1956 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 8.5 Leads a September Auction Packed With Vintage and Modern Sports Cards

A 1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back graded PSA NM-MT+ 8.5 is the headline card in REA’s September Auction, an event that brings together pre-war tobacco issues, iconic rookie cards, high-grade set runs and a selection of current stars. The sale is scheduled to run through September 20, with the Mantle serving as the natural focal point of a catalog built to cover a remarkably wide stretch of sports-card history.

The 1956 Topps baseball release has long been admired for its visual design. It is one of those sets where the cards do more than document a roster: their large horizontal format, colored backgrounds and painted player imagery make the set feel like a mid-century baseball gallery in miniature. Mantle’s #135 is the defining card within that checklist, and the Gray Back variation in PSA 8.5 condition gives this example a particularly strong position among serious vintage offerings.

High-grade examples of the 1956 Mantle can command major attention. A PSA 9 copy has previously sold for a record $414,800. That result does not establish what this PSA 8.5 card will bring, of course, but it gives collectors important context for why a near-mint-to-mint-plus Gray Back Mantle is the lead item in a sale with so many big names.

A vintage centerpiece with a deep baseball bench

The Mantle is far from the auction’s only important baseball card. A 1962 Topps #300 Willie Mays, also graded PSA NM-MT+ 8.5, is another high-end entry. Mays cards have enduring crossover appeal because the player’s reputation is immense, his career spanned a pivotal era for the hobby, and the 1962 Topps issue is a recognizable flagship card. A PSA 9 copy of that Mays was sold for a record $369,000 in REA’s Summer Catalog Auction last month, another reminder that condition and scarcity at the upper end can dramatically change the stakes for familiar vintage cards.

Several earlier baseball artifacts expand the historical range further. The lineup includes a 1909 E92 Croft’s Candy Ty Cobb graded PSA VG 3, a 1925 Maple Crispette #8 Babe Ruth at PSA GOOD 2, an 1888 N403 Yum Yum Tobacco Cap Anson authenticated by SGC, and a 1914 E145 Cracker Jack #7 Eddie Collins in PSA VG-EX 4. These are not merely old cards sharing a catalog with more modern material. They represent distinct eras of American card production, from 19th-century tobacco promotions through the celebrated Cracker Jack issues and into the mass-market Topps boom.

Also on the baseball list is a 1958 Hires Root Beer Willie Mays with tab, graded PSA NM 7. The tab is a meaningful detail: promotional and food-issue cards can attract a specialized kind of collector interest, especially when a fragile original feature survived intact. A 1948 R346 Blue Tint #36 Jackie Robinson, PSA GOOD 2 with an MBA Silver Diamond designation, brings another layer of significance through both its subject and the card’s postwar place in the hobby.

Jordan cards span the Star and Fleer eras

Michael Jordan is represented by a group that reaches beyond the card most casual observers immediately recognize. The catalog includes a 1986-87 Fleer Basketball #57 Jordan rookie, the centerpiece of one of basketball collecting’s most influential modern-era issues. But it also features multiple Star Company cards, products that matter deeply to collectors tracking Jordan’s earliest professional-card years.

The lots include a 1985 Star Company Basketball “Gatorade Slam Dunk” #7 and a 1985-86 Star Company Basketball “Last 11 R.O.Y.” #1. Two 1986-87 Star Company Basketball cards, #3 and #4, are each graded BGS 8.5. A 1985-86 Star Company “Slam Dunk Supers 5x7” #5 Jordan, graded PSA MINT 9, carries an MBA Bronze Diamond designation for eye appeal. Together, the cards show the many directions Jordan collecting can take: mainstream rookie-card pursuit, regional and specialty Star issues, unusual format pieces, grade sensitivity and visual-appeal designations.

Related coverage includes 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 8.5 Leads REA’s September Auction.

That complexity is part of what makes auctions like this useful to follow even for collectors not planning to bid. A single player’s market is not one uniform lane. Different manufacturers, formats, grading companies and variations create distinct collecting routes, each with its own supply picture and audience.

