Mickey Mantle

Mickey Mantle and the 1956 Topps White and Gray Backs

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I published an article the other day about the 1939 Play Ball baseball set, emphasizing the three Ted Williams Rookie Cards. I thought I would do something similar in my analysis of the 1956 Topps White and Gray back cards by focusing on the Mickey Mantle cards (the last Mantle card to use artwork instead of photographs).

1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Front
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Reverse

First, some 1956 Topps baseball basics. 1956 marked the beginning of the Topps monopoly as they had just purchased Bowman. So, while 1954 and 1955 Topps didn’t have Mickey Mantle cards since he was signed exclusively with Bowman, he was back in the Topps lineup in 1956 (along with many other players). 

The 1956 Topps set has 340 numbered cards and two unnumbered checklists, marking the first year that checklists (and team cards) appeared in a set. The set came out in four series: series one is cards 1-100, series two is 101-180, series three is 181-260, and series four is cards 261-340. Also, the cards measure 3-3/4’’x 2-5/8″ and were the last oversized cards.

While the fronts of the cards have the same design format, what’s most interesting to me about the 1956 Topps baseball set are the printing variations due to the card stock Topps used; cards 1-180 have either white or gray backs, while the last 160 cards all have gray backs. More specifically, cards 1-100 have more white backs, while the second series, 101-180, has more gray-back examples. 

1956 Topps #33 Roberto Clemente – Gray Back
1956 Topps #33 Roberto Clemente – White Back

Some collectors don’t think the back color impacts prices much, but the white-backed series two cards definitely carry a premium, and some 1956 collectors have argued the series one gray backs have a 10% premium over white backs. Unfortunately, PSA only started differentiating the back around October 2008, so the pop report on the gray vs. white backs isn’t super accurate in guiding our analysis.

1956 Topps #130 Willie Mays – Gray Back
1956 Topps #130 Willie Mays – White Back

I read a write-up from a collector with three fully graded 1956 Topps sets. He said that for cards 1-100, the white backs are much more common (4 or 5:1) but have a negligible premium since there are still so many gray backs (Topps always seemed to print more first series cards across all their sets as baseball cards were hot when they first hit the market in the spring). However, for cards 101-180, he said the gray backs are significantly more common (12 to 15:1), so the white backs carry a hefty premium, especially at higher grades (PSA 7+) since the white-backed cards seem to be more brittle, too. Another collector added that the white backs have at least a 50% premium and that putting together an all-white back run in decent condition would be almost impossible today.

You may already have gathered that Mikey Mantle’s card (#135) happens to fall in the second series. While I mentioned that PSA’s population report won’t ever be completely accurate, with the high prices that Mantle cards command, it behooves a collector with a white back card to get the card re-slabbed with the correct designation.

The following table shows that PSA has graded over 9,500 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle cards (as of October 16th, 2024), with about a 9.5:1 ratio of gray vs. white-backed cards. Also, the average gray-back grade looks to be between four and five, while the average white-back grade appears to be closer to three.

PSA’s 1956 Topps Mickey Population Table

It’s tough to compare high-grade prices since so few exist and so few move publicly around the market. However, the white backs sell for more than the gray backs when you find examples from similar periods; here’s a summary of PSA 5-10 sales.

1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back Sales

  • PSA 10: $360k in May 2017
  • PSA 9: $148.7k in Jan 2022, $137k in Oct 2021, $150k in Oct 2021, and $175k in August 2021
  • PSA 8: $19k in Oct 2024, $19.6k in Aug 2024, and $15.9k in Feb 2024
  • PSA 7: $5.8k in Aug 2024, $5.7k in July 2024, and $5.8k in May 2024
  • PSA 6: $4.2k in Oct 2024, $3.5k in Sept 2024, and $4.2k in Sept 2024
  • PSA 5: $2.5k in Oct 2024, $2.8k in Sept 2024, and $3.2k in Aug 2024
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Front
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Reverse

1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle White Back Sales

  • PSA 10: No sales
  • PSA 9: None Exist
  • PSA 8: $20.2k in Sept 2017
  • PSA 7: $19.8k in Apr 2022 and $3.4k in Aug 2018
  • PSA 6: $5k in Aug 2024, $5.2k in Mar 2022, $3.5k in Oct 2020
  • PSA 5: $2.8k in Aug 2024, $3.3k in Aug 2024, and $2.5k in May 2024
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle White Back – Front
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle White Back – Reverse

If you’re a 1956 Topps baseball collector looking to complete a master set, I wish you the best of luck, particularly in getting those second-series white-backed cards; happy collecting!

