Rare Mickey Mantle Card Insured for $12M, Delivered by Armored Truck for Display

A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card worth several million dollars and insured for $12 million was delivered by armored truck Monday to the History Colorado Center, where it will be displayed for three days, according to the Associated Press.

"I want the community to enjoy looking at the card," its owner, retired lawyer Marshall Fogel, told the AP. "It's the finest card ever made, and it just happens to be my favorite player, Mickey Mantle."

Per the AP's report, "Mike Fruitman, a sports card expert in Aurora, Colorado, said Fogel's '52 Mantle card is at least on par with the 1909 Honus Wagner T206 card whose rarity is attributed to Wagner's supposed disapproval of the card being sold along with tobacco."

What makes it so valuable? Many in that run of 1952 Topps cards had been returned to the company after going unsold by retailers to make room for the 1953 collection, and the returned cards were destroyed.

Fogel's 1952 Mantle is just one of three considered to be in mint condition. 

"So, yes, it's the Holy Grail of sports cards," Fruitman said. "Mantle was exceedingly more popular than Wagner. But each has a romantic backstory about them."