1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card tops $1.1M at auction

The 1952 Topps baseball card of Mickey Mantle is one of the most iconic collectibles of the post-World War II era. Friday morning, it joined an exclusive club, becoming only the second baseball card to top $1 million at a public auction.

A card graded 8.5 by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) sold for $1,135,250 (including buyer's premium) through Heritage Auctions' Fall Catalog sale. It is the first baseball card other than the T206 Honus Wagner card to sell for more than $1 million at a public auction, Sports Collectors Daily reported.

Several specimens of the Wagner card, known as the Holy Grail of baseball cards, have topped $1 million several times, and in October one that was graded a PSA 5 sold for $3.12 million (including buyer's premium) via Goldin Auctions, Beckett Media reported.

The bidding for the Mantle card actually stopped at $950,000, but the buyer’s premium pushed the card’s realized price over the $1 million mark, Sports Collectors Daily reported. It is one of a dozen cards graded 8.5 or higher by PSA. Only three cards have been graded gem-mint (PSA 10) and none have come to auction, Sports Collectors Daily reported. Nine have achieved the grade of PSA 9.

According to Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, the Mantle that sold Friday morning can be traced back to a stash of 1952 Topps cards uncovered by collectibles dealer Alan "Mr. Mint" Rosen in 1986.

Another version of the 1952 Mantle — a PSA 7 version of card No. 311 — sold at the same auction for $155,300, according to the Heritage Auctions website.

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