In baseball card collecting there is a major focus on prized rookie cards. But then there is also the 1952 Topps set that ultimately revolutionized baseball cards for decades. Any superstar player who was a rookie in the late 1940s may have a card that is almost as desirable from the 1952 Topps set. While the 1948 Leaf card for Jackie Robinson is considered his most prized rookie, the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson is a card that is in high-demand.

To prove the point about demand, a 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson is being sold through the Collectable app for fractional investing with an initial public offering of $10.00 per share. That represents a market cap of $540,000.00. The IPO debuted on Sunday evening and rapidly sold about 70% of its shares in the initial flurry. As of the following morning (10:30 AM EST), some $476,680 (about 88.3%) of the offering had been committed by 565 investors.

For disclosure purposes, yours truly was one of those investors. There are some reasons that I chose to participate in this offering. Admittedly, I did feel the price based on comparable sales up and down would have sold out rapidly at a value of $400,000 to $425,000 or so to be closer to the PSA 8 rather than closer to the mid-point ($581,000) of high-end 2021 sales. And while that is likely the case for all high-end cards, there were some specific issues behind the decision to buy into this card.

A PSA 8.5 has not come up for grabs in a long time, and in the 4 years since that last recorded sale its price has skyrocketed. Other recent sales above and below in grades helped to act as bookends for this sale. A PSA 8 sold on July 26, 2021 for $192,000.00 via Robert Edward Auctions. Two different PSA 9 examples with different PSA serial numbers sold in 2021:

• $960,000.00 via Heritage Auctions on 5/10/2021
• $984,000.00 via Goldin Auctions on 3/7/2021

(Image by Collectable)

It turns out that the exact same example of the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson (same PSA serial number) being sold fractionally by Collectable sold back in June of 2017. That sale price was $25,587.90 through Mile High Card Company.

It is no secret that the high-end card market has surged in recent years. It would be easy to get hung up on the notion that the price in 2017 should be up exponentially in barely 4 years. That said, prices from more than a few years just do not matter. It’s the same thing for a stock’s IPO price after the company has been around a few years — If the price is up exponentially the company has to be evaluated on today’s metrics and coming expectations rather than the metrics of yesteryear.

The 1952 Topps set is perhaps the most desirable overall post-WW2 set for any collector. These cards are stunningly beautiful to the eye. That eye appeal is part of the draw.

Scarcity matters in collecting. While there are 11 PSA examples that are higher than the PSA 8 (they are all 9, no 10 grades), there are only 2 examples graded at PSA 8.5.

The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card is perhaps the face of card collecting. The T206 Honus Wagner may be the Holy Grail, but the Mantle card is still attainable – ditto for most of the other 1952 Topps superstar and Hall of Fame cards.

The 1952 Topps Mantle card comes up for auction so often with buyers looking to get in and sellers looking to cash out that it just doesn’t feel scarce. The total PSA population report shows a total population of 1,793 Mantle cards in all grades versus 1,236 Robinson card. Even SGC shows its total population reports as 563 graded Mantle cards and 281 Jackie Robinson cards.

PSA 8.5 examples are not as common in the Mantle cards. These were the last 3 sales recorded in that grade:

• 12/9/2019 for $765,000.00 via Heritage Auctions
• 8/19/2018 for $810,000.00 via Heritage Auctions
• 11/19/2016 for $1,135,250.00 via Heritage Auctions

The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards trade at vast premiums to any card of the 1952 Topps set. Here are the relative comparable sales in 2021 for PSA 8 cards of the Mantle:

• 6/11/2021 for $2,112,000.00 via Memory Lane (Newman Auction)
• 5/24/2021 for $861,000.00 via Goldin Auctions’s (Elite Auction)
• 4/6/2021 for $840,000.00 via Goldin Auctions (March Premium Auction)
• 3/7/2021 for $1,353,000.00 via Goldin Auctions
• 2/27/2021 for $885,000.00 via Heritage Auctions

The 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson’s PSA population is actually more scarce than in either “rookie” card of his. The 1948 Leaf rookie card has 1,519 PSA graded examples and his follow-up 1949 “Bowman rookie” card has 1,510 PSA graded Bowman examples. Again, that is versus just 1,236 PSA graded examples of the Robinson card.

As for demand and desirability, Jackie Robinson cards just never seem to go out of style. His debut into Major League Baseball as the first African American player changed baseball. His career may have been even more bright had his debut into the MLB been in his early or mid-20s rather than the 1947 season at age 28.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates high-end collectibles as an alternative asset class. The same capital that could have been invested into stocks or bonds is being used to buy high-end collectibles. True sports collectors and hobbyists have a passion to own certain cards or memorabilia for quite a long time. The investor class in collectibles is solely buying an asset to sell at a later date for a profit. This keeps collectors and investors in a constant battle for who can win in auctions, and this sale of the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson card saw many investors show up for its initial public offering.

While Jackie Robinson card prices have risen handily over time, no collector out there should think there is an assured profit. Card values have fallen before and they will likely fall again.

If there is a key takeaway from Collectors Dashboard for why any card collector wants the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson, it should be this:

Jackie Robinson revolutionized baseball by being the first black American in the MLB, and the 1952 Topps set revolutionized baseball card collecting for generations. Robinson’s 1952 Topps card comes up for auction less often than the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. The Robinson card is more scarce than the Mantle in population reports. There even fewer graded of the 1952 Topps card than there are of Robinson’s rookie cards in the 1948 Leaf and 1949 Bowman sets. Jackie Robinson’s cards seem to do only on thing over time — go up!

Enough said.