The chase for the most sought-after sports trading card of 2026 is over.
Months after Topps announced that the company’s 2026 Series 1 baseball release would include a prized 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, a listing for a redemption of the card popped up on the eBay-owned sports collectibles sale site Goldin.
Topps’ February 10th announcement confirmed that the actual card, which was being given away to honor the company’s 75th anniversary of making baseball cards, would not be placed in a pack to preserve its condition.
entitles an individual to a graded, original version of the 1952 Topps
Mickey Mantle card. Goldin
“Before anyone panics, the literal card will not be placed in a pack,” Topps said in a February 10 post on Facebook. “To preserve its condition, one lucky collector will find a redemption card that can be redeemed for the historic original.”
A Topps representative confirmed to The Post that the listing is legitimate and that the company was only “recently” notified that it was pulled.
Collectors hoping to strike gold were essentially playing the lottery, with odds of pulling the card estimated at one in 40 million packs, according to Yahoo Sports.
As of Thursday night, the listing has a top bid of $54,000 with 14 total bids placed — but that figure will skyrocket.
The 1952 Mantle is considered by many as one of the most cherished sports cards in existence, with the Professional Sports Authenticator calling it “arguably, the most important baseball card in the entire industry.”
The card’s monumental value stems from Mickey Mantle’s Hall of Fame career with the Yankees, its place in Topps’ first flagship set and the rarity of surviving originals after thousands of overprinted copies were dumped into the Hudson River.
Topps’ redemption guarantees a prospective collector a graded version of the card — but even low-quality original versions have been sold for exorbitant amounts.
An April 29 sale of the 1952 Mantle card, graded a 1 by PSA, sold for $35,000, while weeks earlier, a PSA 4 of the card went for $132,000, per the company.
Nearly four years ago, a version of the 1952 Mantle card graded a nearly immaculate 9.5 by SGC, sold for an eye-popping $12.5 million.
A year before that, a version of the card graded a 9 by PSA sold for $5.2 million.
“Based on our research, this is the nicest looking 1952 Topps Mantle PSA 9 in existence,” Jesse Craig, director of business development at PWCC Marketplace which oversaw the sale, said in a press release at the time.
Topps has not disclosed the condition of the graded card tied to the redemption, but it will carry a sky-high value regardless.
The redemption card expires on February 11, 2036.