Mantle Prices!
 

The 1952 Topps is getting in nosebleed territory. Last night a PSA 6 sold for $250k in Heartland Auction. Not complaining since I bought a 6 in 2009 for 18k. Back then the 8 was about 75k. I guess there is a rush to acquire one with all this money looking for investments. Can it continue?

I hesitate to say it can, because it seems like Mantle never loses his value, but there has to be a peak of the market

Kind of makes you wonder....

1952 is close enough for pre war for the front page for this subject as it encompasses the whole hobby right now. Prices are crazy. That is all I can say. When I look at stuff now I just feel very poor as almost everything I want is out of my range...

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Prices for Mick are wild now. Cost me what I got for a PSA 6 50s Mick last month, just to put a 3.5 of the same card back in my collection. I’ve vowed never to sell Mantle again. Any Mantle card sold is almost a certain regret in the future— and in today’s market that future can be barely a week. I’ve sold some Mantles on the BST here that I deemed superfluous to my collection; they wind up with PWCC stickers the next week selling for triple.

Buy and hold
 

Yes Mantle seems to be in the buy and hold category, at least until we see all these Wall Street types switch to something else. I am holding my 52 PSA 6 forever and will pass it along to my heirs.

I passed on picking up the Mantle I need for my project earlier; with the way things are headed, unless there's a correction or I strike oil in my backyard, I may need to go without him. I'm a member of a couple watch collecting forums as well, and the same thing is going on over there. The grey market prices for new Rolexes are absurd, and for vintage Rolexes they've gone through the roof.

Mantle is like blue chip real estate in prime location, you might overpay now but in few years you'll be glade you have overpaid. Especially the 52 topps and 51 bowman

Indeed - watches are my other (and vintage guitars..) obsession besides baseball cards and it’s crazy what is going on in the watch market as well. Very similar...

His Bowman rookie has gone insane too!

I agree with Leon, anything I look at that catches my eye is way out of my range.
John

Watches are definitely blowing up. I took a vintage Rolex to a local shop to try to find out some information about it, they gave me no information but several large cash offers. I passed.

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Mantles are always 'elevator grabs.' If you see one at a decent price - even if you're technically 'overpaying' for it - jump on it immediately, because tomorrow the price is going to be much higher, and the next day? Even higher. Up, up and away it will continue to go.

Lucky to have picked one up when I did:

https://live.staticflickr.com/4581/3...3eef36a159.jpg

Mantle
 

Agree...early Mantle cards are beginning to be very tough to come by. Even low grade 52 Topps examples are bringing big money. I remember when a Ruth rookie in a 1 holder could be had for 25k...seems tough now to find a beat up 1952 Topps Mantle for that. Hard to know where they will be at in the years to come...but I would say that the 1952 Topps issue is one of the most iconic cards in the hobby.

These are the last two cards I would ever sell. At today's prices it's unlikely I will ever upgrade either. And like others I'm glad I picked them up when I did. With all the focus on rising prices across the hobby I still think Ruth and Mantle are undervalued compared to others with room to grow.

Ruth is a god; I see nothing but upside for Ruth career-issued cards and premiums, which is why I am keeping mine. I have a feeling that 10-15 years from now I will be happy that I did. I think the same is true of Jackie Robinson. He just has more abundant career-issued cards. I am a little less sold on Mantle. I see him as an icon with limited appeal to younger collectors. Though the 1952 Topps card is in a class of its own and seems to have taken on a life separate from the other cards of him.

Best buy in the hobby right now is 51 bowman mantle. Compared to 52 topps historically (and just about everything else under the sun right now) they’re gold. Pure gold jerry.

My 2 cents.

My Undervalued Group
Sport King Ruth
Both 33 Goudey Gehrig’s
49/50 Bowman Jackie
51-52 Bowman Mantle
51-52 Bowman Mays, 53 Topps Mays

Totally agree. Even with the hike lately. Still behind . You can still get a PSA 1 or auth under 10k. While the 52 Topps anything decent looking 1 is 30k+

Gehrig has been pretty hot lately too. I don't think you can go wrong holding any of his cards long term. These are the only 2 I have though.

Jesse!
 

The centering!!! Awesome cards!

54 bowman mantle

Well a nice looking 52 Mantle PSA 1.5 from PWCC just went for 63k+. So yea, Mantles prices are insane! I am going to go ahead and say that a well centered, clean looking 52 Mantle PSA 5 will hit the million mark in less than 5 years. Demand just overwhelm supplies for good looking well centered 51B and 52T Mantles.

My focus has always been Ruth, Cobb, Johnson, Matty, Wagner, Young and Gehrig. I've been pretty much priced out due to the crazy market. So now I've been focusing on mid-grade 50's HOF'ers. I'm grateful I was able to accumulate what I have, but it's definitely a bummer being regulated to the sidelines.

