1952 baseball card is shop's great catch

The rare Mickey Mantle card is worth between $12,000 and $18,000

By Scott Moyers ~ Southeast Missourian

When Bill Foster stumbled across a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card, it was like pitching a perfect game, making a game-saving catch and hitting a home run in game seven of the World Series.

All at once.

"My jaw dropped," said Foster, manager of Broadway Sports Cards in Cape Girardeau. "It took my breath away. I said, 'Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?'"

He was: a truly rare 51-year-old baseball card of the great Mickey Mantle, the Hall of Fame center fielder who played for nearly 20 years with the New York Yankees. He knew immediately it was in good condition and valuable, but he later learned it is worth between $12,000 and $18,000.

The Southeast Missouri man who brought it in a few months back wanted it evaluated so he could sell it.

After getting it authenticated, the owners of the store wrote the biggest check Foster had ever seen them write for an item, and now the Mantle card and 10 others of lesser value belong to the store. Foster wouldn't say who sold the card or for how much.

But they were glad to pay it.

"It's definitely one of the most valuable cards in the industry," said Tim Heise, a Wisconsin-based baseball card grader with Sports Collectors Digest Authentic. "It's like the gold standard. The No. 1 card that sticks in people's heads is the '52 Topps Mantle."

Heise said 1952 was the first year that Topps came out with a major baseball set and, in mint condition, it would go for $50,000. Not many of the cards were made, and many of those that didn't sell were trashed.

Foster has other ideas about why it is so valuable: "It's that Mickey Mantle magic," Foster said. "He was the consummate center fielder. He was it."

Foster said that the card is for sale, but he doesn't mind if it doesn't go right away.

"It's not a bad card to be stuck with," he said.