ATLANTA — A sale for a Hank Aaron 1954 Topps rookie card set a record for any Aaron card at nearly three quarters of a million dollars.
PWCC Marketplace said that on Thursday night it completed an auction of a 1954 Topps Aaron rookie, given a 9/10 grade by baseball card condition grading company PSA, for a sale of $720,000.
The previous Aaron record was $645,000 with a sale in Feb. 2021.
PWCC said the card was particularly attractive for its “stunning surface color and centering” and that the “top two corners of the card are also in incredible condition.”
Because of how the passage of time wears on card stock and how many have been casually stored over the years by collectors or even thrown away, very few baseball cards from the 1950s grade out as “mint.”
“There are only 25 examples of this card in a ‘mint’ grade. And only two examples have ever earned the higher ‘gem mint’ grade from PSA,” PWCC said. “Simply put: this is an extremely difficult card to find in high quality.”
The statements notes only two Aaron rookie cards have ever been given a PSA 10 grade.
Another Aaron card, from the 1966 Topps set, was recently highlighted on PSA’s Twitter account for getting the extremely rare 10 grade.
PWCC Marketplace’s director of business development, Jesse Craig, said in a statement that “one of the all-time greats has secured a new record and it’s with a card that has amazing eye appeal.”
“The vintage card market is seeing strong sales for keystone cards right now. The 1954 Topps Hank Aaron card absolutely deserves to be in that discussion when you consider his legacy,” Craig said.
According to PWCC, in 1954 Topps redesigned its cards “to feature bright colors with a centralized image and a smaller likeness of the player in action,” which makes Aaron’s rookie card from that year “his premier offering.”