I'll add, it will be interesting to see if we see a really big spike in Gehrig cards with MLB celebrating him and his struggle with ALS this year.

Anyone noticed if there have been any Stahl Meyer (53 or 54) Mantles to have come up for sale in these last few crazy months, and whether these too have been tethered to the meteoric price rises?

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...e/IMG_1607.JPG

I think would sell both for $1MM
Maybe throw in a negative 10% commission

Done. When can I pick them up? :D

Oof, knocked off '51 Bowman Mantle and Mays last year but I think that's it for my former dream card collection. The modern boom paid for some amazing cards last year, was hoping a '52 Mantle would be possible but at this point, it's not looking good!

Then again, I never thought I'd own the '51s so we'll see.

Interesting on Heritage auction ending tonight.
1952 Mantle graded PSA 3(though looks a lot better) is at $125,000 and the is auction not over. Has to be the highest ever paid for a PSA 3.
Also an off center SGC 3 in same auction at less than $35,000 with some time left.
It seems his cards continue to go up without stopping.

The SGC 3 is up to $50k with the premium. It is very OC.

EDIT: and the very nice looking PSA 3 @ Heritage is going to close for at least $162k. Looks a lot like pokerplyr80's PSA 3.5 above, so congrats to you too!

very close to MC.

$1MM - if that one Mega Million Ticket- I can pick one up for you and meet you at the airport!


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Looks like 50k for the OC 3 and 156k for the centered 3. They aren't easy to find centered like that though, someone got a great looking card.

162k and still in OT for the dead centered 3. Heavyweight bout.

The ship has most likely sailed for me on getting a nice '52 Mantle but was recently able to pick up a very well centered (no creasing) PSA 4 '53 Topps Mantle. What do you guys/gals think of the '53 Topps moving forward?

It's a popular card so, yes, it's bound to go up. However, the 53-55 Bowan versions seem to be a bit under the radar currently. The asking prices may have gone up, but on eBay the sales are still somewhat reasonable, at least for the 53 Bowman.

Which always struck me as crazy since it's an awesome card in a popular set.

Hi guys-
I am watching the nice centered 2 (@mileHigh) with 11 days left.
Its at 33K...wondering where it lands???
(something i can compare mine to)

You mean mile high? Memory lane ends in a couple days but they have a couple decent 52s as well.

1952 Topps
 

Well centered cards is the 1952 Topps set should bring a premium due to many, if not most cards in the set having centering issues. Equally important for me with the Mantle card is clarity...a blue sky with no snow...seems like a snowy sky is a common trait with many of the lower grade Mantle examples...tough to find an affordable copy with a clear sky.

Yes, the depth and smoothness of color in that blue background is a big deal to me as well on that card, and contributes greatly to eye appeal. Also, sometimes his cap area has some registration blur. When you look at a focused cap card besides one that is blurrier, this aspect can stand out to the eye.

1952
 

Im going to guess that the next PSA A 1952 Topps Mantle sells for 27k.

There is one ending in just over 3hrs on ebay. Price 20k currently.

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So the over/under is seven.

The wager is 'what post # in a thread like this will be the first to say 'Glad I picked up a 'XX Mantle/Mays/Ruth/Cobb/etc last year for $YK, as I'm priced out of the market now.'

Depends on who is going to try, or have to, sell

I saw last night a Rogers Peer PSA 5 Ruth sold at Goldin that the exact card was bought on here last month. It sold for $8k. I suspect it sold for let’s here then Goldin.

Incredible $30,101 for an Authentic Altered.

This is good for many especially those who already have these cards

However, This is pricing many out of the key cards if they are striving for

This is part of the reaction to rising prices from many I just don't understand.
Where were you guys 20 years ago when there were an endless series of cards I wanted but was priced out of?
30 years ago too to be honest.

It's like there's this thought that says some 'true collector' like which frequents this board is more entitled to a card they desire than anyone else who buys it.

Weird.

There were cards I bought 15 years ago that were a serious stretch to purchase then, but I could easily see there would come a time where that only became more difficult.
Wish someone had told the sellers back then to make it easier on me to fill holes in my collection.:rolleyes:

Hi

I am not disagreeing with you and I am not saying we or anyone feel entitled. We do not. All I am saying is the spike in prices the last few months have just made it harder for collectors or investors to get what they have wanted.
This is always how it is just the spike the last bunch of months exceeds most trends in the past.

In the meantime. Our collection has also spike as well. One can sell their card to get the ones that they want

Agree completely with you.

