The December 2020 Pickups Thread...

The last month of the year 2020; a wild one for sure. One for the ages, actually. We will ALL be talking about this 365 day period for some time, methinks. The rest of our lives, probably. It wasn’t all bad. In fact, for the few, the proud, the collectors? It was a pretty good year to be in cardboard. The Last Dance had an incredible impact for us locked down nostalgists.

My good advice - which is always the same regardless of what you are doing - is finish strong. Win, lose or draw, you can always play hard and always finish strong.

Since this may be the last card of 2020 for me, I wanted to take my own advice and flip the bird to everything bad with something good. I wasn’t looking for it, per se, but I found it and - for those that know me - it is perfect for my collection of cards. I like vintage cards that outkick their coverage and have eye appeal in defiance of grade. I do not know what grade holder this beautiful raw card will earn when it makes it’s way to Newport Beach. But what I do know is that for this particular card and this particular set, the card has seemed to avoid most factory related issues common to the set. And I think many would agree that in its historical context, this particular set is up there as far as Topps sets with production issues like tilt, centering and image quality. A notoriously bad year of card production, was 1969, and a massively sad year for kids in the Bronx as that spring, a hero hung up his spikes once and for all. Despite having had multiple years of multiple cards from inception to retirement, 1952 and 1969 each have a single solo Mickey Mantle card, albeit each card has a variation. In 1969, a printing flaw that may or may not have been intentional produced the last great card of Mickey Mantle. Here is my newly acquired exemplar of that final card.

1969 Topps #500 Mickey Mantle - White Letters

Let’s make sure we take this arduous year and finish strong.

Now, let’s see all YOUR strong finishes!!!

Happy Holidays, CU!!!!!!!