Mickey Mantle Baseball Card Could Sell For $10 Million And Break Sports Memorabilia Record

Topline

A rare 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card from the sports legend’s rookie season is expected to sell for more than $10 million at auction next month, a sum that would break the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold at auction, as the market continues to boom.

Key Facts

The item is in mint condition and is the “finest known example” of the 1952 card in existence, according to Heritage Auctions, which will broker the August 27 sale.

The sports memorabilia authentication company SGC graded the card a 9.5 out of 10, indicating that it only has “tiny flaws,” according to its grading scale.

While the auction isn’t for another month, buyers are already expressing interest: The highest online bid for the card had already reached $4.2 million by Monday afternoon, and Heritage Auctions expects it to sell for at least $10 million.

The card up for auction was last sold in 1991 in New York, where it was purchased for $50,000 by Anthony Giordano, a New Jersey waste management entrepreneur, according to the Associated Press.

Another 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card fetched $5.2 million in January 2021, making it the most expensive sports card ever sold at auction at the time.

The upcoming auction could break the current sports card record, held by a T206 Honus Wagner card that sold for $6.6 million in August 2021.

Big Number

$9.2 million. That’s how much the jersey worn by soccer star Diego Maradona when he scored his notorious “Hand of God” goal during the 1986 World Cup quarter final match sold for in May. It broke the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia, a record last set in 2019, when a buyer paid $8.8 million for the original Olympic Games manifesto, the 1892 document that led to the modern revival of the Ancient Greek competition.

Tangent

The sports memorabilia market surged during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, when sports leagues canceled games and many fans turned their attention to collecting. Trading card demand in particular jumped in 2020, eBay’s head of collectibles and trading cards Nicole Colombo said last year.

Key Background

Mickey Mantle played his entire 18-year professional baseball career with the New York Yankees before retiring in 1968. Mantle was a crowd favorite and helped the Yankees win seven World Series during his time on the team. He was inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. “Every time he got up to the plate, the crowd would go crazy, the roars would be there. And he never disappointed you. … He had that aura about him,” Giordano, the previous owner of the 1952 Mantle card, told the AP. Mantle died of liver cancer in 1995 at age 63.

Further Reading

Damaged Honus Wagner Baseball Card Sells For $1.5 Million At Auction

Honus Wagner Card Sells For $6.6 Million, The Third Record Baseball Card Sale In A Year (Forbes)

Mickey Mantle Rookie Card Sells For $5.2 Million, Setting Record For Largest Card Transaction (Forbes)

Sports Memorabilia Boom Times: Now Topps Behind The Trading Cards—Gets $1.3 Billion Valuation (Forbes)