One of the most affordable authenticated 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards to sell at public auction in years changed hands Thursday night for $16,200 at Huggins & Scott.
Why so cheap? There are two ways to look at it.
Option 1: It’s a piece of damaged, hole-punched and faded cardboard. It’s not even cheap — it should be garbage.
Option 2: A collector found the least expensive way to acquire one of the most important items in the history of collecting.
The first option is pretty much self-explanatory. Some people will never get it, and that’s fine.
But the second? That’s what makes collecting so much fun.
On March 5, 1951, three days after Casey Stengel moved the 19-year-old Mantle from shortstop to the outfield, an International News Service photographer snapped a photo of the highly-touted but unproven prospect in Spring Training.
Gripping a bat and looking over the photographer’s right shoulder, the image would become one of the most recognizable in baseball history after it was used to create Mantle’s 1952 Topps card — the “Mona Lisa” of baseball cards.
A Type I example of the picture — meaning it was developed within two years of the moment it was captured from its original negative — sold for $375,000 in 2019, then a record for any Type I photo.
Beyond the legend of Mantle and what he would go on to accomplish in his Hall of Fame career, the famed story of high-numbered Topps cards from the 1952 set (including Mantle’s No. 311) going unsold and withering away in a warehouse, only for the company to allegedly dump the inventory into the river, ensured it became one of the most recognizable cards ever produced, as well as one of the most expensive.
That rarity and the appeal of the image joined forces to bring us to where we sit today. Mantle’s 1952 Topps card is worth a fortune, regardless of condition.
Still, it’s rare to see any card in a condition that could only be described as horrific attract enough money to afford a year’s rent for a studio apartment in Manhattan (said apartment is unlikely to be an ideal living situation.)
Despite its appearance, which features a hole punched into Mantle’s cap, massive paper loss, excessive fading and rounded corners, a bidder was willing to pony up the big bucks.
This is nothing new.
In August 2024, another 1952 Topps Mantle, in similarly decrepit condition, sold for nearly $15,000.
Of course, the world’s most expensive sports card is a 1952 Topps Mantle SGC 9.5, which sold for $12.6 million. That is arguably the finest example to come to auction this century.
We’re talking about the other end of the spectrum. The real clunkers.
The last time we saw one of Mantle’s most famous cards — often incorrectly described as his rookie — sell for less than $10,000, it featured Mantle's body cut out from the card, with no borders intact.
Prior to that, the last time a copy sold for less than $13,500 was in 2023 when a clearly trimmed and stained example sold for a few hundred dollars less.
It’s a testament to the rarity of the card, of which only around 2,880 have been graded by the major grading companies, a remarkably small number when compared to another one of the world’s most famous sports cards.
The 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan, for example, has more than 46,900 total graded copies across the major companies.
This phenomenon of high prices for conditionally challenged cards is not exclusive to Mantle.
Half of a T206 Honus Wagner card — yes, half — sold for more than $475,000 in 2022.
Really, it’s nothing more than the most extreme example of supply and demand.
There are less than 3,000 graded copies of the card. There are way more than 3,000 people who want it.
Simple.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.