One of a kind Mickey Mantle card available for the 1st time in almost 40 years!
The card
While less seasoned hobbyists may appreciate the incredible mint condition this card is in, it is the most advanced that will truly appreciate what a complete anomaly and improbability this unique card is.
The undisputed King of post war food issues! Rarer than a PSA 10 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. THE Holy grail of holy grails of baseball card collecting. The Maltese Falcon of baseball cards. A unicorn. The card that WOW’s even the most sophisticated baseball card collector! A card but for its existence shouldn’t exist!
This baseball card is to regional food issues what a Gem Mint 1952 Topps Mantle is to bubble gum cards, and what the PSA 8 Near Mint-Mint T-206 Honus Wagner is to tobacco cards, but far rarer than the gem mint 1952 Mantle and unique for its grade like the PSA 8 T206 Wagner!
What some hobby experts had to say:
Rob Lifson, former principal of Robert Edward Auctions:
“It’s really one of the all-time great baseball cards from any era. Stahl Meyers just don’t come in Mint condition. It’s practically unheard of. And this example just happens to be Mickey Mantle. It really is a miracle card! It is also a very majestic card.”
“The Stahl Meyer Mantle, especially in this incredible grade (Mint) is certainly one of the most valuable cards of the era, and one of the most valuable of all Mickey Mantle cards. It’s really one of the all-time great baseball cards from any era … It is a ‘miracle card’ – really one of the best, most desirable, and most unlikely to survive in this condition. If someone wanted a Stahl Meyer Mantle in Mint condition, I’d have to just tell them ‘good luck’ and might suggest they try to find something that has similarities as an all-time classic Mantle card but would be a little easier to find – like a 1952 Topps #311 Mantle in Mint condition. Granted, that card might cost a fortune but at least there are a few examples known in Mint condition. “It really is a miracle card! … It’s hard not to be impressed by any Stahl Meyer of Mantle, especially in top shape. That is all the more so the case when one has an appreciation for how rarely these are seen in high grade, and how unlikely it is for any Stahl Meyer to have survived in Mint condition. The large size and production quality of Stahl Meyers also plays a role. They are just beautiful cards, and while I know it is very subjective, the portrait of Mantle on this card, which is the same as his Dan-Dee Potato Chip card and which of course dates from the very beginning of his career, has always been my personal favorite, and a favorite of many other card and Mantle collectors.”
Alan “Mr. Mint” Rosen:
In 2003: “But the Mantle, to me the ’52 Topps Mantle is shit compared to a ’53 Stahl Meyer. With the rarity of the Stahl Meyer Mantle, it should be a quarter of a million dollars.”
“What comes to mind is extreme rarity. I mean, when you look at a Stahl Meyer, and I’ve been lookin’ at cards for 28 years, and I’ve spent probably $150 million on cards. When you talk Stahl Meyers, oh, you know, Dan Dees, you can get them, most of the meat cards are accessible. But Stahl Meyers, they’re the greatest. They’re the greatest. They’re the rarest regional that I’ve ever seen. I mean, I’ve bought some of the biggest collections in the world, and they don’t have any Stahl Meyers. I have had a lot more Old Judge Cabinet cards and Kalamazoo Bat cards than I’ve had Stahl Meyers. I mean, when you see cards every day, you realize how tough those really are.”
Joe Orlando, former president, PSA, in his 2008 book, Collecting Sports Legends:
“This is one of Mickey Mantle’s most elusive cards, and it resides in one of the key regional issues of the era. … This Mantle card is rarely seen and it remains one of the missing links to collections based on the Yankee Legend.”
THE PROMOTION (1953-1955)
Shortly before and long after their 3 year (1953-1955) baseball card promotion, Stahl-Meyer supplied the premium all-beef frankfurter sold at all three New York major league parks: the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, and Yankee Stadium.
For their card issues, Stahl-Meyer sent player photos to the Milprint Inc. printing company of Wisconsin. The Stahl-Meyer Franks baseball card promotion from 1953 included three players from each of the New York teams – Dodgers (Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges), Giants (Monte Irvin, Whitey Lockman, Bobby Thomson), and Yankees (Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto, Hank Bauer). The teams supplied Milprint with images. The image on the Mantle card is a rookie image taken by Bob Olen, Yankees’ official team photographer from 1947-1966. The black and white photos were expertly hand-colored.
