This year I opened Cousin Robert’s Christmas card and instead of a photo of me, to my surprise, there was a Mickey Mantle (New York Yankee superstar of the 1950s and 60s), baseball card tucked inside. My cousin has been a collector of antiques for 50 years or so. He is also, shall we say, thrifty. I was shocked at seeing Mickey’s smiling visage on the TOPPS baseball card. The card does not have a year on it but as with all TOPPS cards it has ballplayer’s statistics from the previous year. Okay, in what year did “The Mick” hit .306 with 37 homeruns and 113 runs batted in? 1955. Aha, my investigation indicated that this is a 1956 Mickey Mantle baseball card. My excitement was stirred as I researched 1956 Mickey Mantle baseball cards. A Safari search ensued. An evaluation site informed thatThis is, quite simply, one of Mickey Mantle's most attractive and popular cards. On this card, Mantle is captured grinning ear-to-ear. This card is certainly the key to the 1956 Topps set, which lacks any serious rookie card power. This card measures approximately 2 -5/8" by 3 ¾. There are two variations of this card, one with a white back and one with grey back. While the white backs are tougher to find and sell for a premium, the grey backs are usually seen with superior eye-appeal. Even though this card is not one of Mantle's more difficult issues, it is challenging to find centered………… Wow! Further research indicated values of between 4 and 8 thousand dollars! Why would my Cousin Robert do this? Was he liquidating his collections and felt indebted for the many kindnesses my family had done him as he went through a rough patch in his 20s? He has interest in our family history and had made cursory studies over the years. Last year I compiled a 150 page in depth study and history of the family going back to Cafarellas in Cirigliano, Italy in the 18th century. I gave him a copy for his birthday. He was deeply touched. Was that it? Was it the spirit of Christmas? Or, did he simply not know the value of the card? A moral issue arose. If he didn’t know the value of the card? Should I call him and tell him?
Margaret could tell I was excited. She advised me to wrap the card in a cloth and put it in our safe. Holding the card by the edges with both hands, as if it were a fragile piece of glassware, I followed her instructions. She thought my idea of resting it on a throw pillow to carry it was a bit too much. Off I went to take it down the stairs. “Don’t trip”, said Margaret. She says that each time I sally forth down the stairs. I think it has something to do with me missing the last step a few years ago. I was carrying a case of wine at the time. Only one bottle broke but that was still a lot of red liquid……..and it’s a rug……”don’t trip” is the standing order. It took me 10 minutes or so to get down our stairs, pausing at each step, to the room containing our safe. Each step was measured and accompanied by a deep breath. If I dropped it and edge got dented, how many thousands would it cost me? Finally, the safe was locked and the card was secure. I came up the stairs, bashing my foot enroute. “Are you alright?” Margaret asked upon hearing my howl of pain. She was deeply engrossed in Wordle and is used to these utterances from me so she didn’t bother to look up. I informed her it was not a particularly vital toe so I was fine. No, I wasn’t thinking of how to spend the money. I’m very superstitious so those thoughts were banished from my mind even though they kept trying to sneak in.
Next, I contacted my oldest friend, Lee, for guidance. Lee and I have known each other for decades. We all collected TOPPS baseball cards as kids when we lived in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. Most of us were Yankee fans but there was the occasional NY Giant outlier. Everyone hated the Brooklyn Dodgers. The idea each year was to collect “the complete set” of hundreds of cards. In 1956 there were 342. The cards came in packs of five with the ubiquitous flat piece of bubble gum on top of the cards. The top card under the gum was always covered with dried sugar. The gum was of varying degrees of freshness but usually it would break into pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. We chewed it anyway. Even fresh it was not up to the gold standard of Bazooka Bubble Gum. The packs were a nickel each. They would be eagerly opened in front of the newsstand immediately after purchase. Thinking back now, several times the pack would have four baseball cards and one check list card. The check list was, yes, a list of cards so we could check off “got ems” in the little circle next to the card number. This actually meant that we only really got four cards since the check lists were usually useless. Lee and me, as we were referred to, and other friends would make several trips to the newsstand on the corner of 1st Avenue and 16th street during a typical spring/summer week (we had lost interest by the fall and baseball cards were replaced by Pro football cards). The newsstand is long gone now. We usually collected two sets of cards, one for our records and the other as “doubles” or even triples”. Doubles and triples could be traded for “need ems”. Our friends would examine each other’s stacks one card at a time, “got em, got em, got em, don’t got em”. Negotiations would be opened. We gambled too. We would a flip doubles cards, each participant would flip a card towards the ground and match head or tails as called. Winner got both cards. That was boring. Pitching cards was more interesting. Standing 10 ft or so from a wall, we would pitch the cards (hold the front of the card flat by your fingertips of one hand and flick your wrist towards the wall. Don’t forget to let go of the card). Closest to the wall wins both or multiple cards. A “leaner”, the card ended up leaning against the wall trumped all and automatically won. Pitching cards on concrete resulted in very beat-up cards hence the need for two collections, one keepers, the other disposables. I came close to completing a collection a couple of years, but never managed a complete set. Looking back, I believe TOPPS would only print a small number of certain cards (say, Gil McDougald for example), thus making them rare and difficult to obtain. Yes eventually, I don’t know when, the card collections disappeared as did my comic book collection……the “mother threw them out” syndrome I suppose.
