Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
Here’s a super cool item from Guernsey’s Mickey Mantle Auction in December 2003: A 1953 New York Yankees team photograph inscribed by Mickey Mantle.
It’s got player autographs in the border beneath the image and two signatures of Mickey Mantle. One over his image, and the other following an inscription he wrote: “One of the all time Great teams in Yankee history. Five straight world championships-Mickey Mantle”
Here’s the cover of the auction catalog.
Mastro offered these four signed 1952 Topps monsters from the Mark Friedland Autographed Card Collection in their August 2006 catalog.
The complete collection was described to have been amassed in just a year and a half, as Mark acquired several prominent private holdings, like the McAllister Collection. Most of the collection’s 10k+ cards were authenticated by PSA/DNA, with the remainder by SGC and James Spence.
The next lot in the auction, 1103, was for 210 different signed 1952 Topps cards!
Mastro auctioned off this huge 1962 Post Cereal Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris store banner in April 2002.
The overall 34″ x 48″ head-to-head format was meant to be hung over a string mid-aisle to afford a 24″ x 34″ view from either side. Mastro described it as a very fragile and exceedingly scarce collectible.
In the spring of 2012, Robert Edward Auctions sold the following banner variant used in Canadian stores.
It’s visually a little different and slightly smaller, 20” x 30” unfolded. It sold for $1778.
Here’s an early to mid-1950s Wonder Bread Cardboard advertising sign that features black and white portraits of Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial.
Mastro offered it in their July 1998 catalog and described the multicolored, blank-backed counter sign as 10-1/2” x 14-3/4” in Ex to Mt condition but with minor restorations. They also implied the Stan Musial fountain pen signature was authentic. The minimum bid was $1k.
The Mantle looks a little like the 1957 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Picture Portfolio “card,” but a touch wider.
The Musial looks a lot like one of Musial’s 1958 Jay Publishing “cards” (All-Stars Set A, All-Stars Set B, St. Louis Cardinals Set A, and St. Louis Cardinals Set B).
How cool is this giant vintage Wonder Bread cardboard sign? It’s dated to the late ‘50s and pictures eight of the era’s biggest stars in “floating” headshot style, including Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Elston Howard, Warren Spahn, Stan Musial, Paul Hornung, Del Shofner, and Sam Huff.
The December 2001 auction lot described the cardboard display as “thick” and 46 x 34 inches.
It seems like the food-issue category is getting more hobby love lately – so here’s a 1962 Jello Baseball Advertising Poster featuring Mickey Mantle.
This example was offered for sale in November 2000. It was described as a 28” x 33” thin-coated stock display poster heralding the availability of baseball cards with JELL-O Gelatin Dessert featuring the most popular figure of his generation, Mickey Mantle.