A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card has sold for $12.6 million, making it the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia.
The baseball card from the Yankee Hall of Famer’s rookie season, which was graded in near-perfect condition, sold Saturday after weeks of bidding with Heritage Auctions.
“This card is arguably the finest-condition example of the most iconic post-war card in the world,” Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions, said in a statement. “That grade, plus the fact it has documented provenance from the most storied find in hobby history, puts this card in a category of its own.”
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Well-known collector Alan Rosen reportedly bought 5,500 1952 Topps cards, including dozens of Mantle cards, for $125,000 in 1986 after getting a call from a friend in Boston saying a local man had inherited the cards and was willing to sell them. With cash in hand, Rosen hired a police officer and drove to Quincy, Massachusetts, to make the purchase.
In 1991, Rosen sold one of the Mantle cards for $50,000 to an anonymous buyer, per ESPN. That buyer, who is now known to be Anthony Giordano, rejected several offers to sell the card over the years. It wasn’t until recently that his sons convinced him to have the card graded and auctioned.
The previous record sales price for a sports card was $7.25 million, set when a T206 Honus Wagner card was sold earlier this month.
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In the same auction, Heritage also sold an autographed Hillerich & Bradsby bat used by baseball legend Babe Ruth for $1.68 million, breaking the record for the most ever spent on a baseball bat.
