This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/10/2017
It's pretty unlikely that from all the basebal cards of all of the great icons in baseball history, the 1952 Topps baseball card of Mickey Mantle would ascend to become the shining symbol of an entire industry. Mantle certainly isn't considered the greatest player in the game and the 1952 Topps Mantle card isn't nearly as old or rare as cards of his iconic predecessors. And not to split hairs, but it's really not even his rookie card. However, the baseball card hobby is not one of formulaic logic and reasoning, relying merely on some combination of a player's ability and the availability of his most coveted card. No, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card isn't just a mere piece of cardboard to be collected by well-financed hobbyists, its a marker that helps define a place and time in American history. Just as Wagner and Cobb were baseball pioneers at the age of the Pregressive Era, Ruth and Gehrig saw us through the Great Depression, and Williams and DiMaggio carried us to victory in World War II, a fresh-faced teenager from the heartland named Mickey Mantle became the hero of the Baby Boomer generation. Looking back on it 65 years later, we now know that the fledgling Topps Company would grow to dominate the baseball card market for well over half a century and their debut issue of Mickey Mantle, the very first card in the vaunted high-number series, would become the standard-bearer of the entire baseball card world. Offered here is one of the finest surviving examples of Mickey Mantle's 1952 Topps card to be preserved at a grade of NM/MT. This card was originally evaluated by SGC, but their determination of 86 NM+ 7.5 seemed very conservative given the extremely accurate centering, maybe just a degree or two toward the right edge, as well as the thorough color and depth of the central image and bonafide NM/MT endpoints, connected on the the right side by a pleasing mild rough cut. Upon review, the thoughtful card graders at Beckett made the decision that this beauty should take its rightful place at the NM/MT level and placed the card in a BVG 8 holder. We'd even go as far as to say there are very few at this grade level that would compare favorably to the featured example, a specimen deserving of one of the world's best collections!