Mickey Mantle Baseball Card Sells for Record-Breaking $5.2 Million

A 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card from Topps sold for $5.2 million to become the most expensive sports card of all time, PWCC Marketplace announced Thursday. 

The $5.2 million purchase easily topped the five-month-old record held by a Mike Trout rookie card that sold for just under $4 million in August.

The Mantle card was purchased by entrepreneur and actor Rob Gough, who also owns streetwear brand Dope. In 2018, the card was sold by former NFL lineman Evan Mathis for $2.88 million. Gough has a collection that includes a 1916 Sporting News Babe Ruth rookie card, several high-quality Michael Jordan rookie cards and more.

"The 1952 Topps Mantle is the holy grail of sports cards," Gough said, via ESPN. "As a kid ripping packs in the '90s, I always dreamt of owning one. ... I felt this Mantle was highly underpriced."

1952 Topps cards are highly valuable because they are the first annual set the company produced. Thousands of the cards were dumped into the Hudson River in 1960 due to overproduction.

The Topps Mantle card has a PSA grade of 9 out of 10 and is believed to be one of just six PSA 9's of that card still in existence. The purchase continues a recent surge in value in the sports card market, which has seen eight of the 10 card sales to ever top $900,000 come in the last 12 months.