This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/12/2021
Father time catches up to everyone eventually, and although Mickey Mantle enjoyed an 18-year major league career, his willingness to use his celebrity to "live life to the fullest" during his prime years may have shaved a few seasons off of his career or at least blunted his performance in those twilight campaigns. The 1966 Topps set was rolling off the printing press in the spring of that year and, just had it been since Topps introduced "The Commerce Comet" in 1952, the 1966 collection was once again led by the coveted example of Mickey Mantle. The 1966 set is arguably the toughest 1960s Topps set to find with consistently accurate centering, and yet the presented specimen is virtually spot-on within a bone-white border, near-perfectly framing an iconic image of the immortal pinstriped legend. Each of the corners meet MINT specifications if not better, and an important characteristic of this particular specimen is the sharpness of its background, contrasting the bright upper deck with the cavernous dark shadows of the lower deck at old Yankee Stadium. The reverse is every bit as impressive as well, an unusually gleaming white canvas with deep, clean pigments of black and salmon laid upon it, clearly and concisely laying out the iconic resume of The Mick over his then 15 years of major league service and touting his mind-boggling 18 career World Series homers in a cartoon to the right of his nameplate. Currently, only one finer example exists out of over 10,000 PSA submissions and the difference can only be negligible compared to the sheer awesomeness offered here.