Remembering Hobby Legend Mr. Mint as Topps Baseball Turns 75

The Story of the Vintage Card King

We all dream of finding vintage baseball cards at garage sales or in Grandma’s attic. But imagine finding a 1952 Mickey Mantle. Now multiply that by 65. And now add the same number of 1952 Jackie Robinsons and Willie Mays, and actually, every 1952 Topps card from No. 261 on up. 

Oh, and they’re all uncirculated, pack-fresh, and untouched since the day they were printed.

Now you know how Alan Rosen, better known in the Hobby community as Mr. Mint, felt in 1986 when he walked into a sparsely furnished Massachusetts home and saw piles of pristine 1952 Topps cards, mostly the rarest high-numbers. Right away, he was handed a pile of Mantles out of a cabinet. All flawless. He started counting — 30…42… Rosen was dumbstruck.

And that was just the beginning.

Ultimately, there were 65 complete runs of every high-number card, and most cards from the prior series that included Willie Mays and many other stars. The seller’s father had been a delivery driver for Topps and forgot what he had in the attic. The case of 1952 Topps cards were supposed to go to a sporting goods store so that kids could get free cards when they purchased bats and gloves. 

But this wasn’t some old lady who had no idea what she had. The sellers knew that these cards in this condition were very valuable, even in 1986 when the meeting took place. The Mantle card had been rising in value since the early 1980s. 

Rosen, the Indiana Jones of the sports card hobby given his ability to find unimaginable cardboard treasures, brought $125,000 in cash with him and an off-duty police officer from his hometown of Paterson, NJ. A deal was quickly struck, for everything. 

Selling The Hobby’s Biggest Chase Cards

Rosen started selling the 65 complete runs of high numbers for $12,000 each. After nine sales in one day, he raised his price to $18,000. Then he upped it to $20,000. All of these runs included not only an uncirculated Mantle, but a Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, rookie Eddie Mathews, and a multitude of other stars. The wealthy set builders wanted the so-called common cards of relatively unknown players, too. 

Rosen didn’t deplete all that inventory for years. In the late 1980s, he said he sold a Mantle, immediately regretted it, and bought it back for more than he was paid. He was haunted by the belief that the Mantle card alone was worth more than the $30,000-to-$40,000 he was asking.

Perhaps his most famous sales happened in 1991 at the card show at Madison Square Garden. Collector Anthony Giordano wanted to complete his run of Mickey Mantle cards but was unsurprisingly having difficulty finding a high-condition 1952 Mantle. His son ran up to him and told him about the pristine Mantle he saw at Mr. Mint’s table. The price? $57,500. He told his son that was too much and to see if he would take less. When the son offered Rosen “50,” he was told, “Kid, I’m not talking $57.50 cents. This is $57,500.” Dad came with the cash, and the deal was made for $50,000.

In 2022, that very card, now graded by SGC as a 9.5, was sold by the elder Giordano for $12.6 million, or $12.55 million more than he paid. Was he happy? “I don’t feel good,” he said after the sale. “I don’t have my card anymore. The money part of it is great and all. But I think the best part of the whole thing was just the journey that I was [on] with it. The experience for my sons, my grandchildren and my family. It was phenomenal.”

That journey started with Mr. Mint. Most of the top condition 1952 Mantles can be traced to him. As of February, there are 60 1952 Mantles graded at least NM-MT (8 or better on the 10-grade scale), according to Card Ladder, which tracks card values and populations. 

The Mr. Mint Legend Goes On

Rosen would have other major finds. Some of the ones he highlighted on his website during his lifetime included:

• A 1987 Paris, TN find of 500 unopened boxes of 1954 and 1955 Topps and Bowman baseball cards
• In Tampa, hundreds of thousands of Topps baseball cards 1959-63
• An Illinois Topps baseball complete set find spanning 1953-75, including nine 1961 sets, 12 1962s, and 10 1963s
• In Kansas City, 11,000 uncirculated 1951-53 Bowman cards, including 32 1951 Mantle rookies and 40 of his second-year Bowman cards

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Rosen said nine different T206 Honus Wagners passed through his hands, and that’s of just 34 that were known to exist during his lifetime. Through it all, he built a legacy that matched his Mr. Mint moniker.

In November 1990, Rosen told the Associated Press that he was making $6 million to $7 million a year selling cards. He said there would always be a market for selling quality, older cards and “real memorabilia.” Rosen added, “I did $750,000 of sales in one day. That’s pretty significant. I’m not an idiot, but any idiot can make money selling quality cards.” 

The game changed in the 2000s, with the rise of auction houses in The Hobby effectively taking his place. Rosen didn’t have cards left over when he passed away, having sold them all long before. 

But his legacy endures. Today, many of the top-quality vintage cards that are sold can be traced to Rosen. So his impact on Th Hobby is often felt with many major vintage sales. 

Mr. Mint Collector FAQs

• Who was Mr. Mint?
  • Alan Rosen, better known as Mr. Mint, was a sports card collector and dealer who oversaw some of the biggest discoveries and sales in Hobby history.
• What is Mr. Mint famous for?
  • Mr. Mint’s most famous find is probably the 1986 “Topps 1952 Find,” with 65 full high-number runs of 1952 Topps Baseball, including Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson.
• What are the most valuable cards in the 1952 Topps Baseball set?
  • The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is the biggest chase and one of the holy grails of The Hobby, with the Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays cards also being huge targets for collectors.
• What’s the most a ’52 Mickey Mantle card has sold for?
  • A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card sold for $12.6 million in 2022 — an example originally found and sold by Mr. Mint.

Key Facts

• Hobby Icon: Mr. Mint (Alan Rosen)
• Biggest Score: The 1952 Topps Baseball high-number find from 1986
• Key Cards: ’52 Mantle, Mays, Robinson
• Legacy: Mantle card eventually sold for $12.6 million; Rosen known as the ‘King of Cards’

---

More Topps

---