Value of '52 Topps Mantle in 1973?
 

Hi,

I'm trying find the price of the card in about ex-mt condition in '73 for an article I am writing. I've very much enjoyed all the 1950s and 1960s price guides and catalogs on Net54.

Unfortunately, my treasured 1973 Card Company Catalog from my youth is lost.

Does anybody have one or its equivalent? Or maybe remembers or can estimate?

Thanks very much.

David (Seideman)

according to this reprint of issue #1 Beckett Monthly (Nov 1984)
HI $1,400
LO $1,200

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=24988
http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=24989

Thanks, Larry
 

Thanks, Larry.

I have prices in the '80s, but not in the early 1970s.

But this will fill out my timeline.

David

This thread has info about the price of 1952 Topps Mantles in 1977-78:

http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=243152

It wasn't listed in my 70s catalogs. I have catalogs from the 60s that had it for 1.00 and the first Beckett from 1979 has it at 500.00.

Thanks, David
 

Thanks, David

I have a really good baseball card history book from 1976 that lists it at $50.

This thread will help fill out my info for the late 1970s. And there's a lot of other great material here on other cards, as well.

Early 70s still my holy grail.:) I may ask Mike Aaronstein who put on the NYC shows I attended back then with my dad.

David

Until the mid-70s, no individual card from the 1950s sold for more than around $50, or even $25. I remember seeing an ad from 1975 or 1976 selling 1951 Bowman Mantle and Mays for $25 each. It wouldn't have been significantly different from that in 1973. I have a more or less complete run of the major hobby publications from the early 70s, and I could look sometime and see if there were ads selling 1952 Topps Mantles.

I was offered an autographed 1952 Topps Mantle for $75 in 1974. Naturally I passed.

Thanks, David
 

Your info is really helpful. Am trying to determine when the cachet began. I believe it was about the time he was inducted into the HOF in '74.

As you know, in the mid-late 60s catalogs which you've posted on Net54, the '52 Mantle was listed as a high-series common.

You wrote: “Maybe he thought that since they were already selling for a premium, it wasn't fair to charge a double premium; or maybe he didn't have 52 Topps high numbers in stock consistently enough to worry about pricing individual cards.”

I'm also wondering if this was partly due to Mantle's faded glory on lousy teams in the late 1960s. There were bigger stars. And other cards like the Wagner, Plank, and Lajoie seemed to have cachet from the start.

As someone said of the "52 Mantle in their response, "the power of marketing."

If it was a high number common how difficult really was the card ? This adds fuel to my beliefs that the whole Dumping in the Hudson River story was total Kabookie Theater. Either way I love this thread ! So cool to know the history of the hobbies pricing.

I have a Larry Fritsch catalog from the early 1970s, and it lists the 1952 Topps set for $350.

...overpriced ;)

Wow. That i don't think I could've forgiven myself for ....

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

In late December of 1972, my dear mom bought me an excellent-mint+ 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle from a very reputable dealer of the time, Larry Fritsch, from Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This grade was considered very high grade of the time, with only "mint" the best of all. The term "near mint" had not been coined among cards in 1972-1973. The reason I said "hang in there with me" is because I still own the original note that Larry typed to me when he offered me the only one he had left for sale. I will try to find the note, scan it at my local library, and email it to you.

Best regards, Brian Powell

UPDATE FROM SUNDAY, JULY 29TH---- David, within 15 minutes of ending the above post, God helped me find the note. I think you will be impressed, for the note is explicit, dated, and signed! If interested, PM me.

Wow Brian great story !! You Mom sounds awesome !

Brian, sounds like a fantastic card. When you were very actively collecting, I couldn't imagine many collections rivaling some of the gems you had in yours.

