Mickey Mantle auction may make hobby history this week

Update (April 19): After 21 bids, the card stood at $2.88 million as it entered the extended bidding window (30 minute sessions).

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The Mick is about to take on the record books once again.

A PSA 9 copy of Mickey Mantle's iconic 1952 Topps baseball card is on the auction block via Heritage Auctions and its bidding is already in seven figures as we count down the minutes until its close later this week.

Just five other copies of the card have graded this high among more than 1,500 slabbed by PSA and just three have scored higher. It's estimated to sell for more than $3.5 million by the auction house, given recent demand for lower grades, and that would put it atop the list of best-selling baseball cards -- atop even top sales of Honus Wagner's T206 tobacco card.

"This card is a towering symbol of American exceptionalism, from its celebration of our national pastime to the fearless ambition of creator Sy Berger's vision to the exaltation of a culture that could elevate a poor kid from the Oklahoma coal mines to the pinnacle of fame and acclaim," said the auction house's listing. "It is 10 square inches of the American dream, preserved virtually flawlessly for eternity. It is a commodity recognized and coveted by millions, yet available to only a tiny handful of the most-sophisticated collectors."

Owned by former NFL lineman and Super Bowl champion Evan Mathis, the card presently sits at $1.9 million after 16 bids with the action set to end on Thursday at 11 p.m. Eastern. (With a buyer's premium, it's actually at $2.28 million without any more bids.)

Heritage has recently sold two record-worthy for high-grade specimens of this card in the last year -- $660,000 for a PSA 8 example and $1,135,250 for a PSA 8.5. It's been a decade since the last sale of a PSA 9, according to the auction house.

"The sale of this Mint 9 representation, widely considered by the small cast of experts who have examined the half-dozen as one of the finest at the grade, will set a new benchmark for the issue, and for post-war trading cards at large," said the auction listing. "It takes a special kind of collector to rewrite the record books, to plant the highest flag on the monetary mountain. But we wouldn't call him a madman. We'd call him a visionary."

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