$20K Mantle Jersey Fusion Card Pulled, Sold at National

Collector Jak Darby didn’t know quite what he had when he opened a pack of Jersey Fusion at the recent National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago. The encased card was placed backwards in the pack, which seemed strange since every other pack of the product he had opened had the card face up.

Then he flipped it over and saw it was a one-of-one 1960 Topps Mickey Mantle card – complete with an authentic laundry tag reading “Mantle” from The Mick’s uniform pants worn during the 1961 World Series. The tag had been photo-matched. It was serial numbered 1/1.

“I couldn’t believe what I had hit,” Darby said. “I knew what the patch was from because I saw it in the advertisements, but I never imagined actually hitting it. I thought it would have been pulled by then.”

According to Sportscards.com, the creator and producer of Jersey Fusion, Darby bought a pack from Bel Air Sports Cards on the show floor. He then took the unopened pack to the Sportscards.com booth to participate in a promotion that included opening the pack on site with the opportunity to trade with the manufacturer.

Darby learned that Dave and Adam’s Card World had placed a $20,000 bounty on the Mantle 1/1. After taking a day to mull over the offer – the pull was one of a lifetime for Darby – the collector made the decision to sell.

“It was great to see someone with Jak’s passion get this great hit,” said Daryl McKay, Business Development Director for Sportscards.com.

“I just thought it was an amazing piece of history,” Darby added.

Indeed, a one-of-a-kind piece.