Selling Mantle Collection Would Be Error, Man Says : Baseball: Hobbyist insists memories of the slugger outweigh $50,000 value of the memorabilia.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  Alex Kolosow II says he has been offered a college education, even a Ferrari, in trade for his Mickey Mantle baseball cards and memorabilia.

Now that Kolosow’s baseball hero has died, the price of his collection is expected to leap in value. But for Kolosow, 19, his collection is a priceless tribute to the great slugger.

The legendary Mantle, who captured Kolosow’s attention at age 8, died of cancer Sunday at age 63.

“I was really upset,” Kolosow said. “But I can look at my cards and remember the great things he had done and the way he lived because the way he died was tragic.

“I just hope he’s remembered for what he did on the baseball field, as opposed to his harsh lifestyle,” he added.

After Kolosow heard the news of his idol’s death, he and his father, also named Alex, hugged each other, then went to Sunday’s Dodgers game.

“It was kind of befitting we were at a Dodgers game. We observed a moment of silence for Mickey Mantle,” said the elder Kolosow, 45, a baseball card collector since childhood. “What a way to remember him.”

Kolosow estimates his son’s Mantle collection is worth more than $50,000.

The collection includes more than 200 Mantle baseball cards and hoards of memorabilia such as signed pictures of Mantle on the covers of Life and Time. He also has books, photographs, a 1964 ad for a Rawlings baseball glove, seven autographed baseballs and two 45-r.p.m. records Mantle made about his career.

Following Mantle’s death, others want to remember him by collecting his cards.

“Everybody’s calling in for his card,” said Bobby De, owner of Bobby De’s Sports Cards in Anaheim.

De said that since Sunday he’s had about 30 calls from people wanting Mantle cards.

“When you get calls like that, the card’s [value] will go up.”

Bill Sanville, an employee of Edwards Sports Cards Plus in Orange, which sells Mantle cards that range in price from $40 to $1,500, said Mantle has always been a popular player “from the old days,” and his cards have sold steadily.

Sanville said because of the publicity of Mantle’s death, “now’s the time to sell.”

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Kolosow, an Orange Coast College business student who works two part-time jobs, bought his first Mantle card when he was 8--a 1953 Topps Chewing Gum Co. card showing a portrait of the New York Yankee center fielder.

His favorite item is a bat Mantle used, valued at about $1,200. Kolosow had Mantle sign it at a 1988 baseball card convention in Anaheim. Kolosow camped out the day before the event so he could meet Mantle and get his autograph.

“I idolized him when I was little, and to meet him was inspirational,” he said.

Kolosow has every Mantle card distributed by Topps, except his 1952 rookie card. That card, his father said, is rare and valued at more than $50,000.

“It’s the greatest card of all time,” the teen-ager said.

But the two cards he is most proud of nabbing are a 1967 Topps, for which he haggled the seller down from $18 to $12, and a 1957 World Series card, depicting batting foes Mantle and Hank Aaron holding bats, that he bought for $7.

“I bought them without help from anyone,” he said, adding that “my dad taught me how to wheel and deal--and to take care of my cards.”

Kolosow said that for now, his Mantle collection is not for sale--and he would rather have the memories than the money.

“It becomes part of your life,” he said. “You look at it and remember a lot of things about him. You can’t do that with money. There’s a story with everything I have--and you can’t put a price on that.”