The "Willie Mays Would Have Sold For More" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story in the newspaper that brought back memories from the very early 1950s.  One of my best friends, Bill, lived about a half-block from me near the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Lancaster.  Resided in a second floor rental with his mom, twin sister and a younger sister.  We played together all the time.  Only one thing I didn't like about him...he was a Mickey Mantle fan and I was a Willie Mays fan.  We even got a chance to see Willie when he played at Stumpf Field which is about two blocks from our homes.  Today on page 3 of the newspaper was a story with the headline: "Unusual baseball cards sell for $24K".  It was about two months ago that a fellow known as Chuck, who lives in Lancaster county, heard about a 1950s family photo album from a friend of his who deals in antiques.  The antique dealer had picked up the album at an estate sale near Philadelphia.  

Mantle card graded by Beckett Co.

Inside the album was one of the most amazing finds in recent baseball card history: a Mickey Mantle card and a Yogi Berra card from the 1950s that no one in the card industry had ever seen or catalogued.  Chuck bought it on the spot.  He knew it was a risk since he had no idea of the value of the cards and if they may have been reproduction cards.  He eventually took them to the Wheatland Auction Service which is located in Lancaster, PA.  They knew the cards were valuable after two days, since by then the Mantle card had 36 bids that had propelled the price to $5,000.  This was on an item that was up for bid for a month.  Chuck had an inkling that the cards were authentic since after he got them he took them to VSM Sports Card Outlet in Lancaster where the owner said he never expected to ever see a new-to-the-market discovery like this, especially something from the 1950s.  

Rear of the Mantle card.

Mickey Mantle is the baseball card industry's gold standard.  His 1952 Topps card has supplanted the Honus Wagner card as the face of the hobby.  The two cards that Chuck had were Mascot Dog Food cards from a company in Philadelphia.  It was thought that the only card in existence that was produced by Mascot was a Robin Roberts card.  After some research it was determined that Roberts, Berra and five other superstars appeared with certain cans of dog food as early as 1950.  Berra's card shows the same image as his 1950 Bowman card and the Mantle dog food image is the same as his 1951 Wheaties cereal box image.  So, what ever happened to all the other cards produced for the dog food cans?  Perhaps they didn't make too many.  Maybe the dog food company went out of business before they sold the cans with the cards.  No one seems to know.  

Berra card graded by Beckett Co.

Back in the mid-50s baseball cards were used to sell potato chips, root beer and even chewing tobacco.  The players received next to nothing for the use of their photo.  Topps, the baseball bubblegum company, gave players the equivalent of S&H Green Stamps for the use of their image.  Then the Major League Player's Asso. took on Topps and won.  Today it's big business for both the producers of the cards as well as the players whose image is on the cards.  But, the question still was how much these two cards would bring at auction.  The cards were sent to the Dallas-based Beckett Co. for grading and Andy Broome, senior vintage card grader, declared that "discovering a previously unknown card of a super star like Mickey Mantle is one of the hobby's Holy Grails."  Chuck said that he believes he will have to start a college fund for his three girls as well as build a new deck and patio with the money he gets for the two cards.  Well, as far as I could determine by visiting the auction service site, the two cards brought a final price of $23,600.00 after 51 bids.  Not bad, but I bet if it had been a Willie Mays card it would have brought double that!  So there, Bill!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Label for Mascot Dog Food.  Not sure how the baseball card would have been included.  Also never read if the dog food was in bags or cans and if it was dry food or wet food.

This is the Mickey Mantle card placed in a box of Wheaties.  See how it matches the dog food card.

This is the Yogi Berra baseball card that was made by Topps Company.