....but just to add, much of the price craziness is limited to the cherry on top cards. The rooks or special cards of the greatest players that have always been a premium. Not being able to afford them is not a disaster for collectors as there are literally hundreds of thousands of cards one could choose to have as a focus. For most players issues there can be found a card or three that are easily affordable if one is willing to take something outside of rookie.

Obviously there are some outlier players who are tremendously expensive or somewhat expensive to collect regardless, but those would number on less than two hands.

I just think there's an awful lot of moaning from some on here that they can't realistically buy a 52' Topps Mantle any longer no matter how hard they save.
It seems awfully precious, especially when couched with the idea that some version of a 'true collector' is being done out of their rightful due to have one.

It wasn't even a centered AA example which is interesting to me. Most of the huge price for grade cards are nice centering.

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Memory Lane had some strong showings also last night, in terms of Mantle prices. The 1962 signed Mick hitting $20,000 and the 53 Bowman at 29k were noteworthy. The REA 52T is also going strong.

What's impressive to me is how far down the condition well the price increases are going on many cards. Two, three, or more times in a year. Having lower grade marquee cards has been a tremendous investment.

I definitely feel for the collectors who are priced out of more and more cards. it isn't a matter of 'deserve', it is a matter of taking the fun out of it for more and more people. That can be a negative thing for a collectible: frustrated collectors may just say the hell with it and move on to something less pricey. There are a bunch of cards I am tempted to sell but won't because I know I won't pony up for replacements even if the market for them falls 50%.

There were so many cards I couldn't afford from the jump I guess I was conditioned to it.
Glad I stuck with the hobby and collected the cards I COULD afford so that I have a collection I can enjoy today.;)

Interestingly, I think you are Exhibit A for the kind of collector I'm talking about.
I've been watching the cards you've offered up for viewing in threads for nearly 20 years. Often times boxing early on, but increasingly I've seen the esoteric and less obvious card issues of players from various sports. Strip, multi player, black and white, it's never mattered or limited you.
It's why I've loved watching your collection being revealed on here.

Quite obviously too I would think from your posts that price has played an important role in molding your collection.
But it didn't stop you, didn't make you embarrassed to reveal.

Plenty of collectors could learn alot from that kind of lesson, and still end up with important and rare cards that both reflect the players they want to collect and also become ever more collectable because of rarity.

Anyway, sorry for all who can't afford what they want to collect.
But I refuse to feel sorry for myself. I see collecting as a luxury plaything, extraneous to the important stuff in life.
I buy what I can afford, and if I lose it all we won't be out on the street.
Yes, I'd be crushed for a while, but I'd get over it.
If not being able to afford a 33' Goudey Ruth ruins the hobby for you, or any other card for that matter, you shouldn't be doing it in my opinion.

That was a good looking 53 Bowman though

Yeah, it’s always the pretty ones that take all your money ;)

Thanks Daniel. My fortune/misfortune is that I am a self-centered sociopath with no regard for other peoples' feelings (per my wife), so I collect what is interesting to me and fun for me, regardless of whether it meets the 'Good Card Collecting Seal Of Approval' standard. :D

Bang.

aren't we all Adam!!!!

You forgot an Anal Eddie, where all your cards have to be centered and PSA ONLY. Just kidding Adam:D, not you so much as other Anal Eddies':p

What is this 'PSA' of which you speak??? Some form of venereal disease?

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...925%20Ruth.jpg

:D

When dealing with the Babe, a PSA about VD probably would have been appropriate.

Brian

The Mantle upswing continues. Many more to come. Including some in poor grade in the huge Heritage Auction to open in a couple of weeks. See if it continues.

I was watching the 1952 Mantle PSA 2 @ MileHigh...it was nicely centered went for 66K!

Good price for both buyer and seller, not crazily breaking record

I’m holding off buying Mantles at these levels. I think within the next couple years the us economy could be facing a lot of headwinds.

$66k for a PSA 2 isn’t exactly a good price from the buying side. I just don’t see the upside on that purchase.

Lelands 52 partial set with a gorgeous psa 3 mantle only did 78k.

Lelands...
 

I wouldn't say that 3 was a beauty...nice, but noticeable diamond cut. Still 78k for a partial set (missing half the high numbers) isn't a bad price seeing many of the cards were lower grade.

Maybe a guy just wanted to look at a copy that hit his eye the way he wanted for the rest of his days, and doesn’t care about the upside. That said, people didn’t see the upside when I paid a record for my 4.5 at the time.

That was a decent 3, the one heritage sold for 162k is what I would consider a gorgeous 3. Dead centered key cards, especially notoriously off center cards like the 52 Mantle, can't be compared to average for the grade cards. At least not in terms of value. The guy who bought that centered 2 for 66k will be fine long term in my opinion.