By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The Mick will help New York and New Jersey rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.

Mickey Mantle‘s 1960 contract that guaranteed him $60,000 with the New York Yankees will hit the auction block via Steiner Sports on Wednesday after it was donated by Mantle’s sons, David and Danny, with the proceeds to be split among New York and New Jersey.

Bidding opens at $25,000 and runs until June 2. (Click here to view the auction.)

“My mom [Merlyn] deserves all the credit for saving my father’s contracts in a file cabinet to preserve them,” said Danny Mantle in a prepared statement. “The 1960 contract is in near perfect condition and looks brand new. We watch all those people living in tents, and decided to take the contract and put it to good use to raise some money for the victims.”

The Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund is chaired by Mary Pat Christie, wife of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and she offered her thanks to the Mantle Family in a letter in advance of a news conference announcing the contract auction today at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center.

“I would like thank Danny and David Mantle, and the Mantle Family for this generous contribution to the Fund,” she wrote. “I also would like to thank Steiner Sports, Brandon Steiner and Brett Schissler for making the auction happen. Thank you to Dave Kaplan from the Berra Museum for hosting today. And a special thank you to Joe Pepitone for showing his support.”

According to Christie’s letter, the fund has raised more than $34 million.

Also up for auction are several other Yankees items, including a World Series ring, team-signed balls and a piece from another New York icon, Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson, whose game-used glove from the 1955 and 1956 World Series is on the block along with a Robinson bat believed to be used during his final season.

For more information or to view other auctions, click here.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Football Editor

One of the newest members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame has signed an exclusive agreement with Steiner Sports.

Cris Carter, a standout for the Minnesota Vikings, signed a collectibles deal with Steiner Sports, joining the company’s large roster of athletes. The Carter Hall of Fame line will include signed Ohio State and Vikings helmets, mini-helmets, footballs and photographs.

“It is always our primary goal to bring special pieces of memorabilia signed by sports greatest players to fans and collectors,” company founder and CEO Brandon Steiner said. “As an eight-time Pro Bowl selection, Cris Carter certainly fits in that category, and is a proud addition to the Steiner Family.”

Carter went to eight Pro Bowls and had eight seasons of more than 1,000 receiving yards. Carter ranks ninth all-time with 13,899 career receiving yards.

Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Football. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here. Follow Beckett Media on Facebook.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The price of perfection is $756,000.

The New York Yankees uniform worn by Don Larsen during his perfect game in the 1956 World Series sold at auction Wednesday evening through Steiner Sports, collecting 22 bids and ending at $630,000. With a 20 percent buyer’s premium, the transaction totals $756,000.

Larsen opted to sell the uniform to pay for his two grandsons’ college educations.

“It’s for them. It’s for their education,” Larsen told Beckett Media in June. “If there’s anything left after that, maybe I’ll take the family on a little trip.”

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Hockey Editor

Brandon Steiner was fortunate enough not to be directly affected by Hurricane Sandy went it slammed into the northeast about a month ago.

However, the owner of Steiner Sports still felt it.

His brother lives in Breezy Point, a waterfront section of Queens leveled by the storm. Friends, cousins, employees all dealt with the aftermath with losing power, possessions and patience.

Steiner has been helping the best way he knows how. The company has held auctions to raise money for relief funds to for victims of the storm.

“I know there are a lot of people struggling,” Brandon Steiner said.

The most popular item sold so far has been a goaltending mask from New York Rangers Henrik Lundqvist. It sold for $66,000.

Steiner has sold Lundqvist items in the past, but his helmet has been elusive.

“He was kind of reluctant about giving up the helmet,” Steiner said. “We always go to Henrik and tell him we want everything. People love him.”

But plenty changed in and around New York City, and Lundqvist wanted to help the place he has called home for several years.

That helmet didn’t seem like much to give up anymore.

“He said, ‘I want to do something good for the relief.’” Steiner said. “’I know there is a demand for the helmet. Let’s go.’”

Steiner is currently running 31 auctions selling the jerseys worn by a group of NHL stars, including Lundqvist, from Operation Hat Trick, an exhibition hockey game in Atlantic City geared toward raising money for relief funds.

Currently, Lundqvist’s jersey is at $1,250 with about a week left. Corey Perry’s jersey is at $1,050, John Carlson is at $700, Martin Brodeur is at $528 and Scott Hartnell is at $625.

