The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle of Sports Magazines Is Up for Auction
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A major test for the sports magazine market is underway at Goldin Auctions. A 1956 Sports Illustrated featuring Mickey Mantle is currently being offered in the Goldin Spring 100 Auction, ending June 28th. The magazine, titled "Year of the Slugger”, is a newsstand edition graded PSA 9.6. This is the highest ever grade for the issue.
At the time of writing, the magazine has already reached $140,000 ($170,800 including buyer’s premium), with a few weeks remaining before the auction closes.
Why the 1956 “Mickey Mantle” Sports Illustrated is so Important
The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle has become the symbol of baseball card collecting, and the 1956 Sports Illustrated occupies the same position within the growing graded magazine hobby. It combines one of the most recognizable images of Mickey Mantle with extraordinary scarcity. It is a “Mantle first cover” Sports Illustrated, which is the equivalent of a Topps rookie card.
Mantle appeared on the cover during the greatest season of his legendary career. In 1956, he won the Triple Crown, captured his first MVP Award, and led the Yankees to another World Series title. Mantle not only won the American League Triple Crown in 1956, but also led all of Major League Baseball in batting average, home runs, and RBIs. He is the last player to accomplish this feat. The iconic magazine cover image captures a young Mantle at the peak of his powers.
Where the 1956 Mantle Magazine Stacks Up
According to graded magazine collector Joel Koman, who is consigning the issue, the Mantle Sports Illustrated is widely viewed as the hobby’s ultimate prize. “It is considered the holy grail of magazine collecting,” Joel said. “You basically have Mickey Mantle and Michael Jordan, and the Mantle cover is the holy grail because the Jordan first cover is from 1983. The Mantle cover is from 1956, which is 27 years earlier. It’s a vintage cover. It’s hugely important.”
Every collecting category eventually develops its own Mount Rushmore, and sports magazines are no different. Michael Jordan’s 1983 Sports Illustrated “first cover” would almost certainly make the top four. Muhammad Ali’s first Sports Illustrated cover from 1963 is another. LeBron James’ first Sports Illustrated cover and the iconic 1992 Dream Team issue both have great arguments for the fourth spot.
But the Mickey Mantle cover stands above them all. It checks every box (the PSA 9.6 Mickey Mantle segment starts at the 23.45 mark in the linked video). It has a first-cover appearance, a legendary and popular athlete, a vintage publication date, incredible eye appeal, historical significance, and extreme scarcity in top condition (and the population count is less than half that of the 1983 Jordan). Most collectors would place the 1956 Mickey Mantle Sports Illustrated in the George Washington position on sports magazines' Mount Rushmore.
The Graded Sports Magazine Market is on Fire
When PSA started grading magazines on July 14th, 2025, many collectors began viewing important sports magazines through the same lens as iconic sports cards. This past March, the iconic 1983 Michael Jordan Sports Illustrated sold for $229,360.
Goldin founder Ken Goldin believes the category is attracting a new audience of collectors.
“We’ve seen huge growth in value and collector interest over the past few years,” Goldin said. “Jordan’s first S.I. cover recently showed what a modern magazine can do. Now Mantle’s first S.I. cover in the same PSA 9.6 grade represents the very best that the vintage magazine market has to offer. I can tell you that more and more card collectors who had never bought a magazine before are now paying close attention to these rising prices.”
Click here to bid on the PSA 9.6 1956 Sports Illustrated Mickey Mantle
Mantle is one of the only athletes whose collectibles are consistently discussed in the same breath as Michael Jordan’s. The appreciation of the 1956 Mantle Magazine demonstrates that the upward trend began even before PSA. A CGC 8.5 copy sold for just $960 in 2019. In May 2024, a CGC 8.5 went for $10,800. Just over a year later, another CGC 8.5 sold for $21,350. Those gains have attracted attention from baseball card collectors and investors who believe the category has significant room for growth.
Following the Path of Cards and Comics
Supporters of graded magazines will point to what happened with other collectible markets. In 1991, Wayne Gretzky and LA Kings owner Bruce McNall paid $451,000 for the famous T206 Honus Wagner PSA 8, a price many considered outrageous at the time. Today, the card is worth an estimated $50 million, with some believing it could sell for more. Some argue that a PSA 10 copy of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is just as valuable (only three copies of this card exist, but there have been no public sales).
Comic books have followed a similar path. CGC has been grading comic books and magazines since 2009, helping establish a market for high-grade examples. A CGC 9.6 copy of the Amazing Fantasy #15, the 1962 comic book that introduced Spider-Man, sold for $3.6 million in September of 2021. The grade is rare, with only four copies known to exist in that condition. Many comic book experts believe that this CGC 9.6 Spider-Man could command $10 million or more if it were offered today.
Action Comics #1, featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold for $82,500 in 1992. In January of this year, a CGC 9.0 copy sold for $15 million, becoming one of the most valuable collectibles in the world.
Magazine collectors believe their category is simply earlier in that same trajectory. Joel sees sports magazines occupying a unique position between sports cards and comic books. “With comic books, you have fictional superheroes,” he said. “With sports magazines, you have real-life superheroes.” The June 18th, 1956, Sports Illustrated with Mickey Mantle on the cover is the Superman of sports magazines.
One advantage graded magazines have over cards is their presentation. Their larger format gives them a presence that cards simply cannot match. Unlike cards, magazines command attention from across the room, often becoming one of the first pieces visitors notice when they walk into a home office, sports room, or mancave. “The displayability is off the charts,” Joel said. “Once you put them into a holder, it takes on a life of its own.”
History in the Making
The 1956 Sports Illustrated Mickey Mantle is already considered the most important sports magazine in existence. If the auction sets a record and attracts national attention, it may become the sale collectors point to years from now as the moment graded sports magazines entered the hobby mainstream.
Over the next few weeks, the market will decide where the 1956 Mickey Mantle Sports Illustrated belongs on that timeline. We will get that answer on June 28th when the Goldin Spring 100 Auction comes to a close.
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David is a collector based in Georgia and a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, New York Giants, and New York Knicks. He is an avid sports card collector with a strong passion for vintage baseball cards and vintage on-card autographs. David enjoys obtaining autographs through the mail and loves connecting with other knowledgeable collectors to discuss the history and evolution of the hobby. He also previously wrote about the New York Giants for GMENHQ.com