Do you have a favorite “other” player from famous rookie cards? Can’t think of any? Well, Jon Brecka broke down some of the best in this great piece from the August 1995 issue of Trading Cards Magazine.
Happy collecting!
Baseball Cards
10 Cards of the Greatest Post-War Pitchers in MLB History
Generally speaking, pitchers don’t get as much hobby love as position players, which is more evident with modern cards. The reason for this is probably because fans only see a pitcher play every four or five days. But in case you’re a fan of pitchers, or looking to expand the depth of your collection, here’s a rundown of 10 of my favorite cards of the sport’s greatest post-war pitchers.
1953 Topps #220 Satchell Paige
Paige made his MLB at 42 and is regarded as the best pitcher to come out of the Negro Leagues. He joined the Hall of Fame in 1971, and his 1953 Topps card is a hobby classic.
1975 Topps #500 Nolan Ryan
Ryan’s 1968 Topps rookie card is great too, but I’ve always liked the look of the immensely popular 1975 Topps set more than the 68s. Did you know Ryan’s number is retired by three different teams (Angels, Astros, and Rangers)?
1957 Topps #25 Whitey Ford
I feel Ford is an underrated 10x All-Star. He’s the Yankee’s record holder in career wins, and he threw 45 shutouts in 16 seasons. When I think of his cards, 1957 stands out.
1959 Topps #514 Bob Gibson
The 1959 Topps Gibson is a tough high-numbered card that’s particularly tough to track down well-centered (don’t the borders seem a bit uneven in the example above for a PSA 10?). Gibson was a ferocious competitor and struck out 3117 batters, but many people forget what a great fielder he was, winning 9 Gold Gloves.
1956 Topps #79 Sandy Koufax
Sandy’s 1955 Topps rookie card is excellent, but I prefer the pitching action on his 1956 Topps second-year card. Koufax is the standard answer to the question of “Who do you wish had played longer?” as he only pitched 12 seasons, during which he put up an impressive 165 wins, 2396 strikeouts with a 2.76 earned run average winning 3 Cy Young awards.
1952 Topps #88 Bob Feller
Feller’s 1952 Topps card is a standout, but maybe the yellow background makes it easy for me to remember? No matter, it’s a great card in a fantastic set. Feller was known for having an incredibly speedy fastball. Many batters felt he was the best pitcher of the era. He was a first-ballot hall of fame inductee in 1962.
1967 Topps #581 Tom Seaver
Seaver’s rookie card is the most expensive in an immensely popular set. So, this card isn’t cheap, as the tough high-number sells for thousands. In terms of statistics, Seaver won 311 games over his career, made 12 All-Star games, and won 3 Cy Young Awards.
1971 Topps #26 Bert Blyleven
The 1971 Topps cards are some of the toughest to find in nice condition (in the history of the Topps brand) due to the black borders. Bert was a 2011 inductee into the Hall of Fame after 287 wins and a 3.31 earned run average.
1977 Topps #615 Phil Niekro
Niekro won 121 games after 40, so I didn’t feel it made sense to include any of his earlier cards. Niekro won 318 games, the most by a knuckleballer, over 24 seasons. He’s also famous for winning and losing 20 games in the same season, going 21-20 in 1979 for the Braves.
1951 Bowman #134 Warren Spahn
Spahn’s 1951 Bowman card is an incredible work of art that I think any vintage collector would like (the 1950 Bowman card is the same, but I like the larger dimensions of the 51s). His accomplishments were impressive too, Spahn is the winningest left-handed pitcher with 363 wins, and he made the All-Star game 17 times.
Suppose none of those players appeal to you or fit in your collections. In that case, you might want to consider more modern pitching greats like Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, or Mike Mussina. And in the more classically vintage post-war era Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Gaylord Perry, and Fergie Jenkins have great cards, too.
Happy collecting!
1969 Topps Gene Mauch Original Reverse Artwork
Here’s the original 5” x 7” pen and ink artwork used for Gene Mauch’s 1969 Topps card.
It was offered for sale in Ron Oser Enterprises April 2000 catalog, along with the artwork for #196 Lum Harris, #234 Dave Briston, and #274 Clyde King, but their photos weren’t included.
Here’s the front of the card for reference.
