Vintage baseball card collectors had to deal with some serious sticker shock in late 2020 and early 2021 as prices rose endlessly. While prices have since corrected and come back down from the panic-buying peak in early 2021, the reality is that it is still quite an expensive endeavor to purchase the key players of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams and others from the early 1950s Topps and Bowman sets in any condition. The high-end grades of these cards (PSA 8 and higher) can easily cost more than your car (or a house).

Collectors Dashboard evaluates collectibles as an alternative asset class competing for the same money that would have otherwise been invested in stocks, bonds or real estate. And using the lessons of value investing brings the 1952 Berk Ross set of vintage baseball cards front and center. The 1952 Berk Ross set contains many of the same superstars and rookies of the 1951 to 1953 Topps and Bowman sets, and it contains some super-stars that those sets do not have.

One feature that is similar about the Berk Ross set from 1952 is that the 2-inch by 3-inch size looks like the 1951 Bowman set in many of the cards. The images are a low quality color photo and are generally the same photos used for a Berk Ross dual-card panel set from the year before.

The card backs from this 72-card set are rather generic and the cards were not numbered like in Bowman and Topps. Each back includes HIT PARADE OF CHAMPIONS rather than the Berk Ross name. The back features each player’s name, their position and team, and personal data along with a line for the stats from the prior season.

Collectors Dashboard would consider the 1952 Berk Ross set to be a great value against the Topps and Bowman issues from 1951 to 1953. The top players stand out, but there are generally lower populations of the key cards and the paper quality keeps the 1952 Berk Ross much harder to find in grades above PSA 8 and the equivalent grades from SGC and BVG. Having the key cards for Joe DiMaggio, an alternative rookie of Mickey Mantle’s 1951 Bowman image, and Ted Williams card keep the set very collectible.

Please Note — Relative value should not be an assumption that these cards will scream higher in value. There is also not an expectation that they may rise faster in price than their corresponding Topps or Bowman counterparts if general card prices rise again. And just like in stocks, no buyer is ever assured a profit and technically you are “out of the money” (losing) immediately after each purchase due to buy/sell prices, commissions and taxes.

So, here are examples in a card-by-card review that the 1952 Berk Ross super-star cards are bargain-bin prices compared to the corresponding years from Topps and Bowman. You will find it a challenge to find any of these key cards at all or in the same condition in the same population reports at PSA and SGC. And for the lower prices, they may be a fraction of the cost compared to the corresponding cards in the Topps and Bowman sets if they even exist.

The 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle had a total PSA graded population of just 327 cards, with no PSA 9 and PSA 10 grades. One example that is up for auction on the high-end was at Goldin Auctions with a current bid of $120,000 and more than 4 days until the auction ends. Another Mickey Mantle PSA 7 was seen for up for auction by ‘probstein’ on eBay for $6,900 with 5 hours to go before the bidding ends. There were also two top examples of the 1952 Berk Ross set available via the PWCC Vault as Mickey Mantle PSA 8 offered for $119,999.00 (plus $265.28 shipping). Those may not sound inexpensive, at least until you compare them to corresponding graded cards from Topps and Bowman.

As for other Buy It Now (and or Best Offer) for the 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle cards, here are 4 other live offerings as of June 22, 2021:

• 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle Yankees PSA 6 offered at $14,250.00
• 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle PSA 8(OC) offered at $13,900.00
• 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle PSA 2 (designated as centered and Just Graded for $12,777.77
• 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle RC PSA 6 offered at $12,500.00

The 1952 Berk Ross Willie Mays is also a bargain compared to prices from Topps and Bowman, and the population report of just 232 total PSA examples is much smaller than any of the Topps and Bowman cards. A 1952 Berk Ross Willie Mays #39 PSA 9 MINT offered at $29,000.00 (plus $116.72 shipping) from the PWCC Vault. A PSA 9 example of the Mays card was up for $22,900.00 via ‘kriskepplersportscards’ on eBay. Another offering is a PSA 8.5 graded 1952 Berk Ross Willie Mays for $17,500.00 via seller ‘sjwinnick’ on eBay.

And for those who are into the photos used for cards, there is the Willie Mays 1951 rookie Type 1 original photo that has been graded by PSA as the image used for the 1952 Berk Ross card for $20,000.00 via seller ‘manontherock’ on eBay.

