A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, graded SGC 6.5, sold at Fanatics Collect’s Premier Auction for $192,000 with the following parenthetical on its label: “ONCE OWNED BY MANTLE.”
The tale of Mickey Mantle’s Mickey Mantle card goes back to 1985.
Mantle had spent the previous two years ostracized by Major League Baseball, along with Willie Mays, banned by commissioner Bowie Kuhn for taking jobs with casinos in Atlantic City after their playing career. The ban was reversed in May 1985, when Kuhn was replaced by Peter Ueberroth.
A month later, the New York Times reported “MANTLE ON AIR,” as vice president and general manager of SportsChannel Larry Meli set his sights on a middle-aged Mantle and signed him to a broadcasting deal to cover his former Yankees team. Mantle joined Mel Allen, Phil Rizzuto and Bill White in the booth.
Though Mantle’s broadcast career would only last a few years and is largely forgotten, the relationship with Meli yielded success of another kind.
Until then, Mantle’s record as a businessman was dotted with failed investments in hotels and restaurants, which dealt a serious financial blow.
But Meli would be part of the group that opened Mickey Mantle's Restaurant & Sports Bar in New York in 1988. It would prove to be one of Mantle’s few business successes. A frequent venue for autograph signings, the sports-themed restaurant was filled with memorabilia, much of it from Mantle’s career.
One such piece on display was a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. At the time, it was likely worth around $1,500.
Sometime between 1988 and Mantle’s death in 1995, Meli told Mantle he was interested in owning the card.
“Mantle promptly and without reservation bequeathed this sacred relic to his friend,” according to an old auction listing by Goldin.
In February 2020, Meli submitted the card to SGC, along with an affidavit swearing to its provenance, with the hopes SGC would include Mantle’s pedigree on the label. According to Goldin, doubts were raised regarding the story. Mantle's son offered additional support, however, which ultimately allowed SGC to validate the story and place “ONCE OWNED BY MANTLE” on the card.
That wasn’t the first time SGC authenticated cards with Mantle’s provenance noted on the label. Public sales records indicate at least seven other copies bearing the “ONCE OWNED BY MANTLE” designation, including two 1958 Topps cards of Mantle and Roger Maris, a 1952 Topps Willie Mays, a 1954 Topps Hank Aaron rookie card, as well as a Ted Williams and Ernie Banks card.
Other than the 1952 Topps Mantle, none of the other Mantle-owned cards have ever sold publicly for more than $2,000, with the most recent sale coming in 2019.
No details on the origins of these other cards are known publicly, and given the fact two 1958 Topps cards were graded nine years before the 1952 Topps example, it's possible they hail from a different source. They could also reasonably have been displayed at the restaurant and either taken by another person or submitted by Meli separately.
Beyond the obvious “cool factor” of the Mantle provenance, one would expect it to also add a hefty premium to the card’s price tag. However, a look at past sales shows essentially zero impact.
The card first appeared at public auction in May 2020, when it sold for $54,000 at Heritage. That was just $700 more than the previous comp three months prior. A month later, another SGC 6.5 sold for more than the Mantle-owned copy, reaching nearly $60,000.
Two years later, it was sold for $157,200 at Goldin on May 21, 2022. Eight days earlier, another SGC 6.5 sold for $228,000 — a record for the grade and an astounding 45% more than the Mantle-owned example.
Most recently, it was sold once again at Goldin, in October 2023, for $183,000. A month later, a comparable copy fetched $186,000.
Surprisingly, past performance indicated the card not only has failed to attract a premium for its history, but actually might have underperformed. The most obvious reason is the card’s visual appeal. It is quite off center right-to-left, a key metric valued by collectors, as well as a few small defects which some might find undesirable at the grade.
Usually collectors aren’t very interested in the previous owners of their cards. Whether buying on eBay, in-person, or elsewhere, the card’s entire provenance is generally erased. Despite the name “Mantle” in the list of past owners, it would appear provenance remains somewhat inconsequential, even in this unique case.
The most recent sale of an SGC 6.5 copy of a 1952 Mantle was for $186,000 in November 2023. A copy given the same grade by PSA, which typically commands a higher premium over SGC, sold last in January 2023 for $240,000.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.