Check out The Original Artwork Archive for more like this. Happy collecting!
4 Expensive Baseball Card Printing Errors – Modern Edition
I previously shared 6 Expensive Baseball Card Printing Errors with a focus on vintage cards. This piece will focus on the same concept, baseball card printing errors, but with more modern cards. Here are four cards where both an error and corrected version exist in the post-war card market.
1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas (No Name on Front)
The 1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas No Name on Front card is one of the most famous cards in the hobby, period. Certainly, it’s one of the most important modern error cards and a must-have for collectors with large bankrolls. Frank was a superstar player when baseball card collecting was near its peak. He’s a Hall of Famer who retired with 521 home runs and a .301 batting average to go with two AL MVP awards. The printing hiccup has been speculated about, and no one has unraveled the mystery as well as the user BunchOBull on the Collector’s Universe message boards.
Essentially a piece of card-stock got in the way of the black printing dye of a few uncut sheets of cards, affecting about ten cards, with Frank Thomas being the most notable.
The No Name on Front version has a PSA population of 289 (up from 207 in 2020) compared to 23,923 (up from 14,278) Name on Front variants. The last sale of a No Name on Front printing error, from PSA’s APR, was $5,049 for a PSA 4 on eBay, with PSA 8s going for well over $10k. Goldin sold a PSA 10 for $170k in December, 2022. In comparison, a PSA 10 of the 1990 Topps #414 Frank Thomas card with his full name printed on the front, is around $65. PSA 8s of the Name on Front variant can be found for under $10, less than grading fees!
1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken F**k Face
Fleer didn’t notice that the Bill Ripken card they released had an obscenity written on the bottom of the bat he was holding. It spelled out, “F**k FACE.” After the company became aware of the error, they released subsequent printings with the words obscured. First, they had a blob of what appeared to be Wite-Out, then a pen scribble, and finally a black square. Ripken admitted that he wrote the words on the bat to spot it easily as his batting practice bat. Ripken also believes that Fleer couldn’t have missed the error and suggested that they enhanced it to generate extra publicity.
You can read more about the five Bill Ripken #616 cards in my piece about how to pull the error from wax boxes.
1987 Donruss Opening Day #163 Barry Bonds (Johnny Ray)
The Donruss Opening Day set was made to focus on each team’s starters on the opening day of the MLB season. The 1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds card was initially printed with an image of Johnny Ray but was corrected pretty early in the printing process, making the error quite rare.
3,123 corrected Barry Bonds cards exist with PSA 8s selling for $10 and PSA 10s for ~$250. The Johnny Ray error has a total population of 172 (up from 135 five years ago) with PSA 8 copies selling for ~$800 and PSA 10s going for between $3k and $4k, but I did notice that Fanatics sold one for $8,550 in May, 2023, so they may be way higher, they’re just not that common (PSA 10 pop count of 14).
1989 Upper Deck #357 Dale Murphy Reverse Negative
While the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr is the most iconic card in the set, the Dale Murphy may be the most infamous. A version with the image reversed was released. The error is more common in graded form only because the regular variant doesn’t command popularity. Upper Deck said about 2% of the cards have the error. And who knows if it was intentional, to create hype for the set, or not.
959 Reverse Negatives (a nearly doubling of the population in five years from 508) and only 547 corrected (up from 249 in 2020) variants are in the PSA population report. A regular PSA 10 sells for $35 while the reverse negative in GemMt condition sells for closer to $600.
The collectibility and high prices of modern error cards mirror those from earlier in the post-war card era. Collectors continue to value errors that are unique, rare, and frankly, get engagement when shared online.
Happy collecting!
6 Expensive Baseball Card Printing Errors – Vintage Edition
Manufacturers make mistakes; it happens. But in the sports card hobby, when those mistakes get corrected, and both variants end up in collectors’ hands, there’s increased demand and high prices for those error cards. Error cards give collectors something else to chase. When those errors are on superstar players’ cards, values can be astronomically high in comparison, since you have both set and player collectors trying to complete master sets. Here are six high-priced cards with both an error and a corrected version in the postwar card market.
