With all the doom and gloom threads and recent grading shenanigans, I figured some of you might want to enjoy a thread about good old fashioned "enjoyment" of the hobby.
I have posted the majority of this over on Blowout, but the postwar section here has been a bit dry lately, so I figured I would add this in. (Plus there are a few more fierce Mantle collectors here that may enjoy this as well)
Quick backstory - Like many, I began collecting when I was younger. My father and I were into it at a good time, back in the late 70's to mid 80s.
You could still find "great finds" at yard sales, flea markets, etc. etc.
In fact my father was a partner in a card shop, back in the early 80s, which was the first anywhere around. (around Richmond Virginia)
We built a pretty good collection back then, and ultimately in my late teens I lost interest, and when my parents divorced back then we sold everything.
Err,
BIG MISTAKE. 
Anyway, fast forward to a couple years ago, and I started dabbling in football again, and before long I was looking to replace some vintage cards we had years ago. The bug had bitten me once again~!
I read a couple books on Mickey Mantle not too long back, and I started picking up a few cards here and there of his.
I told myself I was going to make a framed display piece, of vintage baseball cards and other oddities, and I had chosen to target Aaron, Mays and Mantle....and after researching more on Mickey Mantle, I decided to make my display strictly on "The Mick".
I didn't want to use reprints, as anyone could do that. So I decided to pursue "lower end" cards of his, but fairly good eye appeal,
real vintage cards, not reprints.
Anyone here that has dabbled in Mantle, knows finding any strong eye appeal examples, isn't easy as his market, and collectors are pretty competitive.
Any high eye-appeal Mantle cards are snapped up off Ebay (and the other places)
in ALL GRADES fairly quickly so I knew it would be a slow but interesting undertaking.
Also, since these were ultimately going into a display , (and not to be tucked away and locked up somewhere) I wanted to keep the eye-appeal good, but the cost down.
This would be a good way for me to enjoy some of his cards, without the more valuable items just lying around.... those are indeed locked away somewhere.
So a few months ago, I started picking up a few items and slowly piecing together my "project".
I am not quite done yet, but I am closing in as I have nabbed a large majority of it.
I know not everyone will agree with the "choices" of cards I am using, but for various reasons, I like these particular cards. Plus, many of these are cards that can be had "relatively cheaply" in the very low grades.
I will also include the prices on certain items, to give you an idea of what I was trying to spend, keeping the cost down (and ultimately what I wanted to accomplish) when making this.
I will recap the progress I have made over the last few months in the upcoming posts.
Hopefully some of you will get a kick out of this or find it interesting.
