Mickey Mantle card breaks record, as sports memorabilia soar

FILE - A Mickey Mantle baseball card is displayed at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, on July 21, 2022. A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card has sold for $12.6 million, blasting into the record books Sunday Aug. 28, 2022 as the most expensive ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card has sold for $12.6 million, blasting into the record books Sunday as the most expensive ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia. The rare Mantle card eclipsed the record just posted a few months ago — $9.3 million for the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the controversial “Hand of God” goal in soccer’s 1986 World Cup.

The escalating records are part of a growing market for sports memorabilia that has taken off as people cocooned themselves during the pandemic — one part nostalgia and one part financial opportunity.