Selling items for charity isn’t uncommon for Steiner. He has helped many large and small local charities around his New Rochelle, N.Y. business.

This time, the people who needed help were his own.

“Anytime something happens in the community, it hits extremely close to home,” Steiner said. “It’s extremely humbling after seeing the level of devastation. I wanted to see what I can do, see who I could help and try to fight through it.”

Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Hockey. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Hockey Editor

ATLANTIC CITY | Hockey fans were loud and clear on Saturday night.

“We want hockey,” rang through the building at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. Operation Hat Trick was in effect, an exhibition game to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

While the fans attended for charity, many came just to get a feel for hockey again. The NHL has been in a lockout and games have been cancelled through mid-December, including the All-Star Festivities and the Winter Classic.

“I’m happy to have hockey back in my life,” said Jocelyn Maldonado, a Philadelphia Flyers fan. “I’m going to need more after this, much more”

Operation Hat Trick rather looked like an All-Star Game with players such as New York Rangers Henrik Lundqvist and Brad Richards, as well as Montreal Canadiens P.K. Subban and Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steven Stamkos. Other players included Philadelphia’s Scott Hartnell (one of the captains on the night), Wayne Simmonds and Los Angeles Kings Simon Gagne.

Collectors can get a piece of the game.

Steiner Sports is hosting an auction for the exhibition jerseys. Most jersey start at $100, but Lundqvist’s starts at $500 and Stamkos and Richards’ jerseys both start at $300.

Click here to check out the Operation Hat Trick jersey auction.

Update: Money was raised through ticket and concession sales. One of the biggest attractions at the concessions stand was the $25 mystery grab bag where someone would get an autographed hockey puck of any the players in the event.

The grab bag of 200 pucks sold out in 15 minutes.

Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Hockey. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

NEW YORK – Don Larsen stood next to a mannequin draped in an old-time New York Yankees uniform, smiling for the assembled cameras with his wife, Corrine, by his side.

Flashes popped in their faces.

“That’s a lot of lights, huh?” he asked, leaning over to her.

Even after throwing a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Larsen is still a simple man reveling in the amount of attention his feat has drawn. No other pitcher has ever thrown a perfect game in the World Series, and just one no-hitter has been thrown in the playoffs after all these years.

Larsen was in front of all the cameras on Thursday to talk about the uniform he wore that day when Yogi Berra jumped in his arms. The 82-year-old is auctioning off the full uniform – jersey and pants – through Steiner Sports in part to support his two grandsons, who are 20 and 14.

“It’s for them. It’s for their education,” Larsen said. “If there’s anything left after that, maybe I’ll take the family on a little trip.”

The auction will start on Oct. 8, the anniversary of his perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers, and run through early December.

Brandon Steiner, head of Steiner Sports, didn’t give an estimate on where he thought the auction would end, but said that a buyer already offered seven figures for it, hoping to get the uniform without it going to auction.

Berra’s jersey from the same day sold for nearly $565,000 in a 2010 auction by Grey Flannel.

Larsen’s uniform is the keynote piece to Steiner’s 25th  anniversary auction, which will include other items from Larsen’s collection and numerous pieces of vintage sports memorabilia.

“There is a lot of attention on the vintage and those years,” Steiner said. “People are down about what’s gone on over the last 10 to 15 years. There’s a premium on the old-time players. Everyone is loving that era.”

Larsen thinks about the perfect game just about every day. How could he not? The game elevated him into a nearly unreachable status.

That game has sustained him since he retired in 1968. He’s had paid appearances at card shows and autograph signings. Every year, around the World Series, some media entity inevitably talks about the feat.

“It’s the greatest thing that ever happened in my life,” Larsen said.

The memories are vivid.  Before he threw to the last batter Dale Mitchell, he turned around and faced center field.

“I said a prayer or talked to the man upstairs and said ‘let me get this last one,’” Larsen said. “My legs were shaking. It was a miracle I didn’t faint.”

Larsen struck out Mitchell on a called third strike. The crowd’s roar was deafening and Berra jumped into Larsen’s arms, creating an iconic moment in baseball history.

He knew he had thrown a no-hitter, but said he didn’t realize it was a perfect game until someone mentioned it in the clubhouse afterward.

“That was a good day for a lot of people,” Larsen said.

Parting with the uniform from that fateful day is a little tough for Larsen, but he hasn’t had possession of it since 1964. That year, he was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions and the uniform was on loan there until a few months ago, when Larsen drove from Idaho to San Diego to pick it up.

