Whenever something surfaces that can be traced back to the legendary 1989 Topps/Guernsey’s auction, I stop what I’m doing and take a closer look. Lot #173 in Lelands’ 2025 Summer Classic Auction, “Negatives of 1965 Topps World Series Game 3 #134 Mickey Mantle Card Image (ex-Topps Guernsey’s Auction)”, definitely qualifies.
Here’s how they describe it:
A set of 3 negatives from Game 3 of the 1964 World Series featuring Mickey Mantle. These negatives were used to create card number 134 in the 1965 Topps Baseball card set. The negatives were acquired in an auction held by Guernsey’s in August of 1989. In this photo, Mantle connected on the first pitch from reliever Barney Schulz for a walk-off home run in the 9th inning to propel the Yankees to a 2-1 win. It would be Mantle’s 16th World Series blast to break Babe Ruth’s then-record 15 World Series home runs. Mantle would go on to hit two more home runs in the 1964 World Series to finish with a still-record 18. It would be Mantle’s last World Series appearance. The lot will include a catalog from the auction as well as the bidders paddle and a packet that lists the lot as being sold. Mickey Mantle remains the most iconic player in sports card collecting and his memorabilia is highly sought after. This is a unique chance to own the negative used in producing one of his actual baseball cards.
If you collect Mantle, vintage Topps, or just love hobby history, this is a killer piece. The fact that it includes the Guernsey’s catalog, paddle, and original paperwork makes it even better.
Unfortunately, my Guernsey’s catalogs are in storage at the moment (I plan to scan the entire thing and make it available as a Hobby Resource), so I can’t check what this exact lot sold for back in ’89, but I’ll update this post with that price, along with what Lelands ends up hammering it for this time around.
Happy collecting!
P.S. It would pair nicely with one of the 10 PSA Gem Mint 10 copies of the final card that are out there, but I suspect these negatives will sell for a lot less than the $5K+ it takes to grab one of those.
Be First to Comment