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Type 1 photo with image used for 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card sells for record $3M
There’s no slowing down the Mickey Mantle market.
Top-notch examples of the New York Yankees star’s iconic 1952 Topps card have been selling for seven figures for a number of years. Each graded copy continues to increase in value.
Now, the original black-and-white photograph with the image used for his first-ever Topps card is joining the million dollar Mantle club.
Hunt Auctions announced that it brokered the sale of a rare Mantle Type I photo for $3 million through a private deal. That is an all-time record sale for a PSA-authenticated Type I photograph.
“This is huge for the photo collecting community, because it’s such a big number,” Henry Yee, principal authenticator for PSA Photo Authentication Services, told SCD. “When you talk about any collectible that crosses $1 million, whether it be tickets or magazines, it’s huge. Actually, photos have crossed $1 million but they were private sales.”
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The previous record sale for an unsigned Type I original photograph was $843,750 on April 7, 2024 through Heritage Auctions. That was also a Mantle photo, which became the image used for his 1951 Bowman rookie card.
“The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card remains to date one of the most recognizable American sports and popular culture items of the last 100 years,” said David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions. “The record-setting price achieved for the related photograph is one of scant few PSA/DNA Type I examples known to exist and is among the most coveted original sports images of any type. This astounding record-setting image further memorializes the elite status of the Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card within the history of American popular culture. We are honored to have facilitated this historic sale, which undoubtedly has established a pricing standard of great significance.”
The Type I Mantle photograph was purchased by Hunt Auctions on behalf of prominent sports memorabilia collector Ron Firman.
“Mickey Mantle was a great player who was universally admired,” said Firman, who became a baseball fan growing up in a New York City suburb. “Our love for sports and its heroes help bring us together in our communities and as a nation, and that’s very important.
“I really want to thank Dave Hunt of Hunt Auctions for his valued assistance in this process and expertise within the market.”
PHOTO CLASSIFICATION
Type I photos, which are first-generation photos that were developed from the original negative within two years of the image being taken, are rare in general. They are also the most valuable and coveted photos by collectors.
PSA has only authenticated three Type I copies of the famous Mantle photograph with the image that Topps ended up using for its 1952 set. Yee has authenticated all three during his tenure at PSA.
In 2005, Yee along with legendary collector Marshall Fogel and Khyber Oser wrote a book titled “A Portrait of Baseball Photography.” The authors created a classification system, labeling photos Type I, II, III or IV, depending on when images were developed.
“Original Type Is are made off of the original negative in a dark room,” Yee said. “It’s as clean as it gets. It’s the most valuable of an image. It’s right off the negative.”
Fogel is a big Type I photograph collector. He knows the importance of this Mantle sale to the entire photography segment of the hobby.
“In a little over 25 years, the value of Type I photos, as evidenced by this sale, have increased exponentially,” Fogel told SCD. “The reason is two-fold: one is the preservation of nostalgia in knowing that this kind of photography, especially the news service photography, is extremely valuable because it’s very limited—including Types II, III and IV. The second is people are starting to realize the importance of the content of these photos. The preservation of our history from the beginning of the early days of baseball in the era of Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson on through the era of Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax and Joe DiMaggio. It represents the golden ages of baseball history.”
MANTLE CARD SALES
Prior to this latest sale, the owner of the Type I Mantle photograph wasn’t planning on moving the item.
However, when a PSA 8 example of Mantle’s 1952 Topps card sold for $3.721 million through Heritage Auctions on Aug. 23, that pushed the photograph owner to let go of his prized piece.
The 7-by-9-inch Mantle photograph was taken by a photographer who was either an employee or freelancer—it is not known—for the International News Service (INS). The picture was snapped 75 years ago on March 5, 1951 during a Yankees’ spring training photo shoot.
With Mantle being an almost unknown 19-year-old rookie, having the photographer take his picture was almost an afterthought. However, the image became iconic, and not many original copies of the photograph survived at news services.
“A lot of these photos, they’re valuable simply because they weren’t meant to be collected,” Yee said. “They were basically a byproduct of an industry, and that industry was basically reporting the news of the day. They were made in small quantities. They were sent to various news payrolls of an agency.”
The Mantle Type I photo that just sold was originally discovered in 2012. Legendary Auctions president and COO Doug Allen found the piece in the archives of a regional U.S. newspaper. The back of the photo is plastered with writing. It contains an “International News Photo” stamp, along with stamps from at least five dates that signify the photo was used by the news publication.
After the Type I photo was authenticated and encapsulated by PSA/DNA in 2012, Legendary Auctions sold the photograph for $59,750.
“At the time when this sold for $59,000, that was a massive record price,” Yee said. “At that time, I’m not sure even PSA 8s of Mantle’s Topps rookie card sold for $59,000.
“It kind of mirrors what the PSA 8 goes for, it seems like.”
In November 2019, one of the two other Type I Mantle photographs that exist—stamped on the back with “Newark Sunday News” and with a chipped corner on the upper right—sold for $375,000. Purchased by a private collector, that was a record price at the time.
“This one is probably distinguished by the editorial markings on the middle right side,” said Yee, noting the third Mantle Type I photo is also part of a private collection.
COVETED TYPE 1 PHOTOS
The Mantle photo with the image used for his 1952 Topps card is one of the most coveted Type I photos in the hobby. According to Yee, the holy grail for Type I photos is of Honus Wagner. The shot was taken by Carl Horner in 1902 and later used for his famous 1909-11 T206 card.
Fogel owns the only example of the Wagner photograph. Yee said if that piece was ever sold, it would probably fetch eight figures.
“The Mantle is considered the modern grail, just like it mirrors cards, where you’ve got the Wagner T206 is the pre-war grail and the ’52 Topps Mantle would be the post-war grail,” Yee said.
The Mantle sale not only increases the values for Mantle Type I photos but it benefits every Type I photo across the board.
“With photos, it’s unique in a sense that it’s kind of like art. It’s not really like cards where you have Card Ladder or a VCP,” Yee said. “People that have Mantle cards, they’re going to ask for more now—that I’m certain of. This will definitely bump and will probably even bump the low-end stuff. When people hear of something like this, they think, ‘You know what, maybe I should pick up a Type I Mantle or a Type I Clemente, just to have and ride the wave.’ It’s like that in every segment of the market.”
