Graded: 1999 Upper Deck A Piece of History 500 Club #ARM Aaron/Ruth/Mays

1999 Upper Deck A Piece of History 500 Club #ARM Aaron/Ruth/Mays SP 8.5

What’s better than a piece of memorabilia from an all-time great Major League Baseball player – three pieces of history. In the 1999 Upper Deck release of A Piece of History 500 Club as an insert honoring those who had surpassed the homerun milestone, the manufacturer gave collectors that rare chance to own a part of the game.

The Piece of History series had different variations using numerous legends of the game including Ernie Banks, Eddie Matthews, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Jimmie Fox, Mel Ott, Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, Willie McCovey, Ted Williams, and Mickey Mantle.

One of the variations included highly sought-after autographs from Mantle, Banks, Mathews, Robinson, Aaron, Killebrew, Schmidt, Jackson, Williams, Mays, and McCovey. Adding to the value, there was only one Mantle auto, three Killebrew signed cards, and nine with Williams’ signature.

The other prize in the packs was a piece of their favorite slugger’s baseball bat. The next rung to chase, a card that featured bat fragments of Aaron, Ruth, and Mays. The number of #ARM cards released to the public featuring the trio is unknown. The other cards featuring the bat fragment from the individual players, 350 were made for the public except for Ruth’s; only 50 of his cards were made.

The ungraded values for the “bat” card range from around $140 for Murray’s to $2,500 for Ruth.

The chase was truly on for these cards; Upper Deck spread out the goodies in SP Authentic, SP Signature, SPx, UD Choice, UD Ionix, Upper Deck 2, Century Legends, Challengers for 70, HoloGrFx, MVP, Ovation, Retro, Black Diamond, and Deck 1.

Sidenote: Mark McGwire did not have a deal with Upper Deck at this time asking to be left out of the set.

Aaron ended his career with 755 dingers, Ruth with 714, and Mays clocked 660.

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