While the past several years have seen exponential growth in the value of postwar 1950s and 1960s Hall of Famers the explosion in popularity among those cards was surely driven by the most valuable postwar card of all: the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. The legend of this card continues to grow resulting in record sales seemingly on a weekly basis. Certainly not a rarity by any means the demand for the card continues to outpace supply regardless. Much has been said about "foreign investors" setting the pace for the market but we believe much of that to be marketing hype. Our opinion is much simpler than that: as prices for the card at the high end of the grading scale continue to rise (as they do with all important high-grade cards) the lower end of the scale is being paced by collectors hoping to acquire their "white whale" before the card becomes unaffordable. The result is intense demand in all grades with record prices achieved regularly. This colorful example has attained the grade of VG 40 by SGC due largely to centering and edge/corner wear consistent with the grade. Some moderate surface wear is also visible but not to the extent that the card's color and clarity is impacted. Indeed for the collector less concerned with centering this example boasts a sharpness and a clean surface significantly stronger than the assigned grade. In recent memory a 1952 Mantle in GOOD condition could be had for less than $10 000 and an example in VG for under $20 000; such occurrences are rare today. A VG example as attractive as this regardless of centering is slowly pushing into "unaffordable" territory. One of the most important cards in the hobby in any grade and one with strong visual appeal for the grade. PLEASE NOTE: At the National Sports Collect