1967 Topps #45 Roger Maris
Roger Maris was traded to the Cardinals from the Yankees before the 1967 baseball season, in December 1966. But Topps had already printed proofs of a card with him on the Yankees. Woody Gelman was an art director for Topps, and he had a small quantity of these blank-back cards that he cut from sheets and offered to collectors; they were never released in packs. As a result, the majority of the proof cards are poorly centered. The regular issue Roger Maris card from the 1967 Topps set features the Cardinals.
The Yankees proof version has a PSA population of 60 (up from 44 in August 2020) compared to 2645 (up from 1574 in August 2020) for the Cardinals variant. The last sale of a proof card was for $2,000 on eBay in January 2025; I think the highest sale of one has been >$7k. PSA 8s of the regular variant sell for a little over $150.
1969 Topps #500 Mickey Mantle
23 cards in the 1969 Topps have White Letter variations. Usually, the last name is in yellow on these cards. When one of those cards is Mickey Mantle, and it’s known as his last card, you know the error price is going to be quite high. No one knows for sure why these errors exist, but it’s thought that Topps began using multiple printing presses since the white letter variants seemed to be issued in certain parts of the country.
The total population of the Last Name in Yellow Mantle variant is 12,968 (a huge jump from 6865 in August 2020) compared to just 1,595 (up from 1032 in August 2020) Last Name in White variant. The more common PSA 8 yellow letter examples sell for ~$3k, and PSA 8 white letter examples go for $~69k (up from $15k-20k in August 2020). Since Mickey Mantle’s cards prices go up a lot in high grade, it’s important to look at the price disparity for mid-grade variants. A PSA 6 Yellow Mantle sells for ~$500 compared to ~$2,600 for a PSA 6 Last Name in White variant.
1952 Topps Johnny Sain & Joe Page Errors
1952 Topps is one of the most iconic baseball card sets ever, and it initially contained error cards. The biographies of Johnny Sain and Joe Page were initially mixed up and put on the wrong card. Sain had a stronger career, so his cards are a bit more valuable and sought after.
Joe Page Correct Bio – PSA Population of 472 – PSA 5 $55
Joe Page Correct Bio Black Back Population of 355 – PSA 5 $130
Joe Page with Sain Bio Population of 156 – PSA 5 $515
Joe page with Sain Bio Black Back Population of 243 – PSA 5 >$1,200
Johnny Sain Correct Bio Population of 583 – PSA 5 $90
Johnny Sain Correct Bio Black Back Population of 350 – PSA 5 $125
Johnny Sain with Page Bio Population of 73 – PSA 5 $1,000+
Johnny Sain with Page Bio Black Back Population of 298 – PSA 5 $850+
1952 Topps #307 Frank Campos Variations
Another printing variation in the 1952 Topps set is on card #307. The back of Frank Campos has a rare variant with a black star instead of the regular red star. It was so unique that until about 2006, people didn’t know the overprint existed.
The Red Star corrected variant has a PSA graded population of 700, and PSA 6 variants sell for ~$150. The rarer black star variants have a population of 143, and a PSA 6 is probably around $4,500 today.
1948 Leaf #102 Gene Hermanski
The 1948 Leaf #102 Gene Hermanski card can be found with his last name correctly spelled and with the ‘i’ in his last name missing. 1948 Leaf cards already had poor printing quality, so high-grade examples of the error are hard to find, making it one of the rarest postwar error cards.
The Gene Hermansk (incorrect spelling) has a PSA population of 119, and PSA 7s sell for ~$1,700. The corrected variant has a little more than double the population at 291 but sells for about 9% of the error, $150.
1958 Topps #433 Pancho Herrera (Herrer) 433
The 1958 Topps Pancho Herrer error card must have been the result of something getting in the way of the printing press and its ability to print the ‘a’ on Pancho Herrera’s last name. Very few of these errors exist, which means someone must have corrected the mistake early in print.
The 1958 Topps #433 Pancho Herrera card has a PSA population of 536, and PSA 8 variants sell for ~$27. The Pancho Herrer error card is far less available, with a population of 72 (up from 48 5 years ago), and the last PSA 8 sold for >$18,000, heck, a PSA 2.5 went for $2,340 in the summer of 2023. I’d say the price isn’t proportionate to the population. There are 10x as many regular cards as errors, but the errors sell for far more than 10x as much as the correct versions.