Rookies across football, basketball and hockey

The football inventory carries several cornerstone names. A 1965 Topps Football #122 Joe Namath rookie is graded PSA NM+ 7.5, while a 1958 Topps Football #62 Jim Brown rookie has an SGC NM+ 7.5 grade. There is also a 1976 Topps Football #148 Walter Payton rookie graded PSA MINT 9. Those three cards cover legends whose careers and collector followings have stayed powerful across generations.

A 2000 Bowman Chrome Football #236 Tom Brady rookie graded BGS GEM MINT 9.5 moves the timeline into the chrome era. Brady’s rookie-card market has produced a vast number of collecting targets, but Bowman Chrome remains one of the central issues for hobbyists who want an early card of the quarterback in a premium, turn-of-the-millennium format.

Basketball collectors will find a 1957-58 Topps Basketball #77 Bill Russell rookie at PSA EX 5, plus a 1978-79 Topps Basketball #78 Dennis Johnson rookie graded PSA GEM MINT 10. The auction’s hockey offering includes a 1977-79 Sportscaster Italy Hockey #77-10 Wayne Gretzky rookie in PSA MINT 9. The Gretzky, Payton, Brady, Russell and Johnson cards underline the catalog’s basic approach: recognizable names are present, but their cards come from very different production environments and collecting traditions.

For collectors who value physical objects partly because their condition, variants and history are tangible parts of the experience, that distinction remains important. It is a different kind of ownership conversation than the one surrounding digital libraries, an issue explored in the debate over what “owned” means for digital PlayStation purchases. A graded card still has its own questions of provenance, authentication and market value, but it is unmistakably a specific, individually held artifact.

Complete sets offer collecting on a larger scale

Individual stars get the attention, yet the auction also includes more than 90 complete and near-complete sets. Set collecting is its own challenge because a run is judged not only by whether every card is present, but also by overall condition, consistency, key-card quality and the difficulty of assembling the entire checklist.

Among the PSA-graded complete-set offerings are 1959-60 Topps Hockey and 1976-77 Topps Basketball. There are also complete 1987-88 and 1988-89 Fleer Basketball sets. The 1987-88 Fleer lot contains 65 GEM MINT 10 cards and includes the complete 11-card sticker set; the 1988-89 Fleer set contains 122 GEM MINT 10s. Such groups can appeal to collectors who want an era represented in one acquisition rather than chasing single cards over months or years.

The appeal is not just numerical. A complete set preserves the ecosystem around its stars: role players, team cards, league leaders, subsets, rookies who did not become icons and the design language of a particular season. For a collector, that broader snapshot can be as compelling as owning the card at the top of the checklist.

Modern names join hobby standards

The sale is not exclusively a vintage showcase. A 2026 Topps Now Road to Opening Day Autographs #A-JM Jacob Misiorowski Rookie Red Foil numbered 5/5 is graded BGS MINT 9, with a GEM MINT 10 autograph. Caitlin Clark appears through a 2023 Bowman U Now Basketball #26A Autograph Purple numbered 13/25, graded PSA GEM MINT 10. Shohei Ohtani is also among the modern superstars represented in the event.

Modern cards operate with a different vocabulary from tobacco cards or 1950s Topps: serial numbering, autograph grades, foil parallels and short-print structures all play a major role. Yet their presence alongside Mantle, Ruth, Mays, Jordan and Gretzky makes the auction’s broader point clear. The hobby is not limited to a single age group, sport, grading preference or definition of rarity.

“The hobby staples like Ruth, Mantle, Jordan and Gretzky are well-represented, but we also have many of the biggest modern superstars, including Caitlin Clark, Shohei Ohtani and Jacob Misiorowski,” REA President Brian Dwyer said.

That range gives the September auction several distinct entry points for observers. Vintage baseball fans can watch the Mantle and Mays. Basketball specialists can compare the varied Jordan material with complete Fleer sets and the Bill Russell rookie. Football collectors have Namath, Brown, Payton and Brady. Hockey collectors get Gretzky as well as a full 1959-60 Topps Hockey set. And modern-card followers can track limited, autographed issues for Clark and Misiorowski.

As always, grades describe the professional assessment assigned to a particular card rather than a guarantee of future price. Still, the concentration of major names, notable grades and complete sets ensures that the results through September 20 will offer a useful snapshot of what collectors prioritize across sports-card history.