with a great (truncated) career

  • 49ersGuy49ersGuy Posts: 382 ✭✭
    edited May 30, 2017 6:39PM

    There is definitely a racial element. There is no getting around it. I'm definitely not saying it is the sole reason but it does bear a lot of the weight.

  • tod41tod41 Posts: 86 ✭✭✭

    Race bearing a lot of weight is a vast overstatement. If that were true, wouldn't you expect Jordan cards to have less value than Larry Bird's card. How do you explain how Nolan Ryan's cards are more valuable than the clearly better Tom Seaver? Last I checked, both were white. This thread makes assumptions based on race which have not been thought out completely, in my humble opinion.

  • vols1vols1 Posts: 761 ✭✭✭
    edited May 30, 2017 11:17PM

    The folks that pull the race card are the fist ones to buy the Mantle, Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio cards if they drop a dime.

  • Jimmy_CommonpantsJimmy_Commonpants Posts: 386 ✭✭✭

    @tod41 said:
    Race bearing a lot of weight is a vast overstatement. If that were true, wouldn't you expect Jordan cards to have less value than Larry Bird's card. How do you explain how Nolan Ryan's cards are more valuable than the clearly better Tom Seaver? Last I checked, both were white. This thread makes assumptions based on race which have not been thought out completely, in my humble opinion.

    Its not just "race" per se. Your example ignores the difference between the times as well. The racial atmosphere of 50's and 60's was much different than the 1980's. The "racial barrier" in pro sports was long gone, the civil rights era had passed and a new generation of white America saw black athletes at least a little differently than their parents generation. As a white kid who grew up in the 80's, Jordan was my favorite athlete period! Kirby Puckett would become my favorite baseball player and Emmitt Smith my favorite football player. Almost all of my friends favorite athletes were black. My dad even embarrassed me once in a card shop when looking at the stack of Puckett cards I was buying and said "where are the white guys?!?" Trying to compare the popularity of black athletes today to how they were viewed by white America in the 50's and 60's is apples and oranges. Different times, different generation.

    And as the other poster pointed out, much has to do with the reputation and attitude that Aaron and Mays have. And I don't think anyone is saying "Mantle is more popular than Mays and Aaron because white people are racist". Not at all. Racial elements of the time naturally played into him being the more popular player at the time and his enormous popularity puts him in a category for collectors that no other athlete is in.

    I actively collect Kirby Puckett. I have collections of Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith, Roberto Clemente, Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Errict Rhett and Evan Longoria.

  • miwlvrnmiwlvrn Posts: 4,222 ✭✭✭✭✭

    An example that comes to mind on the subject of race vs. popularity and sales value for star cards from the white America vintage sports era, cards of Bill Russell & Wilt Chamberlain sell for significantly more than cards of Jerry West and George Mikan. There is a smaller gap between say Jim Brown vs. Unitas w/ a slight edge to Brown. Perhaps these examples are not as transitive as I'm thinking they might be, but I have a hard time believing the perceived popularity of Mantle is race-driven, as opposed to other factors mentioned in earlier posts on this thread.

  • olb31olb31 Posts: 2,900 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This thread was never supposed to about race. But the factors that play out could be race, could be the yankee effect, could be world series trophies and HR's and/or all of the above in different doses. I really think, just like the Honus Wagner card, that Mantle was the hottest when people really started to buy alot of cards. The Honus Wagner card has always been the card to own, even though there are more copies than once was thought to be. And this allure in the beginning carried forward until today.

    Work hard and you will succeed!!
  • CakesCakes Posts: 3,450 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @olb31 said:
    I really think, just like the Honus Wagner card, that Mantle was the hottest when people really started to buy alot of cards. The Honus Wagner card has always been the card to own, even though there are more copies than once was thought to be. And this allure in the beginning carried forward until today.

    The above is the reason, it was the it/gotta have it card to have for so long and it's not ever going to change. Similar to the 86 Fleer MJ.

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  • bishopbishop Posts: 2,917 ✭✭✭

    If you are a set collector it does not matter, you need all those guys. And if you try for master sets that sometimes means you need 2 of them

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