The Stahl-Meyer frankfurters were packaged in cellophane-wrapped one-pound packages with the cards inserted as a package stiffener, one per package between two rows of four hot dogs. The 1953 baseball trading cards had white borders and received a thin coating of paraffin. The paraffin protected the hot dogs from getting any of the ink from the cards on them. Each card was stamped with a bluish-purple inventory code number.
The players included in the promotion were signed to a 6 month contract covering from May 25th – Dec 1st.
The condition
It is analogous to wondering about a Near Mint or better T206 Wagner or Plank, or a high-grade 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth.
Stahl-Meyers that came in packages of frankfurters regularly exhibit stains, creases, and stamped lot inventory numbers. 64 of the 95 combined PSA & SGC graded 1953 Mantle examples have received 1’s or A’s. A quick examination indicates the impossibility that the offered example ever saw a hot dog package.
Additionally, many of the cards were destroyed as a result of a 1953 ticket promotion – consumers could send in 2 cards + write a letter, in 25 words or less, telling why they like Stahl-Meyer Hot dogs. The 200 most original essays would win free tickets to see the New York team of their choice. The submitted cards were not returned to the submitters and presumably thrown in the garbage.
This museum worthy masterpiece will be a stand out in even the most exclusive of cardboard collections.
By the numbers:
Stahl Meyer 1953-1955
1953: 1 of 5 graded 9’s of 254 graded examples (Thomson, Hodges, Irvin, Rizzuto each have a single PSA 9 example)
1954: 1 single PSA 9 of 182 cards graded
1955: 167 graded – no 9’s
That is a total of 6 of 663 (less than 1%) 1953-1955 Stahl Meyers graded PSA 9
1953 Mantle:
Combined PSA (68) & SGC(27) population: 95
A’s/1’s = 64
SGC highest graded = 2.5
PSA highest graded = 9, 7, 6, 6, 4.5, 4
The offered 1953 PSA 9 is the ONLY PSA 9 graded Mantle Stahl Meyer of 154 total graded Mantle examples from all 3 years of production!!
OWNERSHIP HISTORY
During 1977 or 1978 Jack Urban and George Husby placed ads in the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel newspapers trying to buy baseball card collections. In response, they received a call from a man from Franklin,WI who once worked at Milprint. The following was shared directly by Jack Urban and George Husby to one of the cards prior owners Brian Powell: Urban said the man wanted to invest in the stock market, specifically to buy Miller Brewing Company stock, but needed capital. The man had Topps and Bowmans, the first 1955 Felin’s Franks Philadelphia Phillies they had ever seen, several fully intact and unfolded 1954 Hunter’s Wieners St. Louis Cardinals tray style boxes, and 25-30 Mint looking 1953 Stahl Meyer Franks cards! “We bought his whole collection”, Husby states. Urban remembers, “I cherry-picked the Stahl-Meyers and was able to complete a set of the nine cards for my collection. I would call them Mint without question. There were none with a crease. They were just beautiful. There’s a good possibility that the Mantle was centered. I had three to choose from. I was very fussy, so I would have picked the best-centered one of the three.” Working together, George Husby said the remainder of the Stahl Meyers were sold to prominent New York collector/dealer Geroge Lyons. Lyons was a prolific writer for all the hobby papers. “Lyons bought all of what we had” He went nuts over them. He got wind of Jack Urban’s gem set of 1953 Stahl Meyers. “George Lyons wanted the Stahl Meyer set really bad. He offered me a really high price, and I let it go. So it was George Lyons who was undoubtedly the next owner of the gem 1953 Stahl Meyer Franks Mickey Mantle. George Lyons likely sold Mr. Mint the perfect Stahl Meyer Mantle where it resided in his collection for some time.
In 1980, Rosen was the maniac collector always looking for just Mint cards when Ian Donnis began calling him by the title that became his sobriquet – Mr. Mint. He found a gem that made even his eyes bulge out. While he was having fun with the chase and pursuit of the perfect, he found a breathtaking 1953 Stahl Meyer Franks card of Mickey Mantle. “I had it for about two years. I was a Mantle fan and that was a pretty rare item. It must have been taken from the factory. That would be my opinion. That Mantle I had was the best one, didn’t have a scrape on it, it was just perfect.”
Mr. Mint sold it to “The Yankee Lady”, Barbara Grossman. Her thing in life was to find every New York Yankee card ever made, and she had tens of thousands. … Barbara was a long time fixture on the East Coast show circuit and at many National Conventions.”
