REA Auction - 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle - Story

[JUrsaner]

I posted this the other day on Instagram, but would like to share it here as well. The 1952 Berk Ross card of Mickey Mantle (lot #962) is one of two items that I consigned to REA for their 2020 Summer auction. It's a beautiful card, graded an SGC 7 and recently re-cased into a shiny, new holder. Had originally decided to sell it for a variety of reasons and rarely tend to look back on those decisions when it comes to collecting -- although I can certainly envision scenarios for this being one of the few exceptions, where I may ultimately regret that decision later on, both financially and as a collector. After all, it is a rare, rookie-era Mickey Mantle that is the key card for a highly underappreciated regional (?) issue from the Golden Era of vintage baseball in the early 1950s -- it just doesn't get a whole lot better than that!

If you read the description for the card on REA's website though, you may end up noticing one thing in particular that stands out, which is that it mentions 5% of the gross proceeds from the card will be donated to ALS research. The reason for this is because after some of the issues in the hobby started to surface, I went back to try to explore the "provenance" of the card. Even a little known set like Berk Ross didn't seem exempt from the reach of the PWCC / PSA / Gary Moser scandal/investigation, as some questionable ultra high-grade PSA cards have surfaced on Blowout Forums through the incredible detective work of some collectors. I decided that I needed to find out exactly when, where and from whom I'd bought the card. What I uncovered though was not at all what I'd expected. I purchased the card, along with two other high-end items, from a seller named "Cap's Collectibles" on Mar-13th, 2014. Googled the email address associated with the PayPal account and found a name: Angelo Gustavo Caparelli. Looked it up and was immediately staring back at a link to an obituary note. He died. Age 46. ALS.

Then I noticed the date. March 21st, 2014. He'd died just a week later after selling the cards. Most likely preparing his final arrangements. Cards are just little pieces of cardboard. We all tend to go nuts over a print run that's the slightest bit off-center or a corner with the smallest trace of fuzziness, but there are more important things in life. On the other hand though, our collections are part of our individual story. So if you're thinking about bidding on that card -- now you know a little more about its story. It wasn't just a piece of cardboard. There are people and faces behind all these collections... and that is part of the true beauty of the hobby. Collect what you love.