[jchcollins]

Trying to get some perspective on a dilemma I'm currently having; would appreciate some thoughts:

Earlier this year, after many long years of putting it off - I was finally able to upgrade my favorite card of all time, which is the '56 Topps Mantle #135. My original and new one are both gray backs. The "original" is an SGC A that I've had since I was about 13 years old, so for right at about 30 years now. As a kid I traded for it in a shop, and left the dealer with about everything I had. No regrets and I have loved the card ever since. The card is an A because it has some corner paper loss in the form of an erasure that doesn't look right to graders. No problems with that. But otherwise it presents like a nice 3+ or so, no creases, nice centering and decent color.

The card I upgraded to finally was an SGC 4 in an older label. Similar on the whole, except the color and clarity on this card is much sharper, and the centering is dead nuts perfect. I mean I rarely say that about a card, but on this one it's true.

Drumroll please - of course the question is, do I sell my original SGC A '56? I've never been one to hoard copies of the same card or take pride in dupes. At first I thought I never would sell it just in this one case, but now in the last few days I've been thinking about it to make room for other things, and of course now I can't make up my mind. The new card of course is great, and is a no-brainer in terms of better appearance.

Has anyone been faced with a dilemma like this? Does the actual COPY of the card matter? The first card was just the cornerstone of my collection for so long, it's hard for me for whatever reason to let it go. I am worried I may have some huge regret once it's gone, LOL. But I've also had other "key" cards from my childhood that are gone now, many replaced in the same fashion with what are now better conditioned copies. Thoughts? Ugh.