1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle Graded RC Card #253 – PSA 4 Rookie

Presented is a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle Graded RC Card. The rookie is #253 in the set and graded PSA VG-EX 4.

Mickey Mantle is still considered by many to be the last true baseball hero. The young outfielder accepted the torch passed by the great Joe DiMaggio, who had similarly followed in the path of Lou Gehrig. The 1951 season was Mantle’s first in pinstripes and, despite his being sent back down to the minors for more seasoning, Bowman issued this card in that year’s final, key series. Bowman’s initial vision of future greatness is wonderfully captured on this mini-artwork, rendered as a horizontal image set against the brightest of skies. As with the more well known 1952 Topps issue, this 1951 Bowman card is the first card of the more difficult high number series. For many years, the 1951 Bowman lagged behind the 1952 Topps Mantle is both desirability and value, but over the last 10 years as more people realize how difficult the 1951 Bowman is compared to its larger cousin, these factors have changed. The 1951 Bowman Mantle rookie card is now one of the more desirable cards in the market

The 1951 Bowman Baseball set consists of 324 cards measuring 2-1/16″ by 3-1/8″. (The initial run totaled 252 cards but late in the issue’s production run was expanded by 72 pieces.) Each simple cardfront displayed a player’s likeness, most of which were recognizable press photographs enhanced by painted color and embellished by the player’s name caption. The gallery includes future Cooperstown enshrinees Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Warren Spahn and Ted Williams, along with rookies Whitey Ford and Nellie Fox, and numerous other stars and popular players. It is the final 72 cards, the “High Numbers,” that took the set to the proverbial “next level” thanks to the iconic rookie cards of young New York stars Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. Mantle’s horizontal, over-the-shoulder batting pose became an immediate sensation among collectors, and Mays followed close behind. That duo, the undisputed “keys” to the 1951 Bowman, along with all of the high-number series (#s 253-324) remain scarce.

1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle Graded RC Card #253 – PSA 4