What more can be said about the 1952 Topps baseball cards that hasn't already been said a thousand times over the years? I mean, these are the babies that changed the card market forever. They were big, bold, colorful, and based on real photos, though finished with painting tinting. The card selection was huge, featuring 407 players that pretty much included every big name of the day, plus the more common guy that filled out the major league rosters. It was a combination that Bowman found hard to combat, and the appearance of the 1952 Topps issue on the hobby scene spelled the beginning of the end for their more established rival. Today, there's a strong market for every 1952 Topps card, and the presence of legendary rookie cards and tough, tough high numbers has driven the prices for pasteboards across every series. With that in mind, here are the 12 most viable 1952 Topps baseball cards as listed for PSA 7 copies in the PSA Sports Market Report Price Guide. A warning though, just looking at these prices is likely to make your wallet hurt. 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, number 311. This is not a Mickey Mantle rookie card, and it's certainly not THE Mickey Mantle rookie card. That honor belongs to the 1951 Bowman issue of the Mic. But yeah, that's all just a technicality. The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card is the big kahuna among post-war cards. Neck and neck with the T206 Honest Wagner as the most important baseball card of all time. You've heard it all before, but just know that the modern hobby wouldn't exist, not like it does today, without this legendary hunk of cardboard. If you find it in PSA 7, you'll have to part with a six-figure sum to make it your own. 1952 Tops Eddie Matthews, number 407. In the early to mid 1950s, if someone had told you a member of the Boston or Milwaukee Braves would someday surpass Babe Ruth as the all-time home run king, Eddie Matthews would have been your first thought. Even though Matthews fell behind teammate Hank Aaron in that quest, the Slugger remains one of the game's greatest third basemen and a Hall of Famer with more than 500 home runs to his name. Add to the fact that Matthew's rookie card is the last card in the fabled 1952 top set and the conditioned scarcity that comes with that honor, and you're looking at close to $20,000 buy in PSA 7. 1952 tops Willie Mays, number 261. Like Mantle, May's true rookie card came at collectors from the confines of the 1951 Bowman set. Also like Mantle, that doesn't matter in the real-world glare of high roller baseball cards. In that world, the 1952 Topps is May's rookie card, and it's about a $10,000 buy in PSA 7. 1952 Topps Andy Pafko, number 1 Andy Pafko was a solid power source from third base and an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs through most of the 1940s. All that changed when the Cubbies traded him to the Brooklyn Dodgers in June of 1951. Well, not all of that changed. Pafko smacked 18 dingers for the Dodgers in little more than half a season that summer. That earned him the number one card in the Tops breakout set and all the condition issues that come with it. As such, Pafko has been a tough buy in top grades forever, and today he pushes $10,000 in graded near-mint condition. 1952 Tops Jackie Robinson, number 312 Was there any more popular player in the game than Jackie Robinson as 1952 dawned? After all, the man who broke baseball's color barrier had won the 1947 Rookie of the Year Award, the 1949 National League Most Valuable Player Award, and the hearts of millions of fans. He was also a perennial top 10 MVP candidate and an ambassador for the game everywhere he went. Little wonder then that Robinson's first ever Topps card and a high number to boot brings in around $7,500 in PSA 7. 1952 Topps Roy Campanella, number 314. Like Robinson, Campanella was a Brooklyn Dodgers hero who made his Topps debut in 1952. The Hall of Fame catcher won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1951 and would add two more in 1953 and 1955, sort of like the early day Brett Saberhagen of position players. Also a high number, Campy's first Tops card checks in around $1,900 in PSA 7 condition. 1952 Tops John Rutherford 320 So why does a guy like Johnny Rutherford, who played in all of one Major League season and appeared in 22 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers, make this list at all? Why, it's because he's a high number, who scarcely shows up at all, let alone in nice graded condition. The 1952 Topps rookie card of Rutherford, who is not the race car driver by the same name, by the way, sells for around $1,700 in slabbed near-mint condition. 1952 Topps Pee-wee Reese, number 333. Another Brooklyn Dodger who eventually made his way to Cooperstown. Reese also appears in the elusive high-number series, numbers 311 to 407 of the classic Topps set. Like most others on this list, Reese also makes his Topps debut here, and the combination of all those factors contribute to this card's $1,250 price tag in PSA 7. 1952 Topps Yogi Berra, number 191. In most meaningful baseball ways, Berra was the American League equivalent of Campanella. A perennial all-star catcher for the powerful New York Yankees teams of the 1940s and 50s, Barrow would win three MVP awards of his own in 1951, 1954, and 1955. One of the few cards on this list that's not a high number, Barrow nonetheless checks in around $1,200 in PSA 7 condition. 1952 Tops Bill Dickey, number 400. It's sort of surreal to find Dickey in uniform on a card issued this late. After all, this man played with Luke Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Tony Lazari, Herb Pinnock, Joe DiMaglio, Miller Huggins, and all those legends from the first great Yankees teams in the 1920s and 30s. But after retiring as a player in 1946, the Hall of Fame catcher returned to the Bronx as a coach. And that's how we find him lined up here next to his successor, Barra, on the list. A high number, this Dickey lines up about the same price, $1,200 as Barra. 1952 Tops Pete Reynolds, number 2. You don't hear much about Pete Reynolds these days, but he was one of the best high-average men in the American League during the early 1960s. After beginning his career with a successful run with the Washington Senators, Reynolds stepped up his game after the January 1985 trade that sent him to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Albie Pearson and Norman Zutchen. Batting titles with the Bosox in 1960 and 1962 cemented Reynolds as a minor New England legend, which helps prop his 1952 Tops card north of $1,000 today in PSA 7 condition. 1952 Tops, Hoyt Willem, 392 Who was the first relief pitcher to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame? Well, you may have probably already guessed. That's it. It was Hoyt Willem in 1985. It all started in 1952 when the 29-year-old rookie led the Major League pitchers with a whopping 71 appearances en route to a 15-3, 2.43 ERA marked with a World Series-bound New York Giants. Willem would ride his knuckleball another 73 seasons and 101,493 innings in the big leagues, though those numbers are somewhat open to interpretation. What's not much in debate is that his 1952 Topps Rookie card, a high number, is one of the most valuable cards in the set at about a grand in graded near mint condition. Like our video? Then like our videos and subscribe to our channel. WaxPakGods.com