A rare 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card in near-perfect condition will be going up for auction in August, the Associated Press reported. The owner of the card is Anthony Giordano, a 75-year-old New Jersey waste management entrepreneur. He has had the card for over 30 years and is expected to make an enormous profit.
He purchased the card at a show in New York in 1991 for $50,000, a fraction of what it's expected to sell for later this year.
This particular card could exceed $10 million in a two-day event that will be hosted by Heritage Auctions starting Aug. 27. The high value is due to the rarity of the card, as the mint condition it is in. The current record for the sale of a card is the $6.6 million a 1909 Honus Wagner card was sold for last August.
Mantle was a three-time American League MVP and a seven-time World Series champion who spent his entire career playing for the Yankees from 1951 to 1968. Giordano said he knows Mantle was a beloved sports figure that clearly "had that aura about him" and therefore wanted to share the card with others.
"It's the right thing to do," Giordano told the AP. "My boys and I have had the cards for over 30 years, and we've enjoyed it. We've enjoyed showing anybody that's close to me — friends and relatives — and I think it's time for someone else."
In the spirit of sharing that piece of history with more people, the card will be on display in Atlantic City for five days this week at the National Sports Collectors Convention. It will also be displayed at the Heritage Auctions office in New York in early August.
