Graded NM 7 by PSA. Hall of Famer, in his debut-year appearance on Topps gum cards. Less than four percent of the examples comprising this card’s PSA census have achieved a higher, unqualified level. As important as this statement is, however, and reflective as it may be of the offered card's superlative character, the concept stops short of addressing the item's true significance.

The '52 Topps Mantle is desired by all, and sought-after by virtually every collector, but quality examples can be possessed only by very few. A card like this one, with its outstanding magnitude of projection, exquisitely refined colors and general top-grade state, tantalizes the enthusiast who is seeking a centerpiece. Meanwhile, it gently dismisses those who aren't, for whatever reason, quite ready to own a card of its stature.

Industry experts expect the best specimens of the 1952 Topps Mantle card to continue realizing new world-record prices. The high-end, hungered-for collectible has been appreciating in value at a tremendous pace while reaching stratospheric levels: just recently, a PSA NM+ 7.5 Mantle example sold for more than $300,000 – a world-record price for the card in that grade – in our Inaugural Great American Trading Card Auction. This reinforces the development of an amazing, emerging trend, that the growth rate in elite gum card collectibles (and in the 1952 Topps Mantle, in particular) has quickly surpassed the degree of return seen in blue-chip stocks.

Here is Mantle at his very finest, in the form most universally appreciated by a devoted hobby industry. The offered card – which hails from the widely publicized "Find" of 1952 Topps High Numbers by Alan Rosen in 1986 – delivers sublime aesthetics from every perspective. Mantle's portrait likeness is crisply resolved, and its delicious blue background is smooth, rich and dazzlingly pure. The yellow details on the starry caption border, and in the Yankee logo and the Hall of Famer's bat, are wonderfully bright. Progressing inward from the four nicely shaped corners, the observer's eye encounters generally well-aligned borders, as well as admirable gloss complementing the item's priceless center image. The card's reverse is solidly printed and blemish-free. A pinnacle piece, this exceptional Mantle card carries its grandeur comfortably. Enviable Near Mint condition.

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