The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card is one of the most recognized, and of course valuable sports cards in the world. Have you ever seen one of these iconic cards signed? An autographed Mickey Mantle rookie card has hit the auction block - check out the price and the rarity.
The 1952 Topps Baseball Set is considered the most important post-World War II set ever made. At the time of creation, this release had the largest checklist with a tally of 407 cards. Each player has a vibrant, colorful photo on the front of the cards along with their team logos. The size of the cards still stands out compared to modern cards today. The 1952 cards are 2-5/8" by 3-3/4 while a standard size today is 2-1/2" by 3-1/2". On the back of each card you'll find biographies and stats. The cards were released in multiple series during the baseball season which sounded like a fine marketing tool at the time. By releasing cards numbered 1-80 in "series 1" and not releasing all 407 cards simultaneously, collectors would not be able to build a complete set of cards early in the baseball season. This would keep collectors purchasing cards all season, or so Topps and distributors thought. When Fall came around, collectors were more interested in football. The forgotten sixth series, cards #311 - 407, were disposed of by being dumped into the Atlantic Ocean!
Guess which player has the majority of his rookie cards lost forever in a burial at sea? Mickey Mantle. Card #311 is Mickey Mantle's rookie card. Coupled with his legendary career and the scarcity of surviving copies, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card is one of the most desired cards in the hobby.
We truly do not know exactly how many 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie cards exist; we do know there isn't a surplus in the world for sure. PSA has graded just 1,877 of the '52 Topps Mantle cards. SGC has graded only 613 of the Mantle card. BGS has graded even fewer of the '52 cards with only 181 on their population report. Raw (ungraded) rookies do exist; we have purchased a few here at Just Collect. However, as you can see by the numbers, there aren't that many 1952 Topps Mickey Mantles that have survived over the last seven decades.
Having athletes sign their rookie cards has always been a big debate in the hobby. While asking players to sign cards has became more prevalent in recent years and sort of the norm, this was once frowned upon. After all, you're technically defacing the card. Given the low number of Mantle rookie cards and the fact that signing rookie cards wasn't suggested, to see an autographed Mantle rookie card is special to see! PSA has only 18 signed cards known on their population report.
Here is a signed Mantle we saw in-person at the 2022 National. You can see a young Mantle looking out in the distance, maybe thinking about where is next home run was going to land. This signed card has Mick's classic signature on the front with the M's over the yellow-ish bat. A nicer copy of the card is now at auction!
The signed Mantle rookie card is currently at auction through Heritage Auctions as part of their January 26th-27th Winter Sports Card auction. With four days left to bed, the current price is $145,000! The card is graded PSA 2 and the auto grad is a PSA 10. You can see this one, one of the 18 graded by PSA HERE.
If you have a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card you're interested in selling, we are buying! We have purchased several Mantle rookie cards here at Just Collect including one from The Black Box Collection and Grandpa's Shoebox Collection from Canada.
Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want to be appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.
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We offer many ways to evaluate your cards other than using our website, too.
If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.
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If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out. We recently took a trip to California to purchase a collection that included three Jackie Robinson 1948 Leaf rookie cards that you can read about here.
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If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back with shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.
We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!
Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.
Whether you have vintage cards or modern wax you want to sell, you can reach out to us any time!