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:
- A PSA 2 Graded T206 Wagner’s History
- The PSA 1.5 1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal Honus Wagner’s History
- The Frank Nagy 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner
- Memorabilia Madness – Some Background On The PSA 8 T206 Honus Wagner
- The Time MastroNet Brought Nine 1909 T206 Honus Wagner Cards Together at the National Sports Collectors Convention
Happy Collecting!