Corrine Larsen said her son and daughter-in-law were shocked to hear the news that the uniform would be auctioned, but are also grateful.

However, Larsen didn’t give them much of a choice.

“They got nothing to do with it,” Larsen said. “I’m the boss.”

As much as the auction will help Larsen and his family, it also brings prominence to Steiner. The company has been around for 25 years, with its beginnings helping collectors obtain autographs.

It has turned into a huge collectibles business that has deals with the Yankees, Notre Dame and a number of other sports teams. Steiner Sports sells autographs and memorabilia and even dirt from popular parks.

But the Larsen jersey is different. Steiner has done auctions before, but this piece could elevate the company to another level in the auction market.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

Only two times in New York Yankees history has the team worn throwback uniforms.

The last being April 20 when the Boston Red Sox celebrated Fenway Park’s 100th anniversary. On that day, the Yankees were Boston’s opponent — so both teams wore the uniform of their 1912 franchise.

The uniforms that the Yankees players wore that day on now on sale through Steiner Sports, which has an exclusive deal with the historic baseball franchise to sell its game-used memorabilia. (Need a Yankees card checklist or OPG? Click here.)

The Yankees weren’t around back then, but the New York Highlanders were. So during the celebration for Fenway Park, New York became the Highlanders for a day and wore the basic uniforms – minus the heavy cotton of the day.

Those interested in getting one of these unique items can contact Steiner via email at jmolesso@steinersports.com.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Basketball Editor | Commentary

“How’d your week go?” might be a simple question with a rather mundane answer for many of us, but for one NBA player it’s probably not describable.

For Jeremy Lin, it’s been a week of meteoric rises — from that of an unknown to the toast of The Big Apple and beyond.

How has that happened? With a simple four-game stretch of double-digit games for the struggling New York Knicks — unbeaten during this run — he’s become the star of the town, a new face on the NBA’s post-lockout landscape, a guy who is single-handedly selling cardboard (singles and wax), has jerseys selling so hot they’re going on back-order and national media buzzing about a player and a team that were largely unknown and forgotten not all that long ago.

Lin’s story is one part human interest. He was a star at Harvard but went undrafted. He spent time in camp with the Dallas Mavericks but did not sign. Then he signed with Golden State last July and played sparingly in 29 games before being waived last December. Three days later, Houston grabbed him. Two weeks after that, he was a Knick — who spent time sleeping on a family member’s couch instead of finding a more permanent place to stay.

Lin’s story is one part on-court success. He played sparingly earlier this season — fewer than 10 minutes, if at all, per game in December and most of January. On Jan. 28 against Houston he showed some flashes of talent with a season-high 20 minutes of playing time that netted nine points, also a season-high. All that was moot — and relatively meaningless for many collectors — until one week ago when he put up 25 points against the Nets. That earned him a start the next night when he scored 28. He did it again Wednesday with 23 against the Wizards. Then in came the Los Angeles Lakers to Madison Square Garden … where Lin put up a career-high (including college) 38 points in an upset of Kobe Bryant‘s squad.

Lin’s story is one part social. He’s the NBA’s first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, so many a fan — both here and abroad — who might feel a connection to him because of that has him on their radars. And it also goes without saying that we’ve seen the interest of the Asian community when it comes to cardboard many times in the past, most of the time with Japanese stars coming to Major League Baseball, but with Houston’s Yao Ming also a prime example for the hobby.

Lin’s story is also one part economics. The notion of supply and demand is showing itself to be true once again as what basketball cards Lin does have are being scooped up at levels not seen before for him — even though he was somewhat popular last year. But not like this, of course. Lin appears on just 60 basketball cards — and none from 2011-12 yet because of the NBA lockout — from the lone league card licensee, Panini America. A guy whose autographs could be had just a week ago are now fetching ridiculously higher amounts simply because there’s not that many to go around. He has just 25 different autograph cards to be found — and only two have unknown quantities. The most plentiful card, from 2010-11 Classics, is limited to just 699 copies.

That many cards alone could be brisk sellers on some New York City blocks, and you can bet that wax boxes that might have sat stagnant in some card shops or retail stores have been ripped faster than you can say “Lin.”