1953 Stahl-Meyer Meats Complete Printer’s Proof Set

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Just before the 2024 National, there was a lot of noise across the hobby about a PSA 9 graded 1953 Stahl-Meyer Franks Mickey Mantle hitting the market; imagine if this printer’s proof set came up for sale now, too!

First, Sports Collectors Daily has a nice overview if you want to read more about the PSA 9 Mantle, which has an asking price north of $2.5M. Also, here’s a link to the site the card’s owner made to help market it.

Mastro offered the printer’s proof set in their April 2006 Sports Auction catalog.

Here’s the lot’s description:

Here’s one of the rarest of all early 1950’s regional card productions, featuring a selection of the period’s biggest stars from the three New York teams. Stahl-Meyer collectibles were issued only with that single brand of hot dogs (just one card per package) and only in the New York area. When finished Stahl-Meyer cards were created, they were specially cut with rounded corners, and they were covered with a thick wax coating to protect the cards from being ruined by the hot dogs with which the pieces were packed. The bright and clean full set of nine Stahl-Meyer cards here offered was dearly spared any time spent in proximity to meat products. These items have been carefully hand-cut from a proof sheet and were never publicly distributed; with a single exception, they exhibit square corners and carry no protective wax coating. This unique set emanates from a special “find” of nearly 25 years ago, when a small but significant hoard of survivors from Milprint the Wisconsin printer who produced many of the most popular regional issues of the 1950’s yielded groups of treasures from the Stah-Meyer, Dan Dee, Hunter’s, Johnston Cookies and Briggs releases. Described without reference to the hand-cut nature of the items, these proof cards and their respective presentation quality include: Bauer (GD/VG), Campanella (VG), Hodges (GD/VG), Irvin (VG/EX), Mantle (EX/MT), Rizzuto (GD/VG), Snider (VG) and Thomson (VG). The ninth card Lockman, the only waxed, final-process card held in quantity by the printer grades VG/EX. A verifiably peerless complete printer’s proof set, this offering represents an especially glamorous potential addition to one of the industry’s most important collections.

Happy collecting!

Early 1950’s P-F Canvas Shoes Advertising Sign Featuring Musial, Doerr, Campy, Lemon, and Rizzuto

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Here’s an awesome advertisement, scanned from a June 2005 auction catalog for B.F. Goodrich P-F Canvas Shoes featuing a slew of MLB legends.

A few years later, in 2013, Lelands sold a framed copy of the awesome stadium-designed cardboard ad, mentioning that it measures 19” x 25”. They also highlighted the inclusion of Sam Jethroe as an early African American promotion—that copy sold for $640.

If you look around, you’ll find several variations dating later into the ’50s that include legends like Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays. However, if you want them in your collections, they’ll cost you many thousands of dollars. Luckily, they all feature floating heads!

1964 Topps Salesman’s Sample Featuring Mickey Mantle

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This 1964 Topps Salesman’s Sample Ad Card featuring Mickey Mantle was auctioned off in August 2006.

It’s encapsulated as “authentic” by PSA and was used to drum up interest and give a sneak preview to dealers and collectors for the 1964 Topps Baseball series. The triptych (a picture or carving in three panels side by side) measures 7-9/16” x 3-1/2” with Mickey Mantle, Jim Davenport, and Boog Powell on the front. While the auction didn’t include a photo of the back, they described it as having information about the prospective series’ special features and insert products and also had a Mantle card back as a design example.

