1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card sells for $12.6 million, shattering report

1:fifty 4 AM ET

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  Dan HajduckyESPN

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  Hajducky is a reporter/researcher for ESPN. He has an MFA in inventive writing from Fairfield college and performed on the lads’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.

The wait is over.

After better than a month of fanfare, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card with a 9.5 grade from grader SGC — the “most interesting acknowledged event” of a 1952 Topps Mantle — has purchased with Heritage Auctions for $12.6 million collectively with purchaser’s premium. it is basically the most ever paid for any sports activities merchandise, card or memorabilia.

The earlier report for a sports activities card was $7.25 million, set earlier this month by a T206 Honus Wagner card consigned to collectables market Goldin.

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“This card is arguably the best-situation event of basically the most iconic publish-battle card on the planet,” Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports activities auctions, acknowledged in an announcement. “That grade, plus the very fact it has documented provenance from basically the most storied discover in pastime historic previous, places this card in a class of its personal.”

So the story goes: In 1986, Alan Rosen, greater usually referred to as “Mr. Mint” — who Beckett Media referred to as “greater than the pastime” after his dying in 2017 — obtained a name from the Boston space. A forklift operator informed Rosen that a truck driver buddy, Ted Lodge, had 1952 Topps playing cards on the market. Lodge had inherited a residence from his late father and stumbled upon a fortune in pristine situation.

The report-setting card is taken underneath consideration the “most interesting event” of a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Even in 1986, the 1952 Topps set was pastime gold. Lodge’s father had reportedly been a driver, too, one who drove Topps’ product inside the Nineteen Fifties; the distribution of the 1952 set had been famously bungled and a trove of them sat inside the basement, boxed, for a know-how.

The notion of principally untouched 1952 Topps in an attic appeared inconceivable, however Rosen employed an armed police officer, pocketed money and drove to Quincy, Mass. inside the prolonged time period, he forked over better than $a hundred twenty five,000 for 5,500 1952 Topps playing cards, collectively with dozens of Mantles.

In 1991, Rosen purchased a variety of ungraded Mantles for $50,000. For 31 years, the shopper was nameless and the cardboard remained ungraded.

that is that Mantle.

for many years, Anthony Giordano rejected myriad multimillion-dollar provides. Giordano’s sons reportedly satisfied him to step forward, get the cardboard graded and half collectively with his beloved Mantle.

it is the third time in 12 months that the all-time report for a sports activities card has been damaged after the early-August Wagner and the $6.606 million Wagner purchased in August of 2021 with Robert Edward Auctions. earlier than that, again in January of 2021, a distinctive 1952 Topps Mantle (graded a PSA 9) purchased for $5.2 million; a 2003-04 greater Deck beautiful assortment RPA (rookie patch autograph) LeBron James card purchased for $5.2 million a quantity of months later, in April.

It was an monumental evening time for Heritage in recreation-used memorabilia, too. inside the identical public sale, a recreation-used — circa 1918-1922 — autographed Babe Ruth signature mannequin Hillerich & Bradsby bat purchased for $1.sixty eight million with purchaser’s premium, breaking the report for costliest bat of all-time. The earlier report paid for a bat was additionally a Ruth; in 2004, the bat Ruth used to hit the predominant-ever residence run at Yankee Stadium fetched $1.26 million with Sotheby’s.

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