Error cards are really popular with collectors, and their prices don’t always match how many are out there. It’s the uniqueness that makes them stand out; there’s a lot of nostalgia behind them, and collectors are willing to pay up for that.
Happy collecting!
Making A Comeback? Horizontal Baseball Cards Are Second-Class Citizens No More
I came across a fantastic piece of hobby writing in the December 1994 issue of Sports Cards Magazine. In it, O’Connell highlights his picks for the Top Five Horizontal Sets of All Time; do you agree with his list on the second page?
I really appreciated how much history he packed into the article and how he tied it all the way up to the horizontal cards being released in 1994. That kind of historical context is exactly what I hope to see more of from today’s hobby writers.
Happy Collecting!
10 of the Toughest Sports Cards to Track Down
A lot of iconic hobby cards are readily available; they just cost a lot. But others seem to never come to market. Here is a rundown of 10 of the most challenging post-war sports cards to find in the hobby, whether due to scarcity or condition sensitivity.
1958 Topps #66 Bobby Hull
The recognized rookie of Bobby Hull is hard to find centered. Most often, they have 70/30 centering, at best.
1963 Fleer #72 Lance Alworth
The 1963 Fleer Lance Alworth is another tough card to find centered; almost 10% of the PSA graded cards have a qualifier (and those are cards people have even bothered to send in).
1960 Fleer #84 Jim Woodard
The entire 1960 Fleer set is notorious for being released in poor condition. The Woodward rookie is amongst the worst and incredibly difficult to find in Ex-Mt condition or better. Here are the three that were available on eBay in April 2021 when I first drafted this piece:
1986 Fleer #121 Dominique Wilkins
This card always seems to be just a little off-center. It’s one of the most frustrating cards to track down in the classic 1986 Fleer basketball set. Again, almost 10% of PSA graded cards have a qualifier, whereas that percentage is closer to 1-2% for most cards in the set.
1976 Topps #19 George Brett
Here is what PSA says about the 1976 Brett
The 1976 Topps Brett (#19) is one of the most sought-after cards of the decade in high grade. It is considered more valuable in PSA NM-MT 8 or PSA Mint 9 than his rookie. It is very rare for a second-year card of any player to be worth more than that player’s rookie in these grades, but that is precisely the case with Brett. Why? The 1976 Topps Brett is usually found off-center from left to right, preventing many examples from achieving high-grade status. At the time of this writing, no copy has been assigned a grade of PSA Gem Mint 10 as a result.
To this day, PSA has graded 4,390 (up from 2,410 in April 2021) of these cards, 0 PSA 10s, and 33 PSA 9s. That’s almost 2,000 extra graded copies with a high-end growth of just five PSA 9s in 4 years!
1979 Topps #116 Ozzie Smith.
Another oft-graded card that is a rarity in high-grade due to centering issues.
1966 OPC #1 Willie Mays
For such a popular player, good luck getting your hands on one of the 77 (up from just under 50 4 years ago) of these cards that PSA has graded.
1960 Topps #451 Curt Simmons
For 1960 Topps set collectors, the Simmons is one of the most challenging cards to find in nice condition. PSA, for example, has only graded 38 cards at eight or better (without qualifiers) of just over 500 total cards. The card is almost always off-center.
1966 Topps #15 Funny Ring Checklist
The Funny Ring Checklist is another tough one to track down, and it’s super popular. It’s a significantly tough card to grab in nice condition between the wood grain borders, markings, and off-centered cuts.
1964 Topps Hockey #80 Bobby Rousseau #92 Marcel Paille
A pair of 1964 Topps hockey cards completes our list of 10(11) tough-to-find sports cards. Both are short prints, plus there aren’t any Rousseau’s graded above an eight by PSA, and only one PSA 9 of Paille exists.
The reality is that tons of cards are tough to find. Most OPC baseball cards are tough to find in high-grade. If you collect a specific player, like Carl Yastrzemski, his oddball cards, like a 1966 Punchout, are also tough to find, or as a Johnny Bench collector, good luck finding a 1968 Kahn’s full tab. The journey in the post-war card market is half the fun of collecting.
My best advice is to let the community know which cards you have been struggling to find, and maybe someone can help you track them down. Happy collecting!