That Card You Always Wanted

Growing up as a kid, the card that I really wanted was a 1992 Score The Franchise Mickey Mantle Autograph.  It seemed unattainable, especially in the age when there were 10,000,000 cases of product produced and the insert ration was 1/5000 cases.  I cannot tell you how much of that junk wax I opened to produce nothing but kindling.  My parents, being supportive and also remembering the folly of previous generations, saw fit to save all that junk wax, which I believe still occupies a large portion of their garage.  I know that I never came close to pulling the Mantle Auto.

As much as eBay is maligned for causing an end to the "book value" era, putting Beckett magazine into its place in retirement and decreasing overall card prices as supply began to outpace demand, it did give rise to increased availability of rare and unique pieces.

In my case, it allowed me to purchase the very card that I lusted after as a 10 year old.  When I bought one a few years ago, it was still in a velvet bag and encased in an inch of thick lucite in a screw down.  I had visions of terror and paper loss as I gently removed the card from its plastic prison, but luckily the card did ok.  I decided to grade it just to protect it for posterity's sake, but I have no intention of ever moving it.  What do you do when you get the object of your dreams?  Well, off to look for the next one.