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Army vet’s 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card found in cheese box sells for $186K at Heritage
When Terry and his brother were kids in the 1950s and ’60s, they collected comic books and baseball cards and kept them in the attic of their family home.
But when Terry (last name not available) joined the Army in 1966, his mom, like well-meaning moms all across the country, cleaned out the attic and threw out their cards and collectibles.
Years later, Terry, an 82-year-old Army veteran, remembered that in 1952 he had pulled a copy of the now-famous 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card and asked his brother about it.
“I was talking to my brother a couple of years ago and I said, ‘You threw out my Mickey Mantle card.’ And he said, ‘Well, I have a Mickey Mantle card, is that yours?’ I said, ‘Yes!’” Terry said in a video for Heritage Auctions, where the card is now up for bid.
Turns out Terry’s brother had pulled the card from the trash 57 years ago and stored it and 11 other cards in a Farmdale Pasteurized Process Cheese Food box that was hidden away in the family house.
“It’s been in a cheese box for the last 50 years in a crawl space under the house,” Terry said. “I got it out of there, and the rest is history.”
Terry sent the card to Heritage Auctions, where it was graded PSA EX-MINT 6 and serves as the centerpiece of Heritage’s Summer Sports Card Catalog Auction, which takes place July 14-15. UPDATE: The card sold for $186,000 in the auction. A PSA 5 example of the famous card sold for $162,000, a record for the grade.
Heritage has auctioned dozens of 1952 Mantle cards in the last few years, including the SGC 9.5 version that sold for $12.6 million last year to set the all-time sports card and memorabilia record.
The card was auctioned along with the cheese box in which it was found.
The auction featured numerous other rare, vintage cards among its 1,800 lots. Other highlights include:
• A 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady Championship Ticket Rookie Auto card 97/100 (BGS 8.5, Auto 10 that sold for $402,000.
• 1916 Famous & Barr Co. Babe Ruth No. 151 (PSA VG-EX 4), one of only seven in the PSA Population Report. UPDATE: The card topped the auction, selling for $645,000.
• 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy Babe Ruth No. 147 (PSA VG 3). Issued only one year after Ruth's rookie season, fewer than 20 examples in any grade have been recorded in the PSA Population Report. It sold for $144,000.
• 2017 Panini National Treasures Patrick Mahomes Rookie Patch Auto No. 161 4/5 (BGS 9, Auto 10) that sold for $120,000.
• 1914 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson No. 103 (PSA VG-EX 4) that sold for $150,000.
• 1948 Leaf Satchel Paige Rookie No. 8 (SGC NM 7), with only one known example graded higher that sold for $96,000.
Jeff Owens is the editor of SCD.
