The ongoing tale of turning a $3.25 Coutland Sutton RPA into a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle

Hello,

I have always been a vintage baseball card collector having Babe Ruth, Rube Waddell, Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle as my idols growing up. For years, I have wanted a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle Rookie, but never wanted to spend the money to do so. Then, I had an idea...let's trade up to one. But where to start?

I went on Ebay and did a few hours of research. It seems like rookie cards that have a patch and a low number are more valuable and football cards are the hottest in the market. So, living in Denver, the Broncos have a few good rookies so I did some research on selling prices vs. contribution vs. potential and determined that Phillip Lindsay is too injury prone, Royce Freeman has too many miles from college, Bradley Chubb is cheap but plays defense, and Courtland Sutton had a bad year and a bad qb. I determined that Courtland Sutton had the most potential, especially given the qb situation Denver had in 2018. With a change in coach and in qb, I felt that Courtland Sutton has a chance to become a better player than he was as a rookie. He is also cheap!

I went on Ebay in December 2018 and purchased an Immaculate Courtland Sutton RPA numbered to 25 for $3.25. I was surprised I got it for that price as my max was $18. I went to my local card show a week later in the Denver suburbs and sold it for $21. I then realized that people pay a lot of money for new cards as the prices of some of the cards were enormous ($7,000 for a Jayson Tatum, kidding me?). The last time I purchased a box of cards was 1997 so I had a lot of learning to do.

So, I decided to start with a $3.25 card and begin my way to get a $2,000+ 1951 bowman Mantle.

Here are my trades (only Courtland Sutton Cards):

Started with paying $3.25 for an Immaculate Courtland Sutton RPA numbered to 25 for $3.25 and sold it for $21.

Then I bought a Prizm Gold rookie numbered to 10 for $21. I sold it at the local card show for $45 in January 2019.

Then I bought an Immaculate Premium Patch Rookie Auto Gold for $39.50 on Ebay AND I bought a Spectra Blue Die Cut numbered to 5 for $5. I sold the first one for $65 at the local card show in March 2019 and sold the Spectra card for $10 at the same show.

Then I purchased an Immaculate Name Plate numbered to six for $75. I sold it on Ebay for $130. (The person that I sold it to is looking for the "U" to complete the "SUTTON").

Then I purchased a flawless RPA numbered to 15 for $50. I have $80 to spend on a card to be determined.

So far, I have turned a $3.25 investment into $130 and counting. Only have about $2,000 more in profit to go and many, many more months of smart purchasing...

Thanks,
Sportscardmosaics

Fun idea. Keep us updated.

Gonna send to baseball forum where much more traffic will see it?

Trading up posts always are cool to check out.

And GL!

It won't help you but I just talked to a guy who sold his 51 Mantle raw for $75. I tried to word it nicely but I did say if you have more to sell, don't sell them to the same guy...