A Baseball Card Sold for $5.2 Million, and We’re Here for It.

In case you haven’t heard, sports cards are booming. Going into late 2020, the hobby erupted as entrepreneurs including Gary Vaynerchuk and Dan Fleyshman urged their bases to start ripping into Panini products. Positioned as a less complicated and more exciting version of the stock market, investing in sports cards became the thing to do. Adding fuel to the expanding fire, one card recently shocked the market beyond anything the hobby’s ever seen.

Before we talk about this card, I’d like to ask you a question. What would you do with $5 million? With that amount of money, you could probably retire. If not that, you’d likely be able to do just about anything. In fact, I can’t think of much that you can’t do with $5,000,000. 

Yeah, it’s a lot of money. 

For Rob Gough, that money was used to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams. For a whopping $5.2M, he decided to purchase a…1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 9. Yup, a baseball card. If you weren’t listening before, you’ve got to be listening now. This legendary transaction now holds the record for the largest sale of an individual sports card in the industry. Of course, topping Vegas Dave’s Mike Trout rookie card that sold in 2020 for $3.9 Million.

Although it smashed this previous record, a few PSA 10 versions of the Mickey Mantle card exist and could sell for upwards of $10M. For clarification, PSA’s grading services essentially assign value to a card. They review cards based on four factors and eventually set it a 1-10 rating (1 being the worst, ten being near perfect condition)

Although it may seem like nothing more than a hobby, sports cards continue to prove themselves as more. If you have a card, somebody will buy it. It may not be for the ridiculous price of this Mickey Mantle baseball card, but there are multiple ways to turn a profit. 

Cards work in a way that’s comparable to the stock market. If a player does well, the price of his card will inevitably arise. If he starts to fail, the prices fall. For example, Luka Doncic rookies are currently pulling four figures at a PSA 10. During the start of his rookie year, they were significantly cheaper. Thus, the early investors are celebrating, whereas those who missed out are kicking themselves. Who knew that watching sports could be profitable? 

What’s funny about this recent sale is the grade. For $5.2M, a PSA 9 seems pretty underwhelming. With current players, the only cards that grab the big bucks are the ones rated at a gem mint 10. The Mickey Mantle sold for so much at just a nine because the conditions of cards tend to deteriorate as time goes on. If that’s not a sign to grade the cards you already have, I don’t know what is. 

Overall, sports cards are more than a hobby; they’re an opportunity.