Hidden away in the collection of a former teammate for decades, a copy of the photo used to make Mickey Mantle’s 1951 Bowman rookie card sold for $843,750 Sunday night.
It’s the most ever paid for an encapsulated PSA Type 1 image, topping the previous record of $516,000 set by a Ty Cobb photo sold in late August of 2022. That image mirrors the one used to create the art for Cobb’s 1914-15 Cracker Jack cards.
Only four known examples of the Mantle photo exist. One of the others sold for $71,700 in 2015.
The realized price exceeds any of Mantle’s 1951 Bowman cards that have been sold publicly except for a PSA Mint 9 that realized over $3.1 million in 2022.
Early Mantle baseball card photos have been popular with advanced collectors who have deep pockets. In 2019, a 1952 Topps Mantle image sold privately for $375,000.
“What I love most about the Type 1 photos is their proximity to history,” says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. “This isn’t just any Mickey Mantle photo: It’s the one that has become emblematic of his ascension from rookie to legend – when he was just the fresh-faced kid from Oklahoma who wasn’t yet The Mick, a Hall of Famer, a legend.”
The 8×10 photo, which served as the centerpiece of Heritage’s Photo Legends Type 1 Showcase Auction, shows Mantle wearing No. 6, with a bat perched on his right shoulder as he stares into the distance as though awaiting a pitcher’s delivery. This same image, colorized but otherwise barely altered, was used not only for Mantle’s first baseball card but also his 1952 Berk Ross card, by which time he’d famously become No. 7 on the legendary roster, and his 1953 Topps offering.
The photo came from the collection of the late Jack Kramer, a big-league pitcher who won Game 3 of the 1944 World Series as a St. Louis Brown and finished his career as one of Mantle’s teammates on the ’51 Yankees. It was found among his keepsakes in a plain brown envelope bearing the New York Yankees’ logo, Yankee Stadium’s Bronx address and a handwritten note: “Pictures of 1952 New York Yanks all individuals.”
Inside was an original, freshly printed set of 8-by-10 glossy black-and-white photos featuring members of the 1951 Yankees. They were taken by the team’s photographer, Bob Olen. Kramer was there alongside the legendary likes of Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto and a 19-year-old kid from Oklahoma named Mantle.
The photo of Mantle is considered “one of the true grails of Type 1 collecting,” according to PSA, which defines a Type I photo as “a 1st generation photograph, developed from the original negative, during the period (within approximately two years of when the picture was taken).” This photo remained in that brown envelope for decades, sealed in a plastic bag and stored in a cedar chest. It had never been available at auction.
Another Mantle photo from Kramer’s collection also drew a strong price: his 1951 rookie headshot, which realized $20,625.
Heritage plans another photography auction in June.
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