GUEST: I have a collection of Mickey Mantle memorabilia. He grew up in a small town in Commerce, Oklahoma, which is about ten miles from my hometown of Baxter Springs, Kansas. And he actually played Whiz Kid Little League ball in Baxter Spring. Baxter likes to claim him as much as Commerce, Oklahoma, does. And after he became a Yankee, he also was the vice president for Southwest Chat Company in Baxter Springs, which was owned by Mr. Harold Youngman. Mr. Youngman was kind of his advisor/mentor in a way, and my father-in-law worked for Mr. Youngman as well and was an officer of the company. So Mickey was very generous to always share souvenirs, memorabilia. He would take balls to training camp and have the team sign them and bring them back, and so he was very generous with Mr. Youngman and my father-in-law as well.
APPRAISER: Tell me about the lighter we have here.
GUEST: This was a Zippo lighter that Mr. Youngman gave out to customers as well as other business associates.
APPRAISER: Used as a promotional piece, and what's nice about this is it has the Mickey Mantle facsimile signature right across the front, and then it's also mint in the original box. This was a giveaway item that was never used. This is a 1963 Yankees team signed ball, and we have a Mickey Mantle signature here on the sweet spot. And what can you tell me about the photograph?
GUEST: My husband just knows that there were about ten copies of this card that were all hand-signed by Mickey, and we just decided to frame one of them to put up on the wall, but we have some other copies as well.
APPRAISER: This is a very early image of Mantle, and it is signed, "Best Wishes, Mickey Mantle." Quite different than how his signature was 30 or 40 years later. And that one is in excellent condition, nice, strong signature. And then tell me about the hat.
GUEST: I just know that he supposedly wore it during his time with the New York Yankees. How many games, I have no idea.
APPRAISER: Any idea of the year, approximately?
GUEST: No, I have no idea. I do know that the late 1950s and early '60s was when he had the most relationship with Mr. Youngman.
APPRAISER: Mickey was known to get a lot of use out of his hats, so when we do see his hats, they tend to show quite a bit of use. Personal items do command a premium, often. We'll start with the Zippo lighter here. It's a great promotional piece with Mickey Mantle associated with the company. It is mint in the box, as we said. And this one we would expect to sell for, at auction, between $100 and $200. The baseball with Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra on the sweet spot has some signatures that are slightly faded, but not bad. That one at auction, I would expect it to sell for between $300 and $500.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The photo, I would expect that to sell at auction for between $500 and $1,000. Now lastly, the hat. Very hard to find Mickey Mantle game-used hats. At auction, we would expect it to sell for between $8,000 and $10,000.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh. I'm shocked. Truly shocked. That's amazing.
