A Willie Mays 1951 Bowman rookie card, graded PSA 8.5, sold for a record $390,934.80 on Sunday night at Robert Edward Auctions, marking the highest price paid for Mays’ rookie at public auction.
The sale places third for any Mays card, behind only two 1952 Topps PSA 9 examples that sold for $478,000 in 2016 and $444,000 in 2022.
Only eight examples of the 1951 Bowman card have been graded higher than the copy that sold Sunday at REA, all of which are nines (no 10s). High-grade examples are extremely rare to see — a PSA 9 copy last sold at public auction back in 2009 for $65,725 at Heritage.
Prior to the sale, the record for the rookie card belonged to a PSA 8, which fetched $338,400 at Goldin in March 2021.
The record comes in the wake of Mays’ death in June, which might have acted as a catalyst — both as a reason for the seller to consign the card to auction, as well as for bidders to drive the card to a record high.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.