Lee, however, has remained an avid card collector, not only baseball but other sports cards too. He was the man to turn to in my excitement over Mickey Mantle. I attached photos of the front and back of the Mickey card. My jackpot mentality was simmering but under control. Could this be happening to me? Lee got back to me quickly. The card is mint and pristine. “Wow looks great with even borders and sharp corners”, the card maven exclaimed.
I didn’t sleep well that night. The following morning, I decided to call Cousin Robert to thank him but really to find out why he sent the card. He answered right away saying “Did you find a home for Mickey?” I said, “oh yes, he’s safe”. I thanked him and subtly, nonchalantly asked “but isn’t this a valuable card?”…………Dramatic pause………………………He said “oh no, TOPPS came out with a replica set a few years ago. That’s a replica”. I’m a very good actor. There went the car, the extensive renovations on our home, the cruise, the set of Ping golf clubs. Gone, gone, gone! I covered my devastating disappointment remarkably well and we discussed prospects for the coming baseball season although I don’t remember a word he or I said. Margaret came running into our office at the sound of my loud weeping and the banging of my head on the desk. I told her. She told me, “he’s your cousin. He’s always been cheap. Why would he change.” Wiping away my tears, I feebly answered that maybe he was grateful for the family history. It sounded very weak in retrospect.
Interrupting my research into support groups and counseling services for lost fortunes ………..I now had to email Lee with the bad news. But first, a brief digression to another childhood disappointment. One morning, late 1950s, “Lee and Me” were in the Whelan’s Drug Store on 1st Avenue and 18th St. In those days many drug stores had soda fountains and Whelan’s made great chocolate milkshakes – 25 cents. Near the front of the store was a stand alone carousel with 331/2 record albums on display. We gave a cursory glance and couldn’t believe our eyes. Right there was a Top 20 Hits of Today. The cover showed two 1950s teenagers (the guy had a flat top haircut and the girl a big wide skirt -no poodle- and ponytail.) sitting on a rug grinning madly as they examined the album. They were as ecstatic as if they’d discovered a 1956 Mickey Mantle baseball card. It contained all the great songs of the day; Tequila, All I Have to Do is Dream, When, Peggy Sue, Breathless……and more. We couldn’t believe our good fortune and ran home to beg our mothers for the $1.79 to purchase the record. I believe I bargained away a week of baseball cards. Not sure how Lee managed. Back we went money in hand. The albums were still there. How could anyone pass up this deal? The purchases were completed. Armed with our musical treasures, we ran home clutching our precious cargo to our breasts. I took my mother’s soundtrack of Gigi off the record player spindle, put my acquisition on and began listening. The first song sounded a bit off. Was this The Champs playing Tequila? The next song, Breathless, was not even close to being Jerry Lee Lewis. I checked the album notes. Breathless, Otis Blackwell? Otis Blackwell? I checked again. It was not the original artists - it was covers. Devastated, and near tears, I called Lee who was laughing his head off…..”Otis Blackwell!” How could we be so stupid?
I didn’t remember Whelan’s until recently but my email to Lee to inform him of the bad news now reminds me of the “Tequila” phone call so many years ago - although Otis Blackwell was no Mickey Mantle. Lee had been excited about the card. Lee had been busy researching. He had even been thinking of auction companies. He looked it up and there had only been ONE, I repeat ONE 1956 Mickey Mantle TOPPS card ever graded mint and it sold for $93,000 last May! Naturally, he took the news well a lot better than I did. He wanted to know what thoughts went through my head, as I contemplated my fortune, would I sell or not? He was glad I had sought his advice and he was excited for me albeit temporarily. We rang off. In the silence that followed I must confess to bellowing “Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn” as I pounded the desk. This of course brought Margaret into the room. I explained it as intense post traumatic residual Lexus disappointment. She still thought it was hilarious. She finds me very amusing. Things like this occur more often than I would admit.
Later that day I found the following online: MICKEY MANTLE - New York Yankees - 1956 Topps Card #135 - Absolutely perfect reprint of this 2,500 dollar card. $4.95
My 1956 Mickey Mantle TOPPS replica is still in the safe.
