I vividly remember acquiring my first Mantle in 1972, when I was not quite 8 years old, from a fellow second grader who didn't care much about cards but had his older brother's collection. He traded me a bunch of 1966s, including Mantle and Koufax (I knew who they were even at that tender age), as well as some cards from that '66 Batman set.
I finally completed the 598-card 1966 set in 2008. The Mantle is the lowest-grade card in my set because it's the same one I've had since 1972. I never was a huge Mantle fan (I'm a Clemente-Aaron-Mays guy, plus I have a soft spot for Frank Howard) and cards of The Mick are always so expensive that I never upgraded. The same is true of my 1968 and 1969 sets, which I completed way back in the 1980s with Mantles I had acquired in elementary school.
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