Top 5 Most Valuable Baseball Cards of All Time!
With the increasing spike in the baseball card and memorabilia market had you kept the cards in pristine condition, you could be sitting on thousands of dollars. According to professional sources like Lee The Appraiser of APR57, there has never been such a surge in the value of vintage baseball cards, and especially more so in the past year. In case you weren't listening, the Mickey Mantle rookie cards in perfect condition (known as PSA 10) now selling for over a million dollars, and we're here to list the top 5 selling baseball cards of all time. We encourage all of our clients to dig around the attic, encourage others to do the same, some of the worlds most hidden treasures are right above (or below) us!
Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps #311 $24,731 - $15.71 million
Mantle, a Hall of Famer, played 18 seasons for the New York Yankees and is a 7-time World Series champion.
The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is rare across its population - there are just 3 PSA 10s in existence, 6 PSA 9’s and only 35 PSA 8 copies.
A 1952 Topps PSA 10 Mickey Mantle is the holy grail rookie card in baseball card collecting. There are only 3 PSA 10s in existence and are estimated to be worth anywhere between $15,000,000 and $30,000,000. There have been no recent sales of this card despite a PSA 9 copy selling for $5.2 million in January 2021. A PSA 1 copy of the card is valued at just over $24,000.
Originally, many more copies of this card had been produced, but due to lack of interest, the producers dumped an estimated 300-500 cases of the 1952 Topps set into the ocean.
Technically, the 1951 Bowman #253 is the first Mickey Mantle card, but this is the first Topps produced Mante card, it is widely recognized as his key rookie card and is valued accordingly.
Mantle, a Hall of Famer, played 18 seasons for the New York Yankees and is a 7-time World Series champion.
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Hank Aaron 1954 Topps #128 $1,800 - $7.09 million
Hank Aaron played in the MLB for 23 seasons and is second all-time in home runs. He’s won 1 World Series and made a record 24 All-star appearances.
There are just 2 PSA 10 copies of his rookie card in existence and it’s projected to be valued at just over $7 million. A PSA 1 copy is valued at $1,792.
There are 25 PSA 9s in existence and 193 PSA 8 copies.
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Babe Ruth 1914 Baltimore News $600,000 - $5.9 million
Before there was Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron, there was Babe Ruth who played 22 seasons, his 714 home runs and is a 7-time World Series Champion.
Ruth’s style of play also had a lasting impacton the game of baseball and the fan experience. He was the first player to hit 60 home runs in a season, and his power-hitting style helped put the Yankees franchise on the map. Attendance doubled after Ruth came to the Yankees.
Ruth arrived in New York by way of the trade from the Boston Red Sox, the 2nd worst trade in MLB history.
Ruth’s “prospects” card from 1914 features him during his time in the minor leagues. The Baltimore News card depicts him as a member of the Baltimore Orioles, which is valued at $5.94 million and is being offered by collectable as a fractionalized investment opportunity.
Mike Trout 2009 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects #BDPP80 1/1 Superfractors $5.56 million
Mike Trout has played 11 seasons so far in the MLB, and while he hasn’t yet won a world series, there’s date to support him being the best player in history. He’s under 30 years old and has an astonishing .305 batting average with 310 Home Runs and 816 RBIs so far in his career.
He’s a 9-time MLB all-star and has won the American League MVP 3 times, finishing second in four other seasons.
Trout is the first modern player on the list, which means an introduction of rookie cards with parallels. Parallels are shorter print cards that have different visual characteristics. In this case, we have a population of 1 Superfractor card.
The card last sold for $3.84 million but is currently valued at $5.56 million.
Babe Ruth 1933 Goudey #53 $5,075 - $4.22 million
Babe Ruth is perhaps the only MLB player in history to have his rookie card appear more than once in the ultimate list of the greatest selling and most rare rookie cards in existence. Coming as a runner up to his first 1914 Baltimore News card is the 1933 Goudey.
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