In order of closing date (as of Sunday evening PT):

Elite Collectibles (ending on May 26)

⚾ 1959 Topps #180 Yogi Berra SGC 4 - $52

⚾ 1964 Topps Giants #25 Mickey Mantle (Raw - Warped/Corners/Stain) - $78

⚾ 1959 Topps #478 Roberto Clemente SGC 4 - $156

Huggins & Scott (ending on May 28)

⚾ 1973 Topps #300 Steve Carlton PSA 8 - $50

🏈 1955 Topps All-American Football #12 Otto Graham SGC 4 and #20 Sammy Baugh SGC 5 - $100

⚾ 1956 Topps #130 Willie Mays Gray Back SGC 1.5 - $110

Goldin Weekly Auction (ending on May 28)

⚾ 1972 Topps #79 Carlton Fisk Rookie Card PSA 8 - $77

⚾ 1955 Topps #124 Harmon Killebrew Rookie Card PSA 5 - $87

⚾ 1972 Topps #49 Willie Mays PSA 8 - $171

Other active auctions:

Hunt Auctions (ends on June 3)

Goldin May Elite Sports Auction (ends on June 6)

Memory Lane Inc. Spring Rarities 2026 (ends on June 6)

Mile High Card Co. Spring 2026 Premier Catalog (ends on June 6)

Clean Sweep Auctions (ends on June 10)

⚾ 6 Vintage Baseball Card Legends Surging in 2026

💰Yoo-Hoo! Rare 1959 Mickey Mantle Card Nets Big Sale as Food Cards Remain Popular

🥊 Rare 1948 Leaf Rocky Graziano Card Shatters Record

⚽ Historic Pele Cards, International Stars Headline World Cup Soccer Auction at Goldin

💰 Babe Ruth Shares Spotlight With Cobb, Young and Shoeless Joe in Mile High Card Auction

🏀 Wemby or Wilt? Chamberlain Rookie Card Headlines Huggins & Scott Auction

⚾ Top 5 Iconic 1956 Topps Baseball Cards

Following my research into what I figured was one of the cheapest Mickey Mantle’s base cards last week, I thought I’d go the other direction and look at his least affordable card, the 1952 Topps card, and compare it with the 1962 Topps over the last year (from May 24, 2025).

Like last week, using Card Ladder, I’ll compare similar grades, taking into consideration the different decades, so that a 1952 PSA 1 will be the same as a 1962 PSA 2, and so on.

While I assumed the 1952 Topps cards would increase a little more than the 1962 Topps cards, due to their desirability, I didn’t expect this disparity. The average increase for the 1952 Topps cards was 73.5%, nearly twice the 37.5% average increase for the 1962 Topps cards.

Not surprisingly, the most “affordable” of the 1952 Topps cards had the biggest increase and the most number of sales for that card, even if it’s now valued at $61,900. To put that value into perspective, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median yearly salary in the U.S. comes out to a little more than $64,000.

While the increase for the 1952 Topps cards swelled more in the lower grades and then dropped sequentially as the grades improved (with a small blip at the PSA 4), the 1962 Topps cards rose sequentially until the PSA 5, only to then drop sequentially.

Meanwhile, for total sales, the 1962 Topps cards had something of an advantage, with 333 sales as compared to 49 for the 1952 Topps cards. The same type of sequential pattern happened with the number of sales per grade, with the number of 1952 Topps card sales dropping pretty consistently as the grades increased - with, amazingly, the exception being in PSA 8 - while 1962 Topps cards peaked in number of sales at PSA 4, then sequentially decreased, other than an exception at, yes, PSA 8.

From a value standpoint, for the 1952 Topps, it looks like both the PSA 2 and PSA 3 could be “undervalued,” as they only increased about 15-16% from the previous grade. For 1962 Topps (i.e., the, uh, more realistic price points), the PSA 5 has the smallest increase, only going up about 44% compared to a PSA 4, even though the PSA 5 had the biggest one-year percentage increase in price among 1962 Topps Mantles.

One of the greatest centers in NFL history, Webster was tragically the first former NFL player diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, discovered following his death in 2002.

Mike Webster - C/G

HOF Induction in 1997

Standout Stats:

The average price came out to be $42.40.