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Mickey Mantle cards havegone through the roof over the past few years and continue to attain recordprices. Few investments in the hobby have matched cards of The Mick. Case inpoint, here are some recent prices for high-grade Mantle cards:
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 8.5---$1,135,250 (November,2016)
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 8---$660,000 (February,2017)
1951 Bowman Mantle PSA 9---$588,000 (October, 2017)
Which brings us to his 1953Topps Mantle card. The highest-graded examples seldom change hands. A PSA 9hasn’t seen the light of day since it sold at sale for nearly $90,000 in2009. It’s safe to say, however, that a PSA 9 would easily be worth $500,000 ormore today. After all, a PSA 10 example on view at the 2017 National soldprivately for over $1 million.
While all these cards arerare for their grade and time-proven investments, they still don’t match the rarityand sheer beauty of this 1953 Topps Uncut Sheet. A true Topps relic, it’scomprised of 100 cards in 10 strips of 10 cards each that fit perfectlytogether to create a complete sheet.
This spectacular vintagesheet features many Hall of Famers—10 in total—including Mickey Mantle (upperleft corner), Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Eddie Mathews, Red Schoendienst,Monte Irvin, Johnny Mize, Enos Slaughter, Pee Wee Reese and two Bob Fellers.
As you can see in thepicture, the strips are sliced on a diagonal which is probably why theysurvived all these years. You see, the strips were supposed to have beendestroyed by Topps back in 1953. Fortunately, they were discovered behind thewarehouse furnace in the early 1980’s! It’s a fascinating story that was writtenabout in the August 1984 Baseball Cards magazine right after the find. Please seepicture of the cover. The entire magazine in Mint condition will be includedwith the sheet.I am the original owner of this sheet. I bought it in 1989 directly from RobSevchuk, the card dealer in Hicksville, New York who discovered the find andframed the sheets himself. Only 3 are known to exist.
The front of this sheet hasbeen facing a wall in my parents’ house since 1989 and has rarely ever seen thelight of day. I stored it this way intentionally because I didn’t want toexpose the sheet to sunlight or even roomlight in order to preserve theoriginal colors and keep the strips pristine and of PSA quality.
The colors are rich andvibrant, as you can imagine, and the cards are in fantastic condition with afew blemishes here and there. There are tinyscuffs on some strips, the top strip and second strip have a crease on theright card (does not affect the Mantle at all) and the 5th strip has a few tinyholes that do not affect any Hall of Fame player.
The Mantle itself isphenomenal! It has no creases and appears pack-fresh with vibrant colors. Justa few speckles. What is perhaps most amazing about the Mantle (aside fromsurviving 65 years!) is that there is nearly 1/2 inch of sheet above the Mantlecard. You can even see where the gloss on the Mantle card ends and where thewhite of the cardboard sheet above it begins, extending beyond the card’s topborder to the top edge of the sheet.
As previously mentioned, apicture of one of the sheets appears on the cover of the 1984 Baseball CardsMagazine. The cover story continues inside about the 1953 uncut sheets, alongwith great color pictures of the find, and was written by legendary collector& dealer Lew Lipset. Here’s what Lew said about the find:
“Topps had hired a cartingcompany to dispose of their salvage in the Fifties, which task was apparentlycarried out diligently. In 1982, however, the original owner died and left thebusiness to his son. A year later, the son ordered a cleaning of the warehouse(an infrequent occurrence), and in a corner he found a few dozen strips of 1953Topps Baseball cards. Though not a collector, the son recognized that the cardshad value and he brought them to the Collectors Exchange in Hicksville, NYwhere he later sold the cards. Bob Sevchuk, owner of the Exchange and aneighbor of mine, brought me the strips to show me and to see if I thought theywere worthy of aBaseball Cardsarticle.”Mickey Mantle is baseball royalty. Many baseball fans call him their favoriteplayer and consider him to be the Greatest Baseball Player of All-Time. He’sinspired generations. Mantle belted 536 home runs, won two batting titlesincluding the Triple Crown in 1956, and won 3 MVP Awards. He won the WorldSeries with the Yankees an amazing 7 times, and belted 18 World Series homeruns—a record that will probably never be broken. First ballot Hall of Famer,Yankee legend and arguably the greatest investment card in the hobby.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetimeopportunity to add a rare 1953 Topps Uncut Sheet to even the most advancedcollection. Shipping is $100 and your uncutsheet will be well-packed in the frame or sent separately from the frame toensure it arrives safe and sound. If you’re also interested in other rareMantle cards and Rookie cards, please see my other sales. Thank you verymuch.