Thanks, Chris. Thirty years ago, Powell was really on the prowl for the nicer, exotic Mantles. As I have detailed on here before, my beloved '52 Topps Mickey was consigned to a Mr. Mint Alan Rosen auction that appeared in the fall of 1995. At the time I consigned this gem, several months before, I had absolutely no idea our dear Mickey was ill. Had I known, I probably would have held on to it. Be that as it may, I was trying to raise money for a down payment on a house. I want to stress something. This doing was by no means at the nagging of my dear wife; in fact, I vaguely recall she asked me a couple of times, "Are you sure you want to sell it?" She knew it was one of my favorite cards. It was totally my idea. You see, my wife, son, and I were living in a 100-year-old apartment that was the upstairs of an Ace Hardware store. It was hot as blazes in the summer, and cold and drafty in the winter. After a few years of enduring these conditions, I realized I HAD TO DO SOMETHING!

My guess as to the condition of my '52 Topps Mick, according to what I think PSA would grade it, would be a 6.5, EXCELLENT-MINT+. The picture just glowed, for the photo clarity was perfect, with no print spots, scuffs, nor indentations, whatsoever. Centering was 37.5 to 62.5, both ways, which was fine with me, given the perfect picture characteristics. Also, the intensity of the colors was the best, given mine was the variety with the black line circumventing the yellow Yanks' logo rectangle. I loved that card.

But, I loved my dear wife and son more.

As a guy who tended to keep records of things, I kept the precious letter I'd received from Larry Fritsch offering me his last top grade '52 T. Mantle he had for sale. Since it was a beautiful letter, I held on to it. However, I'll share it with Dave, since it would lend major help to his story.

My very best to you and your family, Chris.

--- Brian Powell

Thanks a million, Johnny. She was indeed awesome. At this time, she was also a widow, and had to be frugal. As I ponder her sacrifice of buying this card I wanted so badly, AND RIGHT AFTER CHRISTMAS, I tear up; I just can't help it.:(

Have a swell rest of the weekend and week ahead.

--- Brian Powell

Your welcome ! Great Story and Memories.
Have a great week.

Just ran across this thread and here's my story...In 1973 at 12 years old, I saved all summer to buy a 1952 Topps Mantle for $75.00. I think it was an ad in a magazine called Trader Speaks or Collectors digest or something like that?

My Dad thought I was nuts but I gave him the money and my parents wrote the check and I mailed it in. I would check the mailbox every day...

When my package finally came there was NO MANTLE in there. There was a 1955 Koufax, a 1955 Warren Spahn and a 1956 Roy Campanella...ALSO INCLUDED was a $25.00 CREDIT MEMO!!!:mad::mad::mad:

What almost was, left me with a bad taste in my mouth and it was shortly after that I quit collecting until the mid to late 1980's as a young adult. While everyone was collecting the new crap, I was buying all the sets from 60's and early 70's. They were in a house fire in the mid 90's and surprisingly where they were stored, none of them were damaged if you can believe it? Maybe smelled a little from smoke. LOL

I sold them after a divorce, just to get by in 1994 shortly after the fire. Now that I'm established with my own business and some expendable income, I have started to buy back some of my favorite cards from the 50's and 60's just to blow a few bucks now and then...So there you have it, a sickening story of what might have been.:D:D

75 bucks! OUCH THAT SMARTS reliving that.:)

Sounds like you have a great wife too!

1976
 

I don't have any 1973 info, but I have the 1976 Sport Americana Bicentennial Edition.

It shows the 1952 Topps Hi #'s at $10 each, and while there aren't any individual listings, it says "Individual Superstars in the last series range from $18 to $50. So, $50 for the Mantle in 1976?

It also lists 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth valued at $20 and LaJoie at $400.

T206's show Wagner at $1000, Plank $400, Magie error $100, Demmitt and O'Hara $25. Cobb is not listed or priced.

Rick

The T206 big boys before 1980 pretty much had to be one-off anomalies. Wagners don't sell every day today, they certainly didn't back then either. If you actually had one for sale I can imagine that "book value" was at most a loose reference. You would probably look to sell it for all you could get.