A BASEBALL card has just sold for a whopping $12.6 million at auction.
The card was the most valuable sports card ever sold at auction and broke the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia.
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SECURED THE BAG
A baseball card from one of the most famous New York Yankees players, Mickey Mantle, sold for $12.6 million at auction.
It was passed through many hands before being sold at auction.
Ted Lodge, a truck driver from Massachusetts, had inherited a home from his late father.
To his surprise, he found thousands of pristine condition Topps cards, including several Mickey Mantle cards, in the basement.
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In 1986, Alan Rosen got a call from a friend of Lodge mentioning the cards being for sale.
He was skeptical, but headed to Quincy, Massachusetts with some cash and an armed police officer.
Rosen ended up purchasing the 5,500 1952 Topps cards, including dozens of Mantles, for over $125,000.
Five years later, he sold the card in question for $50,000.
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For 31 years, the buyer remained anonymous and the card remained ungraded.
The buyer, Anthony Giordano, finally came forward and sold the card at Heritage Auctions in 2022 for $12.6 million in the record-breaking sale.
I found old baseball cards in a desk my great-great grandfather left me & I was stunned the ‘grouping’ made it worth $1mFor decades, he had rejected multiple multimillion-dollar offers.
Giordano's sons reportedly had convinced him to get the card graded and part with his beloved card.
A RECORD-BREAKING SALE
The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, from Mantle's rookie season, was graded a 9.5 out of 10 by the sports memorabilia authentication company SGC.
The card is the “finest known example” of the rare 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards, which break records at auction year after year, according to Heritage Auctions.
After selling for $12.6 million, the card became the most expensive sports item, card, or memorabilia.
The previous record for a sports card was a T206 Honus Wagner baseball card, which sold for $7.25 million.
"This card is arguably the finest-condition example of the most iconic post-war card in the world.
"That grade, plus the fact it has documented provenance from the most storied find in hobby history, puts this card in a category of its own," said Chris Ivy, the Heritage Auctions director of sports auctions.
The Mickey Mantle card isn't the only item going for a lot.
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One man bought a tiny painting for $38 - it sat on a shelf for years, but turns out it's worth $400,000.
Also, the ‘dirty old’ hand-me-down blanket that turned out to be special and worth $1.5 million.
