Tuesday, July 9, 2013

1995 Topps Mickey Mantle



This was supposed to be the last of my Mickey Mantle series. And because it was the last, I had another picture in mind to use. This is actually the 3rd or 4th version of this card I made. I just was not happy with the way the others turned out. I'm still not thrilled with this one, (the font is not quite right, it was impossible to match the "gold" foil, the Topps logo is nearly invisible, the borders are messed up, etc.) but sometimes good enough is good enough.

Like I said this was supposed to be #25 in a 25 card series. This is the way it all started out:

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Topps has been pretty good about filling in the blanks as far as Mantle goes. They have created cards for 1951, 1954, and 1955 that weren't included in their original sets. They have included Mantle as a special #7 card in all sets since 2006. Also in 2006 Topps created cards for Mantle going back to 1996. There even was a special 1970 Topps Mantle that was a WalMart exclusive. That leaves a 25 year gap from 1971-1995. I'm sure that it will eventually be filled by Topps because of Mickey Mantle's marketability, but in the mean time I will have to make my own.

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That was the first blog I posted on this site. In the mean time Topps made a 1975 Mini for the 2011 Lineage set and a 1987 Mini for the 2012 set. Now in 2013 their contract with the Mantle estate has run out. Although there is no #7 card in the set, there are also no Mickey Mantle cards. Not in the regular series, not in the Heritage set, not in the Archives set, nothing, nada zilch. Since there is no shortage of cool Mickey Mantle photos on the internet, it looks like I'll be making a few more.

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