Mickey Mantle nicknamed “The Commerce Comet” and “The Mick”, is one of the most famous baseball players in history. He played his entire career (which lasted from 1951 to 1968) with the New York Yankees. Mantle played as center fielder, right fielder, and first baseman. He is also known as being the best switch-hitter in baseball history, meaning that he could bat both left-handed and right-handed.
In addition, Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest offensive threats as a centerfielder, he had the second highest OPS (On-base plus slugging) among center-fielders, and the highest stolen base percentage in history at the time of his retirement. This is why it should come to no surprise that he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974.
Now that we know about his accomplishments, we can better understand why his baseball cards have also become so sought after. In fact, just recently, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle was sold for 5.2 million dollars. Let’s take a look at why this card sold for so much money.
To start, this card was part of the 1952 Topps baseball card set, which were the first major baseball cards issued by Topps. When they were first printed, there was an excess of cards that they weren’t able to sell. As a result, the remaining cards were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. Over time, however, these cards became valuable, as they were in high demand by sports card buyers in NJ.
The second reason that Mickey Mantle’s card was sold at such a high price was because of its quality. This is because PSA, a third-party grading company, graded this card as a 9. The scale that it’s graded on is a 10-point scale, with 10 being nearly impossible to receive. A 9, which is referred to as Mint 9, achieves that grade by having no creases, perfectly sharp corners, and almost perfect centering.
Getting scored a 9 by PSA is hard in any situation, but even harder when the card was printed so many years ago. This is why the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card was sold to sports card buyers in NJ for 5.2 million dollars; not only for its rarity, but for its condition.
