(This is Day 10 of our series on the “Best Card From” each year, 1960-1989. Read all the entries here.)

Some base sets just leave me so cold that it’s tough to justify picking any particular card as the best of the year. See 1968 for an example.

But the 1969 Topps set has plenty to offer, including a clean design and clear, crisp photography.

And it also has Mickey Mantle‘s last card.

Here are seven reasons — I mean “7” reasons — why Mantle is Number 1 in ’69.

It’s a Mickey Mantle Card

First off, some disclosure — I’m not a huge Mickey Mantle fan.

It’s not that Mantle wasn’t a great player, because he certainly was. Probably a top-20 all-time player no matter how you look at him.

But Mickey Mantle is — deep breath — overrated by a fair bit. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Still, there is no denying that few players can match the mystique of Mantle, and just the glimpse of one of his cards thrills even the detractors among us. Heck, we owe a large hunk of the 1980s boom and today’s thriving vintage market to Mantle and his 1952 Topps (faux) rookie card.

So pretty much any Mantle card issued during his career instantly becomes a candidate for “best card of” whatever niche you’re considering.

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It’s Mickey Mantle‘s Last Card

There was a time in the late 1980s or early 1990s, after the rookie-card craze had created stupid situations like teenagers investing in 100-card lots of 1986 Topps Traded Kurt Stillwells, that a cadre of thinking collectors tried to inject some reason into the situation.

First, they came up with the idea that second-year cards were undervalued. The reasoning went that, while rookie cards often forced a young superstar to share cardboard real estate with one or more lesser lights, second-year cards almost always featured a solo shot. And the price disparity was crazy for cards issued just a year apart — sometimes up to a factor of 10,000 (possible slight hyperbole).

Then came the notion that final cards should be the most desirable of all a player’s cards since it represented the entirety of his storybook career. Never mind the fact that even future Hall of Famers were generally fat and gray on their last cards.

Or that last cards were usually issued during a player’s last season, meaning the statistical records fell short by a year.

Still, there’s something special about knowing that you have the final edition of something, that there are no more chapters to read.

And in the case of Mickey Mantle‘s last card, his 1969 Topps issue, it really was something special.

That’s because …

It Showcases the Complete Mickey Mantle Baseball Story

Turn over Mantle’s #500, and the top of the card tells you all you need to know:

The All-Star announced his retirement on March 1, 1969!

(Exclamation Topps’.)

They couldn’t believe that Mantle had left them in the cardboard lurch without a bona fide New York Yankees legend to showcase each spring and summer, and neither could the rest of the baseball world.

How could the great Mickey Mantle be done at just 37 years of age?

Well, it was because of women and booze and knees, of course, but still …

It was probably small consolation at the time that Mantle’s spring retirement meant his 1969 Topps card showed all his statistics, but it’s a boon to us now.

There were no more cards, and there were no more seasons — Topps managed to wrap up the Mantle package in one neat, 2-1/2″ X 3-1/2″ swath of cardboard that has told Mickey’s complete story for nearly 50 years.

It Wasn’t a Recycled Photo

If you’re a fan of late-1960s Topps baseball cards, you might have noticed that some of the base cards in the 1969 set look familiar.

As in, the same photos were used in the 1968 Topps set — hello, Ernie Banks and Tom Seaver.

Or, they were used in the 1969 Topps Super set — we’re looking at you (twice), Jerry Koosman and Brooks Robinson (and Tom Seaver).

Somehow, Mantle avoided this fate and scored three different photos across the three sets. And, for our money, the 1969 base card is the best of the bunch, giving us the cleanest look at that famous Mantle mug.

White Letters

A small percentage of 1969 Topps cards in the #400-511 range somehow escaped the factory with white letters where there should have been yellow letters.

The culprit seems to have been a printing flaw of some sort, but the effect is much more significant. All of the white-letter variations are scarce and always in high demand, but one stands above them all.

Yes, that’s right — Mickey Mantle‘s last Topps card exists with the white-letter variation.

According to the PSA Population Report, there have been a total of just over 5300 yellow-letter Mantles submitted for grading but just 880 white-letter specimens as of this writing. Only one of each variation has scored a single GEM-MT 10.

As you can imagine, the white-letter card can bring some hefty sums — $4000 and up for PSA 8s and $1000 or so for PSA 6s.

In brief, the Mickey Mantle white-letter error is what happens when C. Nettles mates with the T206 Honus Wagner.

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(Read all about this 30-day challenge — and jump in on the fun — right here.)

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Ah … Friday!

Your work week (or school week) is almost done, and you’re ready to kick back and enjoy the weekend.

No other day of the week has as tangible a feeling as does Friday … it’s that now Twitter-famous #FridayFeeling.

Too bad you can’t make every day feel like Friday, right?

Well, you can. Sort of.

As with most areas of life, you need only to turn to your baseball cards to help solve your midweek blues or to really embrace the splendors of Friday. I’m sure you have fun, relaxing, quirky, or exciting cards nestled in every corner of your own collection that fit the bill, but here are 10 fun and classic baseball cards that will make every day feel like Friday — at least if you squint and tilt your head the right way..

1954 Topps Ed and John O’Brien

The original Doublemint Twins, at least as far as most vintage collectors are concerned. Who doesn’t love this gem featuring the O’Brien brothers?

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1955 Bowman Don Mossi

Why couldn’t any card manufacturer ever feature Don Mossi in profile rather than in full frontal glory? Because then we’d be denied joys like this card, where Mossi himself seems to be the antenna for the TV in which he appears.

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1959 Fleer Ted Williams — Gunning as a Pastime

Ted Williams led a varied and fascinating life, but he liked to kick back with some serious hunting. What better time to do that than on the weekends?

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1969 Topps Aurelio Rodriguez

Umm … that’s not Aurelio Rodriguez. It’s the Angels bat boy, and their little prank turned a ho-hum 1969 Topps card into a winner for the ages.

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1975 Topps Vicente Romo

[bctt tweet=”That time when Vicente Romo tried out for the position of Dugout Goalie with the San Diego Padres.” username=”WaxPackGods”]

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1976 Topps Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Gum Blowing Champ

This card is so famous it’s almost a cliche — but you can’t have a list like this without it.

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1976 Topps Traded Oscar Gamble

The card whereby Oscar Gamble instantly relegated generations of Afros to the status of “afterthought.” No one before or since has made this kind of cap-defying impact with such a devil-may-care expression.

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1984 Fleer Jay Johnstone

This card fought hard with the Glenn Hubbard snake offering but Jay Johnstone wins out for his weekend-themed hat and a glassy eyes that suggest he may have a head start on us.

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1986 Fleer Mickey Hatcher

How did Mickey Hatcher not win a couple dozen Gold Gloves with that hunk of leather?

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1993 Topps Stadium Club Oscar Azocar

Oscar Azocar may have loved his bat, but it evidently was not quite as fond as him, as evidenced by his .228 batting average of 460 Major League plate appearance.

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