Another unique offering up for grabs at the present time was a signed Jackie Robinson 1952 Berk Ross #57 Card that has been BAS (Beckett) slabbed for sale at $22,999.99 via Presspass Collectibles on eBay with $99.99 shipping. Another offering from the PWCC Vault was a 1952 Berk Ross Jackie Robinson #58 PSA 8 NM-MT for sale at $8,000.00 or Best Offer plus $60.00 in shipping. Seller ‘ahoffman14 ‘ on eBay also offered a poorly-centered PSA 6 Jackie Robinson card (that had no appropriate ‘OC’ grading designation) for $7,795.00 or Best Offer plus $15.00 in shipping. PSA’s total population report counts just 194 examples of the Berk Ross cards of Jackie Robinson.

Most vintage superstar collectors know that Ted Williams had no Topps or Bowman cards from 1952 and 1953. There is a 1952 Berk Ross card of Ted Williams with only 231 total examples graded by PSA. A PSA 7 was offered by seller ‘yepbg’ on eBay for $3,000.00 or Best Offer and it included free shipping. Another 1952 Berk Ross Ted Williams PSA 6 was offered on eBay for $1,999.00 plus $15.00 shipping via seller ‘mmgenterprises’ on eBay. Those cards would have astronomical prices if they were from Topps in the 1952 and 1953 sets.

Another key player that is missing from many of the key 1950s Topps and Bowman sets is the great Stan Musial. There are 1952 and 1953 Bowman examples of Stan The Man, but Topps did not manage to print a regular Stan Musial baseball card in any of its first several years. Stan Musial might even be more coveted for collectors and investors alike had there been more annual issues of his cards from the 1950s. PSA’s total population report was a mere 187 graded Musial cards for the Berk Ross variation. There is an in-action (fielding) 1952 Berk Ross Stan Musial PSA 4 that is for sale for $1,945.00 (or Best Offer) from seller ‘edwhiteandtrue’ on eBay. Another example for sale at the present time was a SGC 7.5 graded 1952 Berk Ross Stan Musial for $795.00 plus $3.70 shipping (or Best Offer) via seller ‘liermus2015′ on eBay.

Most collectors who have chased Joe DiMaggio cards over time only have examples of his cards from the late 1930s and the 1940s. Topps and Bowman also did not have Joe DiMaggio cards in the 1950s and they would likely be quite valuable had they been issued. The 1952 Berk Ross set has a Joe DiMaggio card and there were three examples all right at $1,000.00 on eBay as of June 22, 2021. The square 1951 Berk Ross set also includes a Joltin’ Joe card that ca be purchased for under $1,000 in good condition. A 1952 Berk Ross PSA 6 Joe DiMaggio card was also for sale for $699.99 in a Buy It Now offering via ‘caughtlooking2000′ on eBay with free shipping. PSA’s population report contained only 250 graded examples of Joltin’ Joe from the 1952 Berk Ross set. Imagine what a 1952 Topps card of Joe DiMaggio would bring at auction, particularly if it was a high-number series card.

There are many other Hall of Fame and super-star players who are very easy to purchase for under $500.00 in the 1952 Berk Ross set in excellent condition — Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, Don Newcombe, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Whitey Ford, Johnny Mize, Pee Wee Reese, Red Schoendienst, Bob Lemon and so on. That sub-$500 price is no longer universally true for the Topps and Bowman cards of the early 1950s.

There are some nuances that are particular to the 1952 Berk Ross set. The card site Post War Cards points out that the set featured players primarily from the New York-area Teams, that the set is believed not to have had licensing rights, a limited regional distribution of cards, and even speculation that a Bowman photographer may have developed Berk Ross over the strong resemblance to the 1951 Bowman cards.

Sports Collectors Digest also has some key details about the unlicensed cards being the center of a lawsuit at the time.

A plethora of cards can be found on eBay in the high-grade and high-priced 1952 Berk Ross.

The 1952 Berk Ross set also has some errors. The cards for Nellie Fox and Ewell Blackwell were accidentally switched. There are also two Phil Rizzuto card poses, one bunting and one swinging. As noted above, the photo quality weakness was particularly over-exposed when compared to the painting from the true Mantle rookie card in the 1951 Bowman set.