NEW YORK (AP) — A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card has sold for $12.6 million, blasting into the record books Sunday as the most expensive ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia. The rare Mantle card eclipsed the record just posted a few months ago — $9.3 million for the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the controversial “Hand of God” goal in soccer’s 1986 World Cup. The escalating records are part of a growing market for sports memorabilia that has taken off as people cocooned themselves during the pandemic — one part nostalgia and one part financial opportunity.
