Mickey Mantle and the most expensive trading card ever

Mickey Mantle’s nickname, the ‘Commerce Comet’, took on new meaning when a 1952 Topps trading card bearing his name and image sold at auction for US$12.6 million in August 2022. To put this in perspective, across his legendary career which spanned almost two decades with the New York Yankees, Mantle made US$1.128 million in total career earnings. Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to US$11.3 million in 2023.

So, why did this card become the most valuable ever? The answer is a mix of rarity, condition and historical significance.

‘The Commerce Comet’

Mantle was a seven-time World Series champion, three-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. A legendary switch hitter, he is the only player to hit 150 home runs from both sides of the plate.

1952 Topps and card #311

The card, a 1952 Topps #311 Mantle, is legendary for reasons that transcend the man it depicts. The 1952 Topps were the first modern baseball card set, created by a 28-year-old World War II veteran named Sy Berger. In a tradition which still stands, the set was divided into two series. Series one consisted of cards numbered 1 to 310, with series two numbered 311 to 407.

Series one was a massive hit. However, by the release of series two, the baseball season was drawing to a close, and the mostly children who collected cards had turned their attention to the impending start of the football season. The series two cards, which included the famed #311 Mickey Mantle, literally could not be given away.

Berger, in need of warehouse space, decided to clear out the series two cards. All in all, an estimated 300 to 500 cases of cards, which took three trucks to haul away, were loaded onto a garbage barge and dumped into the middle of New York’s Hudson River. Thousands of Mantle cards (along with cards depicting Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese), each worth a fortune, were gone forever.

Enter ‘Mr Mint’

Fast forward to 1986, where Alan ‘Mr Mint’ Rosen (one of the first people to recognise the appeal of trading cards as an investment opportunity) received a call from a forklift operator who said he had a truck driver friend, Ted Lodge, with 1952 Topps cards for sale. Lodge had inherited a home from his father, who was also a truck driver and had driven for Topps in the 1950’s.

As it turned out, not every case of the 1952 series two cards sat at the bottom of the Hudson River – a cache of them had been stored in the basement of the home Lodge had inherited for decades.

Rosen hired an armed police guard to accompany him to make the sale, paying US$125,000 cash for 5,500 1952 Topps cards, which included dozens of the prized Mantle cards.

The sale of lifetime

Five years later in 1991, Rosen sold one of those ungraded Mantle cards for US$50,000 to Anthony Giordano, a man who would remain anonymous for over three decades. Despite years of million-dollar offers for the card, it took the persuasion of Giordano’s sons to finally come forward, grade the card and sell the crown jewel of his collection.

The card was awarded a 9.5 and deemed the ‘finest known example’ of a Topps 1952 #311 Mantle.

Lending itself to the importance of card condition and grading, according to PSA, card #311 with a grading of 8 or higher will still cost seven figures, but a grade 9 will carry with it a US$4.25 million price tag.

Overall, however, the historical significance of the Topps 1952 series, card #311 and the man it depicts, Giordano’s backstory, as well as the mint condition of this card all worked together to ensure this was the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever.