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When you think baseball cards, the first company that comes to your mind is Topps. A staple of your childhood, you would rip open a pack of cards, chew that stick of gum, and look for your favorite players. Maybe you put the doubles in your bike spokes or played a game of FLIP. Those cards in your shoebox were probably Topps baseball cards, weren't they? Today, we go back to the dawn of the cardboard treasures we still love. The 1952 Topps baseball card set is the one of, if not the most, important set in our hobby. 

 

While there have been plenty of baseball card sets prior to 1952 like the 1909-11 T206 set and the 1933 Goudey set, 1952 Topps is the foundation of what modern cards are today. Each card measures 2-5/8" x 3-3/4". On the front of each card is a colorful image of each player, a team log, and a facsimile signature. No black and white images, no cartoonish drawings, and cards just big enough to hold and enjoy. Unlike the old tobacco or gum cards, the back of a Topps card carries a players' bio and stats! Long before the Internet, the way you knew what a player's career batting average was came from flipped over your 1952 Topps card. Overlooked on the back of a card: numbers. Topps released 407 cards in their 1952 set, and each card has it's own number. Do you know what card number Ty Cobb is in the 1909-11 T206 set is? Trick question: there is no card number. Having numbers allows you to know which cards you need for your set.

 

 

In 1952, Topps released their set in multiple series during the baseball season. A marketing ploy to have you continuing purchasing cards all year and not completing your set in just a few weeks, Topps released cards in small batches. For example, cards numbered 1-80 were in "series 1." You still see this today! 2025 Topps baseball cards will have Series 1, Series 2, and Update. In 1952, Topps released the set in six different series. While the idea was fine on a paper, by the time Tops released the sixth series with cards #311 - 407, it was football season. Collectors were more interested in football than baseball, leaving all of the Topps cards sitting on store shelves to collect dust. 

Topps couldn't give the 1952 Topps series six cards away! Sy Berger created the 1952 Topps design. In 1959, Berger was Vice-President of Sports and Licensing. Not knowing what to do about all the unwanted cards still sitting in storage, Berger opted to DUMP THE CARDS IN THE OCEAN! Regarding the cards, Sy Berger was quoted in an interview with Sports Collectors Digest's T.S. O’Connell, stating he had a friend that owned a garbage scow. The baseball cards were put into cases, three garbage trucks worth, and then onto the scow. A tugboat then pulled the scow, cards and all. Berger states to T.S. O'Connell “I was out there with it. Opposite Atlantic Highlands, a few miles out.”

Guess which player has the majority of his rookie cards lost forever in the Ocean? MICKEY MANTLE.

Mickey Mantle is card #311 in the 1952 Topps set. Think about that for a second: there are probably more 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie cards in the ocean than exist in collections today. Mantle was just 20 years-old in 1952. As you look at his rookie card below, the Mick has a bright, blue background. A yellow bat in-hand, resting on his shoulder. Mantle appears to be looking off into the distance - maybe to think about where he was going to hit one of his mammoth home runs. Mantle went on to lead his New York Yankees to seven World Series championships, won three MVP awards, and is, perhaps, the most-desired player to collect a baseball card of. Everyone you know either wants a Mickey Mantle or a Babe Ruth card, right?

 

The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card above is graded PSA 10. Using a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being Gem Mint perfect, only THREE Mantle rookies have been given that grade of PSA 10. The value of a PSA 10 is easily more than 30 MILLION dollars. A Mantle rookie graded 9.5 out of 10 was sold for 12.5 million dollars.

 

GUESSING GAMES! We know that Ken Kendrick (owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and Marshall Fogel own two of the three PSA 10 Mantle cards. Who do you think owns the third? The third owner is anonymous, and we always wonder who owns that iconic card. We also love to guess WHERE in the ocean the cards were dumped! We did some research and wrote a fun blog about the possible location of those Mantle cards you can read HERE.

 

Hall of Famers galore. Aside from Mantle, the 1952 Topps baseball set includes these baseball greats and more:

 

Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews sitting at card #407 is a key card for more than the facts of his career and cards being in the ocean. The same reason why card #1, Andy Pakfo, is a key card. Remember putting a rubber band around your stack of cards to keep them together? The top card and the bottom card always took the most damage from the rubber band! The first card and the last card in the set tend to have rubber band marks. This is why we offer tips on how to safely store your baseball cards. 

 

How prenominal would it have been to open a pack of baseball cards and have Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson cards in the same pack. We did not open a 1952 Topps wax pack, but Just Collect did make history at the National Sports Collectors Convention when we opened a pack of 1955 Bowman and pulled a pack-fresh Mickey Mantle! You can watch our history pull HERE.

 

Just Collect is always buying 1952 Topps baseball cards! If you have these cards and are interested in selling, reach out for a FREE APPRAISAL any time. The retail stores are focused on selling modern products and simply don't have the time or the knowledge to carefully evaluate vintage collections. This is where we are happy to help you! We have purchased thousands upon thousands of collections and bought and sold over 50 MILLION dollars in cards. Read below to see how easy it is to contact us today! We have proudly purchased multiple collections of 1952 Topps cards including a COPMLETE SET in our Black Box Collection. We discovered and purchased Mickey Mantle rookie cards in unexpected places. Recently, we purchased a Mantle rookie that was discovered in a shed on an Oregon farm. Another Mantle rookie card Just Collect purchased was discovered with jars of pickles.

 

We hope you enjoyed learning about the 1952 Topps set. Make sure to come back next week to learn about our next Set of the Week.

 

 WE ARE ALWAYS BUYING