By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The breaking of a massive collection of high-grade vintage baseball cards has begun through Memory Lane Inc. with more than 4,000 key cards from baseball’s golden years available to collectors.

Believed to be one of the biggest offerings ever made at one time, the Tustin, Calif.-based company will be handling sales of everything from tobacco cards of the early 1900s to high-grade rarities from the 1950s and 1960s. All of the cards have been graded by PSA and were amassed as sets through years of collecting from one serious fan of the game. (The first portion of the haul can be viewed by clicking here.)

The second-year Mickey Mantle Bowman card above, for example, carries a $16,500, pricetag and is just one of 11 cards to be slabbed a PSA 9 — only two cards have ever graded higher.

Some of the notable sets and cards to be offered soon include 1963 Topps , 1933 Goudey, a run of 1952-55 Topps sets that includes a PSA 8 Sandy Koufax Rookie Card and a PSA 8 Roberto Clemente RC as well as turn of the century favorites such as Turkey Red Cabinets, T201 Mecca Double Folders and T205s.

The cards will be offered through Jan. 29 with fixed prices.  During the final two days, offers may be accepted before the overall sale closes on Feb. 1.

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.

Click on the images below (twice) for a closer look.

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Join Beckett Baseball‘s Chris Olds as he rips into a box of 2003 Topps 205 Series 2 baseball cards in this retro edition of Box Busters.

What did he find inside? Watch and find out …