Late in 1987, the time came when Barbara decided to sell her fabulous Yankee collection. According to a February 10, 1989, SCD ad, “I MADE THE YANKEE LADY RICH”. Alan Rosen got the call, and purchased her Yankee collection which included the Mint 1953 Stahl Meyer.
In his many years as a dealer, Alan had purchased Stahl-Meyer Franks Mickey Mantle cards in a taped 2003 interview Mr. Mint stated with a firm tone, “The best one was hers, it was just perfect.”
“1953 Stahl Meyer Mantle. I know a better copy of this can’t exist. It’s Mint, full wax on its surfaces and gleaming white. A super Mantle collectible and to be the highlight of any Mantle collection. Mint.”
January 25, 1988 Won by Brian Powell in Mr. Mint auction
SUMMARY
- 1953-1977/78 Unknown Milprint Employee
- 1978-1980 Jack Urban/George Lyons
- 1980-1982 Alan Rosen
- 1982-1987 “The Yankee Lady”, Barbara Grossman
- 1987 Alan Rosen
- 1/25/1988 – 2024 Brian Powell
- 2024 – ????
The price
How do we go about determining a value for such a once in a lifetime rarity? The second highest graded example of this card, also a singular example at its PSA 7 grade level sold for $68,125 ( in July of 2021). I started by doing a price analysis of Mantle’s regular issue Topps and Bowman cards from 1951-1969 which sell more regularly. I looked at the pricing of PSA 7 examples and more elusive PSA 9 examples. The overwhelming majority of price data was between 2022 and 2024 (all but 3 PSA 9 examples). I looked at the price multiple from PSA 7 to PSA 9 in each year. There was a range of multiples from 9X (1965 Topps) to 162X (1969 White letter). The average multiple for all years was 39X. Bear in mind the populations of the PSA 9 cards ranged from a low of 4 (1969 White letter) to a high of 183 (1968 Topps). In all but 4 cases there are also higher graded PSA 10 examples. I think it is quite reasonable to suggest that being a POP 1 single highest graded, the 1953 Stahl Meyer PSA 9 would warrant at least the highest multiple of the regular Topps cards of 162X if not higher as there are NO graded 10’s. At a 162X multiple that would value the 1953 Stahl Meyer PSA 9 at Just over $11 million dollars. The price the card is being offered at is a steal! It is priced very conservatively and available for immediate purchase at a 39X multiple (of the PSA 7) at $2,657,000.00
6 People can lay claim to a PSA 9 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (3 additional own a PSA 10). 9 can lay claim to a PSA 9 1951 Bowman (an additional 1 to a PSA 10).
Will you be the ONLY person in the world to lay claim to this breathtaking improbable 1953 Stahl Meyer PSA 9?
The Player
Mickey Mantle is THE Icon of a generation. Known as a “slugger”, Mantle had 536 Career Home Runs while batting .300 or more 10 times. Mantle won the coveted triple crown in 1956. He played in 16 all star games and appeared in 12 world series where he helped the New York Yankees win 7 of them while setting multiple world series records for most home runs, RBI’s, Extra Base hits, Runs, Walks, and total bases. While Mantle was clearly a great player by the numbers, it is unquestionable that in the sports collecting hobby today he is the most adored and collected of his generation. Mantle’s highest graded and rarest cards are some of the most valuable and cornerstone treasures in the most exclusive collections in the world. Mantle is simply put the highest demand player by far of the post war era. 6 People can lay claim to a PSA 9 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (3 additional own a PSA 10). 9 can lay claim to a PSA 9 1951 Bowman (an additional 1 to a PSA 10). Will you be the ONLY person in the world to lay claim to this breathtaking improbable 1953 Stahl Meyer PSA 9.
Howard Chasser
Howard’s company A Few of My Favorite Things has been buying selling and trading sports cards and memorabilia for over 30 years. Howard specializes in extreme rarities like the offered card. Howard also offers a discreet private brokering service and consultation to negotiate your best deal if you are interested in auctioning your card(s). Howard is a fixture at most large shows on the East Coast including The Philly show, CSA show (VA), East Coast National (NY), Strongsville (OH), Shriner Auditorium (MA), Hofstra (NY), and the National Sports Collectors Convention.
NOTE: If the 1953 Mantle is still available, it can be viewed at the National Convention in Cleveland OH at booth 1042.
NOTE: The PSA 9 1953 Stahl Meyer Mickey Mantle is viewable privately by appointment or at the National Convention in Cleveland OH at booth 1042 July 24-28
