A Mickey Mantle baseball card already is the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold at auction, and now one of The Mick’s jerseys is set to challenge for another record, as well.
Heritage Auctions currently has received a $3.25 million bid — $3.9 million with the buyer’s premium — for a game-worn 1958 home Mantle jersey.
With the extended-bid portion of the Summer Platinum Sports Auction slated for next weekend, the No. 7 pinstriped jersey could threaten the all-time mark for a baseball jersey: the reported $5.64 million received for a Babe Ruth version in 2019.
“That’s the million dollar question,” Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions, said Friday in a phone interview. “I think it’s right at our estimate right now, but I know that we’ve got some pretty interested parties in this item.
“I’d expect that it will go somewhere in the 4-to-5 million dollar range when it’s all said and done. I would lay the odds at fairly low that it would surpass that [Ruth] number, but it certainly could happen.”
The previous record for a Mantle gamer via an auction also was sold by Heritage in Feb. 2020 for $2.19 million, so that figure will be easily surpassed.
Ivy said that this particular jersey has been photo-matched to the uniform he wore on Opening Day and several other games during the 1958 season, plus significant events such as the opening episode of the black-and-white TV show “Home Run Derby” — in which he faced off against Willie Mays — in 1960.
“The ability for these third-party services to go into photo archives and photo-match this jersey is really one of the main factors helping us to generate this kind of interest and numbers for it,” Ivy said. “For this era of Baby Boomers, Mantle represented the Yankees, and New York City, the biggest team in sports at the time.
“He was just a larger than life character for that entire generation. I think it’s similar to the way [Michael] Jordan is viewed by his generation.”
A game-worn Jordan jersey from the 1998 NBA FInals, his final championship season with the Bulls, sold at auction for $10 million earlier this year, the most ever for a jersey in any sport.
“I think Mantle’s connection with that generation is one of the cool things about the sport of baseball. Kids hear stories from their parents and I believe that reverence for Mantle has been passed down through the generations.”
This marks the first time this particular Mantle jersey has been offered for auction. Ivy said it was purchased privately several years ago by a “gentleman with one of the finest Yankees collections in the world,” but the consignor wishes to remain anonymous. The sale will conclude with two extended-bid sessions on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20.
“There’s no way to know for sure, but we do look to read the tea leaves, and based on the conversations we’ve had with interested parties, we think this thing has some legs,” Ivy said. “I do feel like it’s going to take several more bids, but as far as how far people want to go, they always keep that close to the vest.
“I do think there are several interested parties at this level and I do think it will take several additional bids prior to the final gavel coming down on it.”
