The most expensive baseball card in history

As native Mediterraneans, we probably never knew what a home run was. However, movies aired on television on lazy weekend afternoons taught us about the importance of baseball to American society. Fathers watching their son play in an interstate final that is crucial to victory. But cheap movie clichés aside, the sport that involves gloves, caps and bats is one of the most followed and profitable sports in the world.

In 2023, Major League Baseball (MLB) managed to rake in 11.6 billion dollars, between sponsorships, ticket sales and merchandising. But, of course, to this amount we must also add everything the collector market generates. Between vintage stickers, signed balls and used gloves, baseball collectibles reached 4.7 billion dollars. This is not a small amount, highlighting the degree of interest in this sport among American collectors. In fact, in 2022, a baseball card became the most expensive collectible of its kind in history.
 

From humble beginnings to collector's item 

Mickey Mantle, one of the New York Yankees' most iconic players, made his Major League debut in 1951. However, his most famous card was not released until the following year. The 1952 card, number 311 in the Topps collection, is known for its iconic design, featuring a young Mantle with a dreamy expression and a bat over his shoulder. The design of the card already offered an inkling of the epic aura of a future Hall of Famer, but it would also mark the dawn of trading card collecting.

During the 1950s, baseball cards were a pastime for children. They were traded along with chewing gum and other sweets and were pasted into albums or exchanged with friends. This was also happening in Spain (and it still happens every Sunday at the Mercat de Sant Antoni in Barcelona) with the football league cards. Few people at that time could have imagined that these little pieces of cardboard would become multi-million-dollar investments.

Although Mantle's 1952 card was initially not particularly treasured, over time it began to gain in value. The player's achievements throughout his career, as well as the design features themselves, made a place for a simple cardboard card in the hearts of avid collectors, who began to fervently desire to include it among their personal treasures.
 

Mint condition

But what distinguishes the 1952 Mantle card is not only its rarity, but its condition. Unsurprisingly, many of these cards were abused, bent or even thrown away. Finding one, even in poor condition, is no easy task. In addition, the 1952 production also endured a number of distribution problems, with many unsold cards being returned to Topps and subsequently dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. That scarcity, combined with nostalgia and reverence for Mantle, drove up the value of the surviving cards.

In August 2022, at a sale organised by Heritage Auctions, one card went for $12.6 million. That card was in near mint condition, graded with a score of 9.5 by SGC, one of the leading card-grading agencies. An extremely rare score for a card of that era, making it a real treasure for collectors. That sale broke the previous record for any sports card, marking a milestone that bears witness to the growing appreciation and value of historic sports memorabilia in the collectors' market.