Alan Rosen was the Indiana Jones of vintage sports cards.
The Paterson, N.J., native earned the nickname “Mr. Mint” for his means to seek out previous cards boxed and saved in excellent situation. From 1978 till his demise in 2017, his obsession with discovering mint situation vintage cards turned him into the passion’s first card millionaire and resulted in dozens of finds that also reverberate by way of the enterprise. Many, if not most, of the highest-graded vintage-era sports cards in existence may be traced to Rosen, together with no less than one of many Gem-Mint PSA 10 graded 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards that some imagine might be worth as a lot as $50 million in the present day.
In a 1988 article, Sports Illustrated’s Dan Geringer wrote, “Alan Rosen is the King of Cards, the Duke of Dough. In the high-stakes baseball card game, the nation’s premier card maven.” That’s fairly a journey from being a replica machine salesman and repairman, a profession he gave up in regards to the time he purchased his first main assortment, in line with his buddy and typically enterprise companion, Joe Esposito, of B & E Collectibles in Thornwood, N.Y.
Rosen’s purchases included 9 of the 50 or so T-206 Honus Wagners recognized to exist, 65 high-condition 1952 Topps Mantles, 100 mint situation 1955 Bowman baseball full units (created out of unopened packs), 32 “uncirculated” rookie 1951 Bowman Mantles, seven unopened 1948-49 Leaf containers with rookie Jackie Robinsons, Satchel Paiges, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggios and 70 near-mint or higher T-206 Ty Cobbs. That’s solely the crown jewels amongst a large number of different treasures. Rosen bought not simply complete collections however complete inventories of card retailers, paying high greenback in money. He would then promote the cards and his appearances at exhibits and even promote in telephone auctions, breaking apart these quantity buys into many smaller gross sales that reportedly grossed over $6 million in 1990 alone. For context, that yr, all of Topps generated a reported $170 million in sales.
These finds wouldn’t stay in Rosen’s possession for lengthy.
“I had a one-day auction,” Rosen informed the Associated Press in 1990. “One banker spent $100,000 and another $50,000. I did almost three-quarters of a million dollars in business — in one day. I spent $90,000 in Pittsburgh, came back (to New Jersey) and sold everything I bought. Not that I’m an idiot, but even an idiot can make money selling quality cards.”
Beginning within the Seventies, he professed that there would at all times be a marketplace for older cards and memorabilia, and historical past has confirmed him proper.
Rosen centered on the cards he most wished as a toddler and reached a degree the place he didn’t have to seek out the cards — they discovered him. Cash, it seems, is at all times king. Rosen was believed to have foot-long stacks of $100 payments in his ubiquitous briefcase.
His greatest discover, and the one for which he’s most well-known, was referred to as the “Boston 1952 Topps Find,” with over 6,000 Gem-Mint excessive numbers, together with 65 Mantles, many years after all unsold stock was thought to be sunk in the Atlantic Ocean as a result of Topps wanted space for storing at their facility. Cards had been launched in sequence then so the field solely contained the high-number cards. And there was an absurdly excessive quantity of key stars in that second sequence, together with not solely Mantle (card #311) but in addition Robinson (#312) and Mays (#261). Sotheby’s Auction House known as it, “The greatest find of baseball cards ever.”
Its worth in the present day? Based on the 100-fold (no less than) improve in worth of a high-condition 1952 Mantle versus when Rosen appraised the worth then of that discover, the quantity may exceed a billion {dollars}. Other high-number cards within the set in Mint situation have elevated solely about 20 fold, in line with information from Card Ladder, which tracks card gross sales and present market values. That would worth the discover in the present day at merely $300 million. But the 65 first-ever Topps Mantles, essentially the most coveted card in passion historical past, tip the scales extra towards the upper quantity.
Mr. Mint’s advert in a July 1986 situation of Sports Collectors Digest itemizing costs for his 1952 Topps finds. (Photo: Joe Esposito)
According to PSA, the deal first got here collectively when the telephone rang whereas Rosen watched ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” on a Saturday afternoon in 1986. A Boston-area forklift operator knew a fellow truck driver, Ted Lodge, who had “several top condition 1952 Topps baseball cards.” That particular person stored growing the variety of cards he had in subsequent calls. A skeptical Rosen made the journey there when the variety of Mantles reached 30.
Rosen put collectively over $125,000 in money with the assistance of one other New Jersey dealer and took alongside an armed policeman for the journey to Boston.
“I picked up a stack of about 30 cards, and they were all Mantles, with some others still face down. About 42 beautiful Mantles.” Lodge then mentioned to the dumbstruck Rosen, “Would you like to see the rest of the cards?”
