NY Buyer New Owner Of Rare $12.6M Record-Setting Mickey Mantle Card

RYE, NY — Heritage Auctions just sold a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card for $12.6 million, setting the record for the world’s most valuable sports collectible, and the "mint condition" card is coming home to New York.

The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card is considered the "finest known example," according to Texas-based Heritage Auctions. Even before the record-setting winning bid was placed on Sunday, reportedly by an anonymous bidder from Rye, the rookie card was already considered the world's most valuable sports card sold. Early bidding had already blown past the previous record set by the $6.6 million sale of a T206 Honus Wagner just last year. Shortly after midnight, it became official when Heritage Auctions sold the 1952 Mantle card for $12.6 million.

According to the auction house, the Mantle rookie card isn't just the most valuable sports card in the world. It is now the most valuable sports collectible ever sold at auction. It surpassed the record achieved earlier this year when the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the so-called "Hand of God" goal in the 1986 World Cup was sold for $9.3 million.

"An eight-figure auction result in the sports market was the stuff of fantasy just a decade ago," Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage said. "We always knew this card would shatter records and expectations. But that doesn't make it any less of a thrill to be part of an auction during which a single item breaks the eight-figure threshold for the first time. It's an extraordinary accomplishment for our wonderful team of sports experts at Heritage Auctions. And, of course, we could not have done it without our consignor, Anthony Giordano, who put his trust in Heritage to bring this amazing card to market."

The card sold during the first session of the auction house's Aug. 27-28 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction. According to the New York Times, the card is coming home to New York.

Since Heritage first announced the card's auction in July, it has been the stuff of international headlines — primarily because Giordano bought the prized Mantle for a then-record-setting price of $50,000 in 1991. Giordano acquired the Mantle from Alan "Mr. Mint" Rosen, then kept it hidden away — ungraded — for the next three decades.

Until the rookie Mantle came to Heritage Auctions earlier this year, its provenance was all that was known about it, the auctioneers explained. The card was among the 5,500 1952 Topps cards Rosen bought from a Massachusetts man in the mid-1980s — "The Famous 1952 Topps Baseball Card Find," as a professional sports authenticator once dubbed it. There were myriad Mantles in the old Topps Chewing Gum cardboard box that had been stashed in an attic for more than three decades, but none in better condition than the one Rosen sold to Giordano in 1991.

Rosen, in fact, wrote a letter for Giordano that said this 1952 Mantle was "in my estimation the finest known example in the world."

"It bears the finest qualities any 1952 Topps can possess: perfect centering, registration and four sharp corners," Ivy said. "That this Mantle rookie card remained in this condition for 70 years is a true miracle."