Auction Archive

The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 graded SGC 9.5 sold for $12.6M at Heritage Platinum Night in August 2022 to Anthony Giordano. That sale set the all-time public record for any sports or trading card at auction. Before that the record was held by the T206 Honus Wagner PSA 5 at $6.6M. The Mantle was part of the Rosen Sinclair collection and had been off-market for over a decade.

Logan Paul’s Pikachu Illustrator Promo graded PSA 10 sold in a private sale for $5.275M in July 2022. The Pikachu Illustrator was awarded to winners of a 1998 CoroCoro magazine card-illustration contest in Japan — fewer than 40 were produced, and Paul’s copy is pop-2 at PSA 10. Logan Paul announced the purchase on his podcast and wore the card at WrestleMania.

Goldin Auctions (now eBay-owned) and Heritage Auctions are the two dominant trading-card auction houses for marquee lots. Goldin specializes in modern and high-end graded cards with their Platinum Night and weekly auctions. Heritage has deep vintage infrastructure and run Platinum Night events for pre-war and post-war rarities. PWCC Marketplace was also a major player before their 2022 restructuring. Robert Edward, Memory Lane, Mile High, and SCP handle specialty segments (Robert Edward = vintage auction catalogs, Memory Lane = Americana/boxing, Mile High = hockey/Western, SCP = high-end vintage with photo documentation). Christie’s occasionally handles marquee lots when estates route through traditional auction channels.

The pandemic-era card boom (March 2020 through roughly March 2022) re-priced the entire hobby. With sports leagues paused and capital looking for alternatives, high-net-worth collectors and institutional buyers poured money into graded cards. Many all-time-high records were set in that window. Since early 2022, the modern-card market has corrected substantially — a Luka Silver Prizm PSA 10 that peaked at $35K sold for $3-5K in 2024. Vintage and pop-1 rarities have held value better than modern rookie parallels.

Yes. All prices shown are final hammer plus buyer premium — the total amount the buyer paid. Auction houses charge buyer premiums ranging from 10% to 25% on top of the hammer price. So a $10M hammer at a 20% premium is listed here as $12M. Insurance values, appraisal values, and private-sale "list prices" are excluded from this archive; only public-record auction results are tracked.

No. The same card at the same grade can sell for very different prices across time. A 1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 that sold for $840K at peak is closer to $300K in 2024-26 as PSA 10 populations have grown and the broader basketball card market has cooled. Grade migrations (cards re-submitted and re-scored), pop-report updates, and market sentiment all drive price. Use this archive for historical reference; for current market values check our Comp Calculator and eBay sold listings.