Why no Red Man Mantle's?

[darkhorse9]

I'm sure there's a simple explanation, but I've wondered why Mickey Mantle never appeared in a Red Man set. He was certainly an All-Star through all the years of the release or so but he isn't present.

Why?

[the 'stache]

Mantle had an exclusive contract with Bowman for the 1954 and 1955 seasons. As far as the '52 and '53 seasons go, I don't know. Maybe one of our other forum members can shed some light on this.

[moeson]

That Bowman contact apparently had no impact on Dan Dee and Red Heart in 1954.

[ALR-bishop]

Not sure about Bowman, but the Topps contracts were never totally exclusive....for antitrust reasons. The Topps contracts were only exclusive as to the marketing of the player's likeness with gum or confections ( candy). Hence the Fleer cookie in 63 and the Leaf marble in 61. I think Bowman was likely also gum and candy. In the early days cards were the promotion to sell something else, like tobacco, and then gum/candy

[Bob Lemke]

This is my take on such a card . . .

52RM Mantle front.jpg

[pawpawdiv9]

Hey Bob, i got some old paper stock from the 50's, that a really cool pic.
btw, just saw your avatar, is that Pt yours?

[ALR-bishop]

Very nice Bob

[toppcat]

Bowman and Topps were exclusive for confectionery items only, I suspect the Mick had a another deal somewhere with a tobacco exclusive, maybe Phillies cigars?

[the 'stache]

I'm just going by what I read in Old Cardboard(issue #30, Fall 2013, p34) regarding the Sports Illustrated baseball cards.

The Mantle card from the black-and-white fantasy subset is a classic. Because rival Bowman Gum Company owned exclusive rights to picture Mantle on its gum cards, Topps was unable to do so. Because the magazine was not so restricted, the Mantle "fantasy" card was as close as Topps would come to issuing a Mantle card that year.

I don't know the details of the contract. It's possible it was signed after some of these other products had been released. It's also possible that the exclusivity pertained to candy/gum only, as Al alluded to. Dan Dee (potato chips) and Red Heart (dog food), of course, would not fall within this restriction.

[Bob Lemke]

Hello Chris,

Yes the PT Cruiser is my daily driver. I've had it since 2002. The flame decals are now gone; they faded badly. Nearing 100,000 miles.

[pawpawdiv9]

Originally Posted by Bob Lemke

Hello Chris,

Yes the PT Cruiser is my daily driver. I've had it since 2002. The flame decals are now gone; they faded badly. Nearing 100,000 miles.

Nice, mine is a '03 steel blue..has about 65k miles. I customized mine too!
Chrome any and everything. Added a custom Calif. visor. engine wise i did tons more, cold air-intake, power strut bar, relocated the battery box.
Over the past monty, my baby got some tree damage and the collision place did a bad paint job, color was like it was painted new, but didnt match the rest of the car, because they say it been faded over 10 yrs, I say what, Match it!
or paint the whole car. Screw these insurance people.

Sorry guys, if this got off-topic, other than my dog and my baseball cards, I love my car.

[Volod]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Bowman and Topps were exclusive for confectionery items only, I suspect the Mick had a another deal somewhere with a tobacco exclusive, maybe Phillies cigars?

Dave, I have wonder about contractual exclusivity with respect to tobacco products. Afterall, Musial and Williams both endorsed products like Lucky Strike and Chesterfield, while appearing in the Red Man chew sets. And, while Philly Cigars had endorsement deals with the Yankees, I tend to think Mantle, as boyish as he was in those days, would not have made a good cigar model. On the other hand, his licensing agent was pretty shrewd, what with the Bowman exclusive, so maybe he just wanted a bigger cut for his image than Red Man was willing to give him.