Heritage resold the same item in December 2020 for $7,200; they wrote, “One of the fuels that drove the Topps machine was the salesman sample. They featured three cards but had Topps sales propaganda or a sticker selling the set on the reverse. For their 1964 effort, they wisely picked baseball’s best in HoFer Mickey Mantle to promote the upcoming 587-card series. Mantle is joined by fellow major leaguers Jim Davenport and Boog Powell but it is Mantle’s card used for the reverse example.”

If you own any salesman samples, I’d love to chat with you about them for my research.

The Topps Mickey Mantle Cards We Didn’t Get

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In 1954 and 1955, when kids were ripping packs of Topps baseball cards, many were undoubtedly disappointed when they learned that they wouldn’t be pulling a Mickey Mantle card. And the reason why is simple, Topps never printed them. This article will explain why and show a few of my favorite custom 1954 Topps and 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle cards and the versions Topps has shared.

Topps didn’t print a Mantle card as part of its 1954 or 1955 baseball sets because it legally couldn’t. Bowman and Topps had such a fierce rivalry in the early post-war era that they each tried to sign exclusive agreements with the most popular players to differentiate their products. In 1954 and 1955, Bowman managed to sign Mantle. In 1956, Topps purchased Bowman, so Topps sets were more “complete” from that point forward.

However, even though Topps didn’t print a Mantle card in 1954, it didn’t stop them from publishing an example of what one would have looked like on paper stock. They partnered with Sports Illustrated Magazine in 1954 and printed a black & white Mantle “card.” 

Sports Illustrated Black and White 1954 Topps Mickey Mantle

Sports Illustrated wanted to boost magazine sales and included 27 paper-thin cards in its first two editions. The first edition included stars like Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Duke Snider, and Eddie Mathews. The second edition was exclusively Yankees, and the 27 printed cards included a 1954 Topps-style Mickey Mantle card.

Sports Illustrated Magazine – First and Second Weekly Issues
Sports Illustrated 1954 Topps Baseball Cards – Fronts – Angle 1
Sports Illustrated 1954 Topps Baseball Cards – Fronts – Angle 2
Sports Illustrated 1954 Topps Baseball Cards – Backs

Topps also, many years later, gave us an example of a 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle card. Topps was printing their own magazine during the peak of the junk-wax era, and in their third edition, released in the summer of 1990, they had a special on “Mantle Mania,” and the center-fold included a 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle style card.

Topps Magazine – Collectors’ Edition #3
Topps Magazine Centerfold – 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle

Many other collectors and hobbyists have produced custom 1954 and 1955 Topps cards, but my favorites come from hobby pioneer Bob Lemke, who unfortunately passed away in 2017. On his blog, you can read about his custom efforts: “Ho-Hum … another 1954 Topps-style Mantle. But mine has a story” and “My ’55 Mantle completes Topps-style customs.” I think it’s fantastic that he re-used the portrait that he put on the 1954 custom on his 1955 Mantle, too, just as Topps often did back then.

Bob Lemke’s 1954 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Front
Bob Lemke’s 1954 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Reverse
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Front
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Reverse
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Red Variation
Bob Lemke’s 1955 Topps Mickey Mantle Custom Card – Green Variation

I’m sure that many Mantle collectors are bummed that Bowman had the exclusive contract to print his cards in 1954 and 1955. But their pocketbooks must be thankful; can you imagine how pricey those Topps cards would be now? Leave your price estimates down in the comments, and happy collecting!

Mickey Mantle’s Holiday Inn Matchbooks

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Folks might not know that Mickey Mantle owned a Holiday Inn hotel in Joplin, Missouri, with his friend Harold Youngman; Lodging Magazine wrote an excellent overview. The hotel opened on January 1, 1957, with a gift shop; today, souvenir items are really popular amongst Mantle collectors, including the matchbooks.

I only have the example pictured above, but essentially, there are five variations: the Diamond Match Division (PSA-graded pop of 121), The Diamond Match Division-Gold on White (PSA-graded pop of 10), Universal Match Corp (PSA-graded pop of 66), Universal Match Corp-Gold on Dark Brown (PSA-graded pop of 2), and Universal Match Corp-Yellow Background (PSA-graded pop of 16).