This card isn't exactly up to the same quality as the others in my small Mantle collection...but I thought I would share it anyway. This card has a little story tied to it. This is the fourth and last original Mantle in my collection at this time.
When I was a kid, Mickey Mantle got reintroduced to young collectors. At the time, he was dying and was a constant fixture in the media. Following his death in 1995, Topps issued a Mantle Commemorative set which featured 19 cards...his "main" issue from each year that he had a card (starting with his 1951 Bowman rookie and ending with his 1969 Topps). The set came out in 1996 and was hugely popular. I collected a complete 1996 Topps Finest Mantle set (being the mid-grade between the standard Topps and the Finest Refractors)...I was 11 when this set came out. Because of the popularity of this tribute reprint set, in 1997 Topps did it again...this time releasing a reprint Mantle set that included his other Topps issues (the non-main issues such as the 1958 Mantle/Aaron WS card, and the 1960 Mantle/Boyer rival all-stars issue and such). I didn't collect that set quite as passionately...but these two sets seeded my interest in this legendary player. Combine that with the fact that right around that same time the internet was just starting to blossom...and I was at a very impressionable age. An interest in collecting Mantle was strongly instilled in me.
At the time, I had no real income and my childhood allowance did not allow me to collect "original" Mickey Mantle cards. So, I had to settle for the reprints and dreaming of one day owning an original or two.
A few years later, I was in high school and had started to reduce my collecting. However, I still collected a few pieces that interested me and had discovered eBay as a great source for some of these cards.
With original Mickey Mantle cards still out of my price range...I would occasionally do some digital "window shopping" but that was the closest I came to original Mantles. Then, one day...I stumbled onto one that was actually in my price range.
Now, the card was a complete rag...but it was priced in the $15-$20 range. It was an original Mantle that I could afford. So, I bid and I won! It's not one of the main issues...but one of the multi-player issues that don't have the same desirability. I'll admit, it's rough and not up to the quality that I look for today...and I will one day pick up a nicer example. But, it was my very first original Mickey Mantle and that makes it special to me.
1960 Topps #160 Mickey Mantle-Ken Boyer Rival All-Stars
