Collectors have a passion for collecting whatever it is that they see fit. Some people who collect sports cards also collect non-fungible tokens (NFT). And this is not the first NFT targeted directly at sports card collectors. A unique NFT of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is up for auction on the Opensea.io platform and the auction is set to end on March 4, 2022 at 1:00 pm EST.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates collectibles as an alternative asset class. The same capital used to buy a 1952 Topps Mantle could just have easily, or more easily, been invested into stocks and bonds. We wanted to look at the data behind the NFT itself and compare it to the population reports of the real 1952 Topps cards, the prices and the number of real bids.

Is it possible that the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle NFT may be worth more than the REAL card?

The 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle card is one of the faces of cardboard collectibles. It is revered in at least some ways like the notorious T206 Honus Wagner that costs millions of dollars to buy. That said, it is much more widely available. For that reason, some sales can still be found in the $20,000 to $30,000 range even if those prices are becoming harder to find.

There is almost no way to know what the unique NFT of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle will ultimately sell for at the close of the Opensea.io auction. What we do know today is that the current bid is 2.5358 WETH worth some $7,445.34 on last look. That is with basically 2 days and 2 hours remaining.

As for comparing the real 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle to the so-called “Pop 1” NFT, PSA has graded a combined total of 1,817 examples of this card. The SGC population reports show that 572 graded examples exist, and Beckett’s BVG graded population is just 177 examples.

After screening out the bids and offers under the $100.00 (USD) mark, and after screening out the duplicate offers (in WETH) there have been 15 bids to get to the 2.5358 WETH worth some $7,445.34 on last look.

According to Topps:

This 1-of-1 NFT celebrates the classic Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card as a rare digital collectible. The Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle Card continues to be one of the world’s most coveted vintage relics, and now through Topps Timeless, has been reimagined for the digital age. In partnership with the Mantle Estate and Major League Baseball, this NFT cements Mantle’s legacy on the Ethereum blockchain with the first ever licensed MLB NFT to be auctioned on OpenSea. The Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card displayed in the video NFT is an actual card from the original Topps 1952 release that was digitally scanned and sourced from Topps’ digital archives, specifically to be used in this 1-of-1 NFT.

Along with the NFT’s metadata (terms) are the front and back of an original Topps 1952 Mantle Card, and the Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. The Topps site at the first announcement of the news also said that the winner will have the opportunity to interview Mantle’s sons, Danny and David. The Topps original release said:

Deep within the annals of just a few prized collections comes a coveted vintage relic transformed for the Digital Age. As the Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle Card continues to be one of the world’s most rare collectibles, fans will now have the opportunity to cement Mantle’s legacy on the Ethereum blockchain.

Again, what this will ultimately fetch is hard to know. It will also be hard to know if the buyer is really buying it to own the NFT or if the buyer is buying it to keep interest alive in the NFT and digital asset space (yes, that happens!).