This Baseball Card Just Sold for an Insane Amount of MoneyA Mickey Mantle card from 1952 becomes the most valuable in history.

ByJonathan Small

Oh, Mickey, you're so fine.

A Mickey Mantle baseball card from 1952 just sold at an auction for $12,600,000, making it the most valuable piece ofsports memorabiliain the world.

前面的record was held by Diego Maradona's Hand of God jersey from the 1986 World Cup, which a Russian oligarch purchased for a cool $9.3 million. Honus Wagner's baseball card fetched $6.6 million last year, but Mantle's rookie card almost doubled that impressive figure.

Related:Four Tips for Getting Started in a Collectibles Business

"An eight-figure auction result in the sports market was the stuff of fantasy just a decade ago," says Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage in Dallas.

But that fantasy became a reality over the weekend. Why the recent surge? For starters, the Mickey Mantle card is in impeccable condition — it was graded Mint+ 9.5. by Sportscard Guaranty Corporation. But experts say there's also been a rise in investors shelling out big bucks for nostalgia.

"All of a sudden, people are like, 'Wow, this stuff could be art,'" says Michael Osacky, the lead appraiser for Professional Sports Authenticator,in an interview withThe New York Times.

Might be time to pull that old shoe box of collectibles out of the closet.

Related:Baseball and Business Need Metrics to Hit a Home Run

Wavy Line
Jonathan Small

Entrepreneur Staff

Editor in Chief of Green Entrepreneur

Jonathan Small is editor-in-chief ofGreen Entrepreneur, a vertical from Entrepreneur Media focused on the intersection of sustainability and business. He is also an award-winning journalist, producer, and podcast host of the upcoming True Crime series, Dirty Money, andWrite About Nowpodcasts. Jonathan is the founder ofStrike Fire Productions, a premium podcast production company. He had held editing positions atGlamour,Stuff,Fitness, andTwistMagazines. His stories have appeared inThe New York Times, TV Guide,Cosmo,Details, andGood Housekeeping. Previously, Jonathan served as VP of Content for the GSN (the Game Show Network), where he produced original digital video series.

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