This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/6/2021
While the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card reigns supreme as the quintessential sports card of the post-war era, the 1951 Bowman card of "The Commerce Comet" isn't far behind; how could it be as it stands as the true rookie issue of the most collectible player since Babe Ruth? The featured card is a spectacular 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card that just returned to our office from PSA grading, and we felt so confident that the final evaluation would be at or close to PSA 8 that were planning our promotional advertising around it. When notified of the result, we were open to the idea that we might have missed something that the graders noticed and waited patiently for its return to get another look at the card in the holder. Having looked it over again, our opinion has not changed at all. Needless to say, we're very disappointed by the assessment and while we always try to give the benefit of the doubt as to why the card comes up significantly short of our expectations, we believe that had it been graded several years ago, it would have been close to that NM/MT determination if not right on the mark, or even better! At first look, you can't help but notice the almost perfect centering, a degree or two toward the top edge but well within the limits for a NM/MT or even MINT grade. The two left horizontal endpoints are NM/MT+ with the right side corners showing as NM/MT. The image of Mantle is boldly printed without any cause for a reduction in grade and the reverse is immaculate, perfectly well-framed with bold red and blue print on a clean slate-gray canvas. In our opinion, this is an injustice, and the winning bidder is going to be amazingly, pleasantly surprised at the quality of this card given the grade!