Exclusive | Home run! Mickey Mantle baseball card could sell for over $1.5 million at auction

A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card is up for auction and could fetch a major league sum.The coveted card — considered to be the most iconic one of the Yankees legend — will be on sale at Heritage’s Winter Sports Catalog Auction until Dec.21.Heritage Auctions’ Chris Ivy explained why the rare piece of baseball history is such a home run.“It is only one of 35 examples that have achieved a rating of Near Mint to Mint 8 from leading card grading service PSA, making it one of the finest examples that remains today,” Ivy said.“If a collector wants a seat at this table, then it is going to take a seven-figure check to sit down.”The Hall of Famer, who played his entire 18-year career with the Yankees, led the Bronx Bombers to eight World Series and five championships, making him “one of the most popular players since Babe Ruth,” Ivy said.

Ruth’s 1914 rookie card sold for $4.026 million in October.Current bids on the Mantle card, produced for his sophomore season, are already up to $812,500.“Over the past 10 years or so, the high-end sports collectibles market has widened considerably from its entrenched base of serious collectors alone to include a global audience of investors who properly see high-end sports collectibles as a viable form of asset diversification,” Ivy explained.“But we know quite a few members of the old guard of veteran hobbyists who will make a serious run at these pieces, so it will be interesting to see who is left standing after the dust has settled.”The second-most expensive card ever sold at the Dallas-based auction house was also a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card — but graded a 10 — which went for $12.6 million in 2022....