1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 SGC 86 NM+ 7.5. ...

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Sold on Feb 23, 2019 for:

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Only eight finer!

1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 SGC 86 NM+ 7.5. If we had a dime for every "Baby Boomer" we've met who's claimed to have owned a Topps Mantle rookie as a child, we'd be able to afford this one with plenty of dough to spare! The most important, valuable and recognizable gum card of the post-war era has ingrained itself in our American iconography in such a way that most of us could sketch the card from memory, the Mick posed in a right-handed batting stance, his eyes drifting up to the grandstand behind him.

But in spite of all those who owned one, or only dreamed that they did, the examples that have indeed survived in such magical condition as the presented copy are, in fact, unquestionably scarce. At 407 cards in scope, the 1952 Topps set was the largest of its day, both in number of cards and the dimensions of each one, specifically. Ultimately, though, these excesses turned against Topps Company management, who realized late in the 1952 season that the "High Number" cards (#'s 311-407) would never reach their channels of distribution in time for the close of the baseball season. Limited quantities were trucked to stores in the northeastern United States and in Canada, but the final solution for a warehouse filled with unsold cards is said to have been a boat trip several miles out into the Atlantic Ocean, and ignominious burial at sea.

Fortuitously spared from death by drowning, this stunning specimen is outshone by just eight representations evaluated by SGC. We suspect that a slight eastward shift is the primary limiting factor here, as the corners, surfaces and gloss verge upon pack-fresh perfection.