Rod Carew is one of those players who doesn’t seem as popular as perhaps they should be in the hobby, given his outstanding career. Maybe it’s because he started his career playing for a smaller market team (Minnesota Twins) from 1967-1978 before wrapping up his Hall of Fame career with the California Angels from 1979-1985, or because he wasn’t a power hitter. But over that time, he made 19 straight All-Star games, was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1967, and won the AL MVP award in 1977 while being a 7x AL batting champion. He finished his career with a .328 batting average, 3,053 hits, 1,424 runs scored, and 353 stolen bases. So, to give Rod Carew some extra exposure, I’ll chat about his 1967 Topps rookie card and the entertainingly identical photos that were used on his Fleer and Topps cards in 1982.
The 1967 Topps #569 AL Rookie Stars card of Rod Carew and Hank Allen is an important card in a notoriously popular post-war set. It’s a simple design, but it’s rarely found in high grades because of poor centering, print defects, and visible wear on the green border backs. There is also only a single PSA 10 example amongst the over 4,000 examples submitted to PSA for grading. Most commonly, the card comes back as a PSA 6 or 7. Most recently, the PSA 10 example sold for $186k in February 2021 at Heritage Auctions.
Young had the card re-slabbed when it came into his collection, as PSA shares the following image on their site for the card.
The print dot next to Rod Carew’s name on the front are identical, and there is only a single PSA 10 in the population report, so these are the same card. Unfortunately, the dot takes away from the card a bit for me; we should all have high expectations for a Gem Mint 10 vintage card. Nevertheless, it still presents very well.
While Carew’s RC is popular, iconic, and important in the hobby, I learned a more surprising factoid about Carew’s cards while flipping through the Spring 1982 copy of Baseball Cards Magazine.
The Hobby News section shared a short write-up about how a photo showing Carew fielding a ground ball appears on both Carew’s 1982 Fleer #455 card and his 1982 Topps #501 In Action card.
The article explains that officials at both companies “admit they bought duplicate photos from the same freelance photographer.” They explain that this was a first in the modern era. However, upon examining the cards and validating the last few sentences in the article, the Topps card had superior production quality with nearly perfect color compared to the Fleer card, which has a greenish/dark tint.
If you’re interested in getting your hands on either of the cards, they’re available and relatively inexpensive. In September 2025, a PSA 8.5 1982 Topps Carew was sold on eBay for $14.99, and a PSA 9 was sold for $23.59; 10s will also only run you around $55. A 1982 Fleer PSA 8 Carew sold in September 2025 for just $7.20; 10s have been moving for between $30-50 the past few months.
Whether you try to get your hands on a high-grade Carew rookie card, his identical 1982 cards, or something in between, adding a card of the player with the second most AL batting titles (next to Ty Cobb) seems like a good bet in developing a well-rounded vintage baseball collection; happy collecting!
PS: As a fun fact, Carew won the 1972 American League batting title without hitting a single home run.
Be First to Comment