The cards had been so pristine with such razor-sharp corners that Rosen mentioned he believed they needed to be reproductions, till he noticed the opened 1952 case from Topps. According to the case label, the cards had been leftovers from long-ago giveaways by a sporting items firm, the place the proprietor mentioned they had been handed out as thank yous to prospects shopping for bats and gloves.
One can solely think about these transactions: “Would you like a 1952 Gem-Mint Topps Mickey Mantle with that Louisville Slugger, kid?”
“Why, thank you, yes, I would.”
Rosen returned house and sorted the cards into high-numbered runs that included Mays, Mantle and Robinson, together with the rookie Eddie Mathews. He began promoting the runs for $12,000, shifting 9 on the primary day. Then he raised his worth to $18,000 and at last $20,000. He bought 10 off-center Mantles for a complete of $10,000 to at least one purchaser. The greatest Mantles — together with the one which later graded a PSA 10 — had been bought for $3,500. Rosen mentioned he grossed $475,000 within the couple of months earlier than they had been all gone.
According to Rosen in 2000 through his web site, his second-best discover ever was from Paris, Tenn. He landed over 750 unopened wax containers of 1954 and 1955 Topps and Bowman cards in soccer and baseball. From these containers, he assembled over 100 “mint condition” 1955 Bowman baseball units. There was a Bowman Mantle in 1954, too. There had been many Topps Robinsons (1954 and 1955), the rookie Hank Aaron (1954 Topps), the rookie Ernie Banks (1954 Topps), the rookie Sandy Koufax and the rookie Roberto Clemente (each 1955 Topps), in addition to dozens of NFL Hall of Famers. Rosen estimated the worth of this discover at $7 million in 2000. Today, it might be 10 to fifteen occasions that, in line with Card Ladder, or upwards of $100 million.
No. 3 was a Kansas City discover of over 11,000 uncirculated Bowman baseball cards from 1951 to 1953, together with 32 rookie 1951 Mantles and 40 1952 Mantles. Valued by Rosen in 2000 at $4.5 million, its worth in the present day would strategy $100 million, primarily as a result of Mantles and likewise the 1951 rookie Mays.
Rosen mentioned he made his first main buy in 1984 in Tampa, Fla. It was of “hundreds of thousands” of cards issued between 1959 and 1963 by Topps, Fleer and Post Cereal. He paid $150,000 then and valued it at $1.5 million in 2000. Today it’s worth no less than 10 to twenty occasions that.
Among his extra fascinating finds had been 270 “Gem-Mint” 1954 cards manufactured by Wilson Franks, that are extraordinarily uncommon and thought of by collectors as one of the vital stunning designs ever produced (although they characteristic a floating package deal of scorching canine on the entrance of every card). The complete set was solely 20 cards and included Ted Williams, so there have been in all probability 10 to fifteen of simply him among the many 270. The worth of only one Mint PSA 9 Williams Wilson Franks in the present day is unknown since just one is graded. But a PSA 5 bought for practically $200,000. Only 307 Williams Wilson Franks cards have been graded by all the businesses, in line with Card Ladder.
Rosen had a particular fondness for his “Yankee Lady Find,” through which he bought the gathering of each Yankees card ever produced from a girl in Queens, N.Y. Of course, he bought them virtually instantly. On his web site within the early aughts, he lamented, “I wish I had that one back.”
How did he do it?
“He was extremely aggressive,” mentioned Esposito, who accompanied Rosen on many offers. In a 1990 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rosen mentioned, “I collect money. Hundred dollar bills. I’m loud. I’m a braggart. And I’m brash. But I’m the best.”
“Al was all-in,” Esposito mentioned. “No deal was too big. The rest of us were leery. We were worried about cash flow. If he didn’t have the cash, he’d borrow to put a deal together. He was arrogant but knew how to turn on the charm, especially when he was in someone’s house. Once he entered the house, there was a 90 percent chance he was leaving with the cards.”
After the Sports Illustrated article, “(Rosen) had the field of buying collections all to himself,” Esposito mentioned. “Anyone looking to sell something big found him. But his last five years in business were tough because the competition got fierce. The auction houses came into the hobby.” Rosen couldn’t compete. A dealer to the tip, on the time of his demise, Esposito mentioned Rosen had no remnants of his main card finds as keepsakes.
“Al should be remembered as a pioneer in recognizing the value of cards and paying for them,” Esposito mentioned. “It was perceived that he would pay the most, even though that wasn’t always the case. And people trusted the way he graded cards. When he said a card was Mint, people believed him.”
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