Vintage — Cardboard Police

September 17, 2026

The 1951 Photograph Behind the 1952 Topps Mantle Sold for $3 Million — the Card It Produced Still Has Only Three PSA 10s

The picture came first. Everything the hobby has spent seventy-four years grading and reselling is a reproduction of it — and the original has now been given a price of its own. A 1951 photograph of Mickey Mantle, the image Topps used to build his 1...

Hobby Article Baseball PSA Topps Vintage Million Dollar Cards

CASE #0326 Informational

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September 16, 2026

1971 O-Pee-Chee #45 Ken Dryden — the Most PSA 10s of Any Card in the Set, and He Still Gems Below the Set's Own Rate

No card in the 264-card 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee hockey set has more PSA 10s than card #45. Not Bobby Orr, who appears three times. Not Gordie Howe. Not Guy Lafleur's rookie, the most-submitted card in the set. The leader is a goaltender who had played six...

Card of the Day Hockey Vintage Hall of Fame Rookie Card

CASE #0324 Misdemeanor

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September 14, 2026

1969 Topps Planet of the Apes #38 The Search! — Tied for the Most PSA 10s in the Set, and More Than Half Its Slabs Stopped at Eight

Four copies of this card have graded PSA 10. The entire 44-card set has produced fifty-six, and no card in it has produced more than four. 1969 Topps Planet of the Apes is a 44-card set of stills from the 1968 film, each one captioned in a red scrol...

Card of the Day Topps Vintage Non-Sports

CASE #0321 Misdemeanor

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September 13, 2026

1960 Topps #148 Carl Yastrzemski — One PSA 10 in 11,640, and More Graded Copies Than the Set's Mantle

Eleven thousand, six hundred and forty copies of Carl Yastrzemski's rookie card have come back from PSA with a straight numeric grade. Exactly one of them is a PSA 10. It is the only Gem Mint example in sixty-six years, and PSA uses a photograph of i...

Card of the Day Baseball Vintage Hall of Fame Rookie Card

CASE #0318 Misdemeanor

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September 09, 2026

1966 Topps Batman #1 The Batman — the Most-Submitted Card in the Set, and It Has Never Graded a 10

Card No. 1 of the 1966 Topps Batman Black Bat set is the most-submitted card in it, and PSA has never graded one a 10. Not once in 2,085 holders. The set around it has produced 71 PSA 10s across its other cards. The card everybody sent in has none. ...

Card of the Day Topps Vintage Non-Sports

CASE #0315 Misdemeanor

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September 08, 2026

1962 Topps #17 Mike Ditka RC — Zero PSA 10s in 1,273, and Only Four Nines in Sixty-Four Years

PSA has put 1,448 copies of Mike Ditka's rookie card in holders. Not one of them is a Gem Mint 10, and the entire top of the population is four Mint 9s. The 1961 Rookie of the Year got card #17 in the 1962 Topps set — a black-bordered design that ha...

Card of the Day Football Topps Vintage Hall of Fame Rookie Card

CASE #0312 Misdemeanor

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September 05, 2026

1977 Topps #50 Mike Haynes RC — Nine PSA 10s in 823, and Forty-Eight of the Nines Are Qualified

PSA has put 918 copies of this card in holders since 1977. Nine of them are Gem Mint 10s — and the scan PSA publishes on its own CardFacts page is one of the nine, cert 18955654. The 1977 Topps set gave card #50 to a rookie cornerback who had just i...

Card of the Day Football Vintage Hall of Fame Rookie Card

CASE #0309 Misdemeanor

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September 04, 2026

1962 Topps Mars Attacks #1 The Invasion Begins — One PSA 10 in the Entire 55-Card Set, and It Isn't This Card

PSA has graded 22,294 copies of the 1962 Topps Mars Attacks set. It has awarded exactly one Gem Mint 10 — and it is not this card. Card #1, The Invasion Begins, is the opening frame of the most notorious story ever told on cardboard: a Martian in a ...

Card of the Day Topps Vintage Non-Sports

CASE #0306 Misdemeanor

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September 03, 2026

1966 Philadelphia #31 Dick Butkus RC — One PSA 10 in 1,723, and More Qualified 8s Than Clean 9s

PSA has put 2,048 Dick Butkus rookie cards in holders. Exactly one of them is a PSA 10. Nine more are straight PSA 9s — and forty-four copies earned a PSA 8 with a qualifier attached, which means the defect-flagged 8s outnumber the clean 9s by nearly...

Card of the Day Football Vintage Hall of Fame Rookie Card

CASE #0302 Misdemeanor

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September 01, 2026

A PSA 6 Mantle Sold for $690,000 at Fanatics Collect — $170,000 More Than a PSA 8 Brought in May

On May 29 this blog reported a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle in a PSA 8 holder selling for $520,000 at Heritage. Three months later, a PSA 6 of the same card sold for $690,000. Two grades lower, $170,000 more. The figure comes from Fanatics Collect's own...

Hobby Article Market Analysis Fanatics Vintage Million Dollar Cards

CASE #0300 Informational

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the cardboard chronicle

Tagged: Vintage

The 1951 Photograph Behind the 1952 Topps Mantle Sold for $3 Million — the Card It Produced Still Has Only Three PSA 10s

1971 O-Pee-Chee #45 Ken Dryden — the Most PSA 10s of Any Card in the Set, and He Still Gems Below the Set's Own Rate

1969 Topps Planet of the Apes #38 The Search! — Tied for the Most PSA 10s in the Set, and More Than Half Its Slabs Stopped at Eight

1960 Topps #148 Carl Yastrzemski — One PSA 10 in 11,640, and More Graded Copies Than the Set's Mantle

1966 Topps Batman #1 The Batman — the Most-Submitted Card in the Set, and It Has Never Graded a 10

1962 Topps #17 Mike Ditka RC — Zero PSA 10s in 1,273, and Only Four Nines in Sixty-Four Years

1977 Topps #50 Mike Haynes RC — Nine PSA 10s in 823, and Forty-Eight of the Nines Are Qualified

1962 Topps Mars Attacks #1 The Invasion Begins — One PSA 10 in the Entire 55-Card Set, and It Isn't This Card

1966 Philadelphia #31 Dick Butkus RC — One PSA 10 in 1,723, and More Qualified 8s Than Clean 9s

A PSA 6 Mantle Sold for $690,000 at Fanatics Collect — $170,000 More Than a PSA 8 Brought in May