An Unopened Brick of 1952 Topps Packs Just Sold for 1.1 Million Dollars at REA
Eight sealed 1952 Topps five-cent wax packs from the famous Seattle find led REA's 18 million dollar Summer Auction at 1,107,000 dollars, while a 1962 Mays and 1954 Banks rookie set all-time record prices.
A Million-Dollar Brick of 74-Year-Old Wax
Robert Edward Auctions closed its Summer Auction on August 16 with more than $18 million in total sales, and the headliner was not a Mantle or a Wagner. It was an unopened brick of eight 1952 Topps five-cent wax packs, which soared to $1,107,000 including buyer's premium.
The cellophane-wrapped brick originated from the celebrated 1990s Seattle find and opened bidding at $250,000 before attracting 42 bids. Only three bricks of 1952 Topps unopened packs are known to survive, making this one of the rarest unopened artifacts in the entire hobby.
Why Unopened 1952 Topps Is the Ultimate Gamble
The 1952 Topps set is the most important post-war issue in baseball card collecting, anchored by the iconic #311 Mickey Mantle, the card that famously sold for $12.6 million in 2022. Any unopened pack from that year carries lottery-ticket potential, and a brick of eight packs multiplies both the mystique and the math. Of course, nobody who pays seven figures for this brick is likely to ever rip it. The packaging itself is the grail.
Records Beyond the Wax
The unopened material led the sale, but two graded singles set all-time marks of their own:
- 1962 Topps #300 Willie Mays PSA 9: sold for $369,000, the highest price ever paid for the card in any grade.
- 1954 Topps #94 Ernie Banks rookie PSA 9: sold for $215,250, also an all-time record for the card.
The Vintage Market Keeps Rolling
The REA result lands in the middle of a scorching stretch for vintage. Heritage just moved a T206 Honus Wagner with a rare Piedmont back for over $5.8 million, auction houses posted record first-half totals, and 2026 remains on pace to break virtually every high-end sales record on the books. Unopened vintage wax, in particular, has become its own asset class: scarce, impossible to reproduce, and increasingly the centerpiece of major catalog auctions.
For everyday collectors, the takeaway is simpler: condition and provenance drive everything at the top of the market, and the stories behind items, like a Seattle warehouse find from the 1990s, add real premium. That box of childhood cards in your closet probably is not a million-dollar brick, but the market for authentic vintage material has never been deeper.
Curious what vintage inventory looks like in your area? Use The Card Shop Finder to locate shops near you that deal in vintage cards and get eyes on the real thing.