This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/15/2023
While the New York Yankees were founded in 1903 as the New York Highlanders, the franchise experienced virtually no measurable success for decades. But with the acquisition of Babe Ruth in 1920 and his pairing with Lou Gehrig three years later, the Yankees embarked on an incredible run of championships that vaulted them to the status of sports royalty. By the time Ruth was finished rewriting the record books and Gehrig had been forced into retirement, a new superstar named Giuseppe Paolo (Joe) DiMaggio had emerged to carry the Yankees into a new generation of greatness. Age eventually caught up to DiMaggio, but as fate would have it, the next Yankees icon stepped forward to lead the dynasty into the next generation and beyond. His name was Mickey Mantle. Considered one of the most important baseball cards ever produced and the preeminent rookie card of the post-war era, presented is a museum-quality 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card, graded PSA 8. The lead card in the high-number series, Mantle's '51 Bowman pasteboard is difficult to find in top condition, not specifically for any print issues (other than centering) but simply because his popularity lent itself to starry-eyed collectors wanting to show off their latest wax pack conquest, which required excessive handling of the card. The offered card can easily stand as a centerpiece to any collection and is one of the finest examples we've encountered in a very long time. The centering is superb, just a slight touch toward the top horizontal edge but well within the limits of the PSA 8 classification and likely qualifying for the next highest grade. Perhaps the most glaring quality that confirms the exclusivity of this beauty is the incredible color and sharpness of the central image, much more focused than the large majority of examples, at any grade level. The four corners consistently project at or even slightly above the stringent standards required for the grade, which seem to become more stringent when an iconic piece like this passes through the halls of the California grading company. The reverse only serves to confirm PSA's conclusion, offering strong red and blue print on a spotless gray cardboard canvas. This is one of the few issues in existence that, in this grade, immediately catapults any collection to the status of "world-class", but a specimen rightly carrying a PSA 8 assessment is simply awesome!