1952 Topps Mantle

The PSA 8 Graded 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Sotheby’s Auctioned In 2005

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In June 2005, Sotheby’s offered this gorgeous PSA 8 graded 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle in their Important Sports Memorabilia and Cards catalog. The expected sales price was $40-50k! It’s now a million-dollar card after changing hands at least two more times!

I’m unsure what Sotheby’s sold the card for, or if it changed hands again, but in November 2014, it showed up in SCP’s Fall Premier Auction, where it sold for $268k.

Then, in May 2017, Memory Lane had the same card in their Spring Holy Grail Rarities Auction, where it sold for $462k.

I’m unsure if that buyer sold it since, but the PSA Card page for the cert shows that it was re-slabbed. Behold, over a million dollars in its plastic tomb!

It would be pretty cool if someone would trace the lineage of all the high-grade (PSA and SGC 8+) 1952 Mickey Mantle cards. It’s sort of just happened that I’ve started such a task with the T206 Wagner cards:

Happy Collecting!

The 1991 Topps Sweepstakes Winner Of 40 Sets From 40 Years Of Topps Baseball

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For their 1991 release, Topps randomly packed every card from every complete set produced by Topps over the last 40 years in 1991 retail packs, including the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card – though technically, the pricey and oversized cards were a redemption. On top of the instant-win cards, they also offered an anniversary sweepstakes, where they gave out complete sets from all 40 years to 40 winners. But the grand prize was all 40 sets from 40 years of Topps Baseball to a single winner! 

The “incredible consumer prizes” were detailed to dealers on Topps’ sell sheets.

Topps then highlighted the instant-win prizes on their boxes, packs, and posters to collectors.

Jack Glenn won the grand prize but ended up selling all the cards, including the 1952 Mantle, to Mr. Mint Alan Rosen for $34k.

Rosen wrote in his book True Mint that even though Topps advertised the cards as being worth a lot more, their grades were only Vg to Ex.