Baseball Card Sold for $12.6 Million, Breaking Record
By Livia Albeck-Ripka, Aug. 28, 2022, NY Times

A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card became the most valuable piece of sports memorabilia to be sold at auction, notching $12.6 million early Sunday morning.

The card, issued by the collectible company Topps in 1952, features Mantle, the most powerful switch-hitter in baseball history. It would have been sold at the time in a wax-wrapped pack that cost either a penny or a nickel, said Chris Ivy, the director
of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, which sold the item.

Now, the card has become the first sports item to be sold at auction for eight figures. “We always knew this card would shatter records and expectations,” Mr. Ivy said in a statement. “But that doesn’t make it any less of a thrill.”

The card surpassed the record of $9.3 million achieved earlier this year by the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the goal known as the “Hand of God” in the 1986 World Cup.

The sale of the baseball card marks a new high for the sports collectible market, one that has been booming in recent years, especially since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Baseball cards can carry a sense of nostalgia.

“People are starting to look at these collectibles as legitimate alternative assets,” Mr. Ivy said by phone.

Michael Osacky, the lead appraiser for Professional Sports Authenticator, the largest third-party grader of sports collectibles, started working as an appraiser in 2012. Before 2020, he said there was little interest from hedge fund managers or private
equity firms. But in the last two years, he said, he has been swamped with inquiries from people who see the collectibles as an investment.

He added, “All of a sudden people are like, ‘Wow, this stuff could be art.’”

According to Heritage Auctions, the Mantle card was graded a “Mint+ 9.5” out of 10 by Sportscard Guaranty Corporation, which authenticates and grades trading cards.

“It’s almost perfectly centered top to bottom and left to right. It’s got four sharp corners. The color is beautiful.” Mr. Ivy added, “The fact that it remained in this condition for 70 years, prior to being graded, is truly a miracle.”

According to Heritage Auctions, the card was purchased by an anonymous baseball fan from Rye, N.Y., from Anthony Giordano, the president of a recycling and solid waste business in New Jersey.

By phone, Mr. Giordano, 75, said that he had purchased the card in 1991 at a Father’s Day baseball card show he was attending with his son at Madison Square Garden. He paid $50,000, at the time a record for that specific card.

Mr. Giordano said that he and his son had been looking for a 1952 Mantle card, but until that moment, nothing had really seemed right. “When we saw the price on this card, we knew it had to be something special.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/us/mickey-mantle-card-auction-baseball.html

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On Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 11:07:11 PM UTC-7, David P. wrote:

Baseball Card Sold for $12.6 Million, Breaking Record
By Livia Albeck-Ripka, Aug. 28, 2022, NY Times

A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card became the most valuable piece of sports memorabilia to be sold at auction, notching $12.6 million early Sunday morning.

The card, issued by the collectible company Topps in 1952, features Mantle, the most powerful switch-hitter in baseball history. It would have been sold at the time in a wax-wrapped pack that cost either a penny or a nickel, said Chris Ivy, the

director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, which sold the item.

Now, the card has become the first sports item to be sold at auction for eight figures. “We always knew this card would shatter records and expectations,” Mr. Ivy said in a statement. “But that doesn’t make it any less of a thrill.”

The card surpassed the record of $9.3 million achieved earlier this year by the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the goal known as the “Hand of God” in the 1986 World Cup.

The sale of the baseball card marks a new high for the sports collectible market, one that has been booming in recent years, especially since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Baseball cards can carry a sense of nostalgia.

“People are starting to look at these collectibles as legitimate alternative assets,” Mr. Ivy said by phone.

Michael Osacky, the lead appraiser for Professional Sports Authenticator, the largest third-party grader of sports collectibles, started working as an appraiser in 2012. Before 2020, he said there was little interest from hedge fund managers or private

equity firms. But in the last two years, he said, he has been swamped with inquiries from people who see the collectibles as an investment.

He added, “All of a sudden people are like, ‘Wow, this stuff could be art.’”

According to Heritage Auctions, the Mantle card was graded a “Mint+ 9.5” out of 10 by Sportscard Guaranty Corporation, which authenticates and grades trading cards.

“It’s almost perfectly centered top to bottom and left to right. It’s got four sharp corners. The color is beautiful.” Mr. Ivy added, “The fact that it remained in this condition for 70 years, prior to being graded, is truly a miracle.”

