Easily the most important baseball card of the postwar era the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is the whole package: one of the most popular players from the era's most popular team issued during the Golden Age of collecting in Topps' landmark set the key card in the more scarce high-number series issued at the very beginning of the Hall of Famer's career. It is no wonder then that card #311 from this set is one of the most highly regarded and widely sought after cards in the hobby. Of late the card has attracted even more attention with colorful and sharp examples fetching record prices perhaps due to the legend of Mantle's greatness in comparison with the "steroid era" power hitters of today. Of course the penchant of 1950s youngsters to flip trade and handle their baseball cards (the way they were intended to be) has resulted in '52 Mantles in a variety of conditions with many beaten beyond recognition. Due to the card's incredible value it is common to see examples in every conceivable condition at the lower end of the grading scale but in actuality very few of them boast any type of exceptional eye appeal. The result is a high demand for such cards. Presented is one of them an extraordinarily colorful and sharp example with very little surface wear. A series of wrinkles run north from the bottom edge of the card progressing as far as Mantle's chin but not breaking the color of the card. A similar series is visible on the reverse this time at the top of the card running south; it manifests itself as a slight indent on the front of the card. Both sets of wrinkles are best viewable at an angle under bright light. Corners and edges appear slightly better than the assigned grade; centering is off to the right. This is an exceptional card. In a sea of off-grade examples a high-quality collector-grade 1952 Topps Mantle is not easy to locate. This is an extremely high-quality example for the assigned grade and with realized prices of 1952 Mantles jumping by leaps and bounds this card provides the collector with extraordinary value. Population Data SGC Population: PSA Population: 1 174 total graded 17 at this level 731 higher