Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card sells for $500,000

Bob Hille

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Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card sells for $500,000 image

A rare Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card sold at auction Thursday night for more than $500,000, The Associated Press reported.

Heritage Auctions of Dallas said the "near mint-mint" rated card sold for $525,800, a record for a Mantle rookie card, according to the auction house. The buyer did not want to be identified.

MORE: Classic photos of Mantle | Best baseball cards of the 80s and 90s

Here is Heritage Auctions' description of the card, part of a larger lot:

At 407 cards in scope, the 1952 Topps set was the largest of its day, both in number of cards and the dimensions of each one respectively. Ultimately, though, these excesses turned against Topps Company management, who realized late in the 1952 season that the "High Number" cards (#'s 311-407) would never reach their channels of distribution in time for the close of the baseball season. Limited quantities were trucked to stores in the northeastern United States and in Canada, but the final solution for a warehouse filled with unsellable cards is said to have been a boat trip several miles out into the Atlantic Ocean, and ignominious burial at sea.

The '52 Mantle rookie card is considered the most valuable post-World War II baseball card, and, according to The AP, comparable examples have sold for $386,000 to $486,000 over the past 12 months.

Bob Hille

Bob Hille Photo

Bob Hille, a senior content consultant for The Sporting News, has been part of the TSN team for most of the past 30 years, including as managing editor and executive editor. He is a native of Texas (forever), adopted son of Colorado, where he graduated from Colorado State, and longtime fan of “Bull Durham” (h/t Annie Savoy for The Sporting News mention).