Dallas

Rare 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Rookie Card Sells at Auction

A rare Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card has sold in an online auction for more than $500,000.

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said the pristine card sold Thursday night to a collector who wanted to remain anonymous for $525,800. A Heritage statement said the price set a record for a Mantle rookie card.

"The sky seems to be the limit for high-grade Mantle rookies right now," Sports Auctions at Heritage director Chris Ivy said in a news release. "[Collectors] are obviously very willing right now to pay what it takes to get them."

The '52 Mantle rookie card has long been the most valuable postwar baseball card, with comparable examples selling for $386,000 to $486,000 over the past 12 months.

"The 1952 Topps Mantle rookie is a truly transcendent piece of Americana," Ivy said.

The Mantle card was part of a 407-card set Topps distributed in 1952. However, as a rookie card, it was a "high number" card that didn't reach the Topps distribution chain before the end of the 1952 season. As a result, only a relative few of the cards were distributed to stores in the northeastern United States and Canada with the rest dumped at sea.

NBC 5's Todd L. Davis contributed to this report.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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