Everyone knows Mickey Mantle is THE superstar of the baseball card hobby. Has been from just about the moment he burst onto the centerfield scene for the New York Yankees in 1951, the same year his 1951 Bowman rookie card debuted.

Everyone also knows the Mantle Rookie card helped make Topps a real contender in the hobby in 1952, vaulting its oversize base set into “legend” status … if not right away, then certainly by the time he put together that magical 1956 season of his.

(And even though it’s not truly a rookie card.)

Of course, every card company took notice of The Mick over the years, and they’ve given collectors plenty of gorgeous cardboard of the Commerce Comet — 300+ cards during Mantle’s playing career, and more than 3000 cards in total, according to the PSA Mantle Super Set listing.

Many of those cards have become absolute icons over the years … 1951 Bowman, 1952 Topps, 1953 Topps, 1954 Bowman, 1956 Topps, 1965 Topps, 1969 Topps.

Truthfully, you could say just about every in-career card belongs on this list, and especially those that first saw the light of day in Mantle’s first few years in the Majors.

But one early-career card of The Mick has sort of become a forgotten classic, despite the fact that it’s multiple cards and that it’s bigger than life in any form.

Find Mickey Mantle Dormand Postcards on eBay (affiliate link)

Find Mickey Mantle Dormand Postcards on Amazon (affiliate link)

From 1952 through 1955, many Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers players sent back postcard versions of their likenesses in response to by-mail autograph requests from fans.

Those likenesses were photos snapped by famed New York lensman Louis Dormand.

Hence, these hunks of ephemera, in use from 1952 through 1955, became known as the Dorman Postcards.

The good news for Mantle fans is that he’s one of a handful of guys in the set with two different cards.

The better news? Both Mantle cards also exist in “giant” form, measuring a full 9” x 12”.

They’re all fun Mantle pieces that don’t show up in the mainstream much, but that you can find on eBay from time to time. You can expect to pay hundreds for high-graded slabbed copies, but you can sometimes find raw copies for less than a C-note.

Either way, buy or no buy, big or small, the Dormand postcards are a colorful expansion to the early Mickey Mantle cardboard universe.

Wow! Wax of the Day

And speaking of Mantle stuff you don’t hear a lot about, check out The Mickey Mantle Baseball Card Kit, as offered in this eBay lot:

Issued in 1989, this licensed (and unopened) “kit” contains a set of Mantle card, a Mantle card album, and a Mantle talking baseball card, and maybe some other goodies.

Check out the full listing right here (affiliate link).