And then you have to ask this … how will New York fans react to getting Lin in a Knicks jersey on cardboard (perhaps late next month)? It could be interesting — regardless of whether autograph ink is involved. (Oh, and speaking of that? Lin has his first public signing with Steiner Sports set for 10 days from now. An 8×10 will cost you $120 or an official NBA ball will be $170 — both are available on pre-order.)

Will Lin’s success story continue? It’s inevitable that his streak will end at some point — they always do — but the Linsanity that is the peripheral successes — sales of his cardboard, sales of his merch, sales of Knicks tickets, sales of Panini America wax — are all things that the NBA has needed to see right now even if it might be a fleeting, short-term phenomenon.

And if it’s ultimately not? Watch out …

This influx of non-collectors buying up his cards — and basketball wax in general perhaps chasing him — is coming at a good time. After all, anyone who had already collected cards had plenty of chances to land a Lin last year — and secondary prices weren’t very competitive at all. Now, it’s a battle of Magic-Bird proportions among collectors out there online. That shows you the magic of collecting … when it’s not just all of us regulars involved.

In 15 minutes from now, the Knicks take on the Timberwolves and Lin has his chance at five straight impact games. Will it happen? Will it end? Will the Knicks win or lose?

Something tells me many of us will be watching — some of us for the first time in a long time.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Basketball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The jersey Mariano Rivera wore for his 22nd save this season — also Derek Jeter‘s 3,000th-hit game — is on the auction block in Steiner Sports‘ second-annual Yankees Legends sale and it’s already grabbing attention.

How much attention? It’s gotten 37 bids and stands at $5,201 — with plenty of time remaining before the auction closes on Nov. 27.

It’s not the only interesting piece of Yankees history, either.

Also up for grabs are the game-used ball from the second out of Rivera’s save game on Sept. 19,  a baseball signed on the sweet spot by Babe Ruth and a few other members of the 1928 Yankees, David Price‘s complete game-used uniform from his giving up Jeter’s 3,000th hit and various Yankee Stadium relics.

Other items of note among the 572 lots include a bat used by Jeter in 2010 — the season he became the Yankees’ career hit leader — several packages that include a locker from the clubhouse along with other items and Jim Leyritz‘s catcher’s gear (chest protectof, shin guards and glove) from the 1996 World Series.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor | Commentary

It’s no secret that, on cardboard, the Texas Rangers have one player who stands out from the rest in the hobby and on the national stage — that’s Josh Hamilton.

While a win tonight in Game 6 of the World Series just might change that for the long-term — and we’ve seen signs of success with some of the team’s younger stars’ cards and memorabilia of late — there was another sign that the Rangers are still a team with more potential hobby stars than established ones when Steiner Sports offered a Texas Rangers autographed baseball to the masses on Thursday.

It wasn’t an autograph of All-Star second baseman and 30-30 Club member Ian Kinsler. It wasn’t an autograph of slick-fielding All-Star shortstop Elvis Andrus. It wasn’t a ball signed by ALCS MVP Nelson Cruz because of his countless home runs. It was an autograph of team CEO and president Nolan Ryan.

Don’t get me wrong, Ryan is no slouch in the hobby — there’s plenty of love for the all-time strikeout king — but one can’t miss the amount of air time that Ryan is getting during the World Series while not playing at all. And that also now includes Steiner’s commercials for the signed World Series baseball ($99.99 plus shipping). That’s a tad unfortunate.

The Rangers are, without a doubt, a team with plenty of players whose cards are undervalued and guys who could be gainers down the line should they win it all and continue to play into the postseason in the future. Examples? You could grab a Derek Holland first-year Bowman Chrome certified autograph for less than $10 the night of his gem in Game 4. Mike Napoli? Well, let’s just say that catchers don’t get a lot of love.

A World Series title, though, could change that for several of this team’s players — and right now they’re quite collectable because they are affordable.

A good part of this, though? It might not cost Steiner (or Topps) an arm and a leg to get deals for commemorative team-signed items or World Series collections done — that’s something that’s becoming more and more of a challenge as the divide between millionaire’s autograph fees and what the common man can reasonably afford, and in turn purchase, continues to grow.

A win for the Rangers will be exciting to watch on cardboard — however long the interest lasts … as we collectors are a finicky bunch — but there’s no doubting that a title for this franchise, one that’s been around for 50-plus years as the Senators and Rangers, will be one step closer to claiming what still might be an elusive thing in football country.

What’s that?

The heart of Texas.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.