Ranking Mantle's Hardest Cards To Find Centered

[MattyC]

Over the years I have noticed many big HOFer cards that are routinely plagued from tough centering issues. From the 52 Topps Mantle to the 64 Rose to the 76 Brett.

But Mantle in particular has several early issues that are so very, very tough to find with centering and thus standout eye appeal. What's more, the large number of these Mantles that sell makes for a pretty huge sample space to scour. I'm talking about looking through VCP and completed eBay sales and Registry sets, sifting through examples in ALL grades just to find cards with perfect centering-- or just near perfect.

These issues below are the beasts. I mean, ask yourself, or just look on ebay or VCP-- when do we see these cards available with great centering?

1951 Bowman
1952 Topps
1952 Bowman
1953 Bowman Color
1954 Bowman
1957 Topps
1958 World Series Batting Foes with Aaron.

It's amazing that Mantle is easily the most popular player, the standard bearer of the hobby and market-- and he has perhaps more cards routinely found with TERRIBLE centering than any other Post War HOFer.

It seems when one looks at the high grade Mantles from these years, that sharp corners can be found much, much more easily than great centering.