According to Heritage Auctions, the card was purchased by an anonymous baseball fan from Rye, N.Y., from Anthony Giordano, the president of a recycling and solid waste business in New Jersey.

By phone, Mr. Giordano, 75, said that he had purchased the card in 1991 at a Father’s Day baseball card show he was attending with his son at Madison Square Garden. He paid $50,000, at the time a record for that specific card.

Mr. Giordano said that he and his son had been looking for a 1952 Mantle card, but until that moment, nothing had really seemed right. “When we saw the price on this card, we knew it had to be something special.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/us/mickey-mantle-card-auction-baseball.html

Mickey Mantle was amazing. 1952 would have been his rookie card - that's always the one that fetches the most.

If he hadn't been such a drunk, he might have been the best hitter ever.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

bmoore wrote:

David P. wrote:

Baseball Card Sold for $12.6 Million, Breaking Record
By Livia Albeck-Ripka, Aug. 28, 2022, NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/us/mickey-mantle-card-auction-baseball.html

Mickey Mantle was amazing. 1952 would have been his rookie card - that's always the one that fetches the most.

If he hadn't been such a drunk, he might have been the best hitter ever.

---------------
Study Finds That 8% Of Chinese Men Are Problem Drinkers
by Ginni Correa, Jan. 30, 2020, Addiction Center

Drinking alcohol has become more popular in China over the recent years. In fact, data shows that alcohol dependence in China increased from 0.02% to 0.68% between the 1980s and 1990s, and per capita alcohol consumption increased from 4.1 liters in 2005
to 7.2 liters in 2016. Although alcohol consumption and dependence has been steadily increasing since the 80’s, there have not been many studies compiling large-scale evidence of this epidemic in China. A new study has found that an astonishing 8% of
Chinese men are problem drinkers.

In 2019, the scientific journal Addiction, published a study that analyzed the associations of problem drinking and wellbeing in China. Researchers from Oxford University, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences studied over 500,
000 men and women aged 30-79 from ten rural and urban areas in China. Participants filled out questionnaires and provided blood samples to measure alcohol consumption, medical history, and reported wellbeing. Based on their answers, people were
classified as: abstainers, ex-regular drinkers, reduced-intake drinkers, occasional drinkers, and current regular drinkers. Regular drinkers meant someone drank at least weekly in the past year. The study showed that there was a significant difference in
alcohol consumption between men and women. Less than 2% of Chinese women drank regularly but about 33% of men were described as current regular drinkers. 1 in 4 men who are regular drinkers also reported one or more indicator of problem drinking. Problem
drinking includes one or more of the following indicators related to alcohol use in the past month:

**drinking in the morning.
**being unable to work or do anything due to drinking.
**feeling depressed, irritated, or losing control after drinking.
**being unable to keep away from drinking.
**having “shakes” when stopping drinking.

Current regular drinkers who did not report any of the above were categorized as low-risk drinkers or high-risk drinkers, based on how much alcohol they were consuming weekly. The most surprising data from the study showed that 8% of Chinese men are
problem drinkers, and researchers sought to find out why.

The results from the study were used to indicate factors that may affect one’s likelihood of becoming a problem drinker. Compared with low-risk drinkers, problem drinkers have less education and a lower household income. Overall, problem drinking was
more common in rural than urban areas, driven mainly by how common morning drinking occurs in rural areas. Participants of the studies were surveyed on their experiences with any stressful life events and found that loss of income or debt and experience
of violence were associated with problem drinking. This finding seemed to correlate with the prevalence of problem drinking among rural, lower social-economic Chinese men.

Science has long proven that heavy drinking can lead to both physical and mental problems, alcoholism, or alcohol use disorder (AUD). The study showed that compared to low-risk drinkers, Chinese men with problem drinking reported poorer health, less life
satisfaction, more sleep problems, and a higher risk of depression and anxiety. All of these are signs or side effects of heavy drinking or an alcohol addiction. Chinese men with two or more problem drinking indicators had about a two-fold higher risk
for all causes of death than low-risk drinkers. In conclusion, problem drinking was associated with poor wellbeing and a higher risk of death.

Drinking in China has been on the rise since the 1980’s and officials are starting to notice national health problems that resemble those in Western countries. Now that researchers have gathered evidence, they hope it can help policy makers when making
decisions on how to improve health outcomes in China.

https://www.addictioncenter.com/news/2020/01/chinese-men-problem-drinkers/
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