Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
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!
Team cards are photographs of all the players on a team, on the front of a sports card. They’re a great collectible for folks who focus their collections on particular teams they’re fans of. This makes them particularly popular, regionally, and when it comes to vintage, they’re particularly prized by kids who grew up ripping packs. Topps usually put great information on the back of the cards, describing team history, records, or championship details. In this article, I’ll run down 10 Topps baseball team cards that are particularly interesting or coveted by collectors.
One of the earliest Topps releases, there are nine different 1951 Topps Teams cards, which are rarely found in nice condition.
1956 is the first year Topps issued team cards in its major sets. This makes the 1956 Yankees Team Card the crown jewel of team cards to me. There are 1,948 graded examples in the PSA Population Report (remember, high-value cards are more likely to have a larger subset of their existing cards encapsulated). In January 2025, a PSA 8 sold for $2,186 on eBay, and PSA 9s are >$5k.
Another solid Yankees team card. PSA 8s sell for >$250.
You have to love the faux wood borders from a set many consider “the standard” for the hobby.
There are both alphabetical and numerical variations for 1958 Topps team cards. The numerical are far tougher to find. Regarding the Milwaukee Braves team card, there are 619 alphabetical and only 181 numerical examples in PSA’s Population Report.
I’ve just always loved the color and look of this card.
The 1959 Topps Phillies Team card is a short print and high-priced in high-grade, with PSA 9s fetching over $1k.
In August of 2020, a PSA 9 of the 1961 Topps Pirates team card sold for $1350, making it another example of a tough high-numbered team card.
The 1962 Twins Team card is both a high number and a short print, so most examples on the market have been sent to third-party grading companies, with PSA grading 527.
1971 Topps cards are already tough enough to find in decent condition due to the chipping of the black ink. When you add in the popularity of team cards, and one that’s a short print, you get the 1971 Topps Astros Team card in PSA 9 condition selling for >$3,500.
Other great cards are the 1959 Topps Chicago Cubs, 1960 Boston Red Sox, 1961 Topps New York Yankees, and 1967 Topps St. Louis Cardinals team cards. Additionally, teams themselves or regional companies made cards featuring the local ball club you might want to track down. Are you a team card collector? Let me know in the comments.
And happy collecting!
Many months ago, a collector asked me, disregarding value completely and going strictly by design, what years were my top 5 standard Topps sets. The first two sets that came to mind were the colorful 1969 Topps football cards and the 1954 Topps Hockey backs, which I think are the best in hobby history. But this collector clarified that he just meant baseball card fronts. After browsing through all of Topps’ post-war sets (through 1991), here are my top 5 best looking Topps baseball card designs.
When you disconnect your mind from the sets being overproduced, there were many great Topps designs in the 1980s. My favorite is the 1984 Topps set with its great dual-photo design. Topps chose some really great action shots to pair with the smaller headshots, and I think the team name in large vertical letters along the side makes for a well-balanced card.
I love the way this set presents as a whole. The team names along the top really pop out from the black borders, and the white frame around the color photos helps focus your eyes on the player. I also think the facsimile signatures are a bit nicer since they match the black borders, and I like that compared to other sets that feature them.
While the 1956 Topps design is similar to their 1955 set, with player portraits and in-action photos on the front of the card, what I like better about the 56 designs are the more interesting (rather than single color) backgrounds.
This might end up being my most “controversial” pick. I like the balance between the large likeness and the smaller black-and-white pictures in circles. I also found many of the set’s themed cards to be well executed.
The only set I’m confident will always be in my Top 5 is the 1953 Topps Baseball set. It’s stood the test of time from Topps’ early days as one of the greatest set designs ever; the player portraits are gorgeous. Plus, the black or red boxes along the bottom with the player name, position, team, and the diamond-shaped team logo are simple but well-executed bonuses.
A few other sets I considered were 1975, 1960, 1959, 1969, and 1987. What’s funny, though, is if you ask me to put this list together in another few months, you’ll probably get a completely different answer (other than 1953). I’d love your thoughts on the best-looking Topps Baseball card designs. Feel free to share your opinion in the comments or on X/Twitter, and happy collecting!
I published an article the other day about the 1939 Play Ball baseball set, emphasizing the three Ted Williams Rookie Cards. I thought I would do something similar in my analysis of the 1956 Topps White and Gray back cards by focusing on the Mickey Mantle cards (the last Mantle card to use artwork instead of photographs).
First, some 1956 Topps baseball basics. 1956 marked the beginning of the Topps monopoly as they had just purchased Bowman. So, while 1954 and 1955 Topps didn’t have Mickey Mantle cards since he was signed exclusively with Bowman, he was back in the Topps lineup in 1956 (along with many other players).
The 1956 Topps set has 340 numbered cards and two unnumbered checklists, marking the first year that checklists (and team cards) appeared in a set. The set came out in four series: series one is cards 1-100, series two is 101-180, series three is 181-260, and series four is cards 261-340. Also, the cards measure 3-3/4’’x 2-5/8″ and were the last oversized cards.
While the fronts of the cards have the same design format, what’s most interesting to me about the 1956 Topps baseball set are the printing variations due to the card stock Topps used; cards 1-180 have either white or gray backs, while the last 160 cards all have gray backs. More specifically, cards 1-100 have more white backs, while the second series, 101-180, has more gray-back examples.
Some collectors don’t think the back color impacts prices much, but the white-backed series two cards definitely carry a premium, and some 1956 collectors have argued the series one gray backs have a 10% premium over white backs. Unfortunately, PSA only started differentiating the back around October 2008, so the pop report on the gray vs. white backs isn’t super accurate in guiding our analysis.
I read a write-up from a collector with three fully graded 1956 Topps sets. He said that for cards 1-100, the white backs are much more common (4 or 5:1) but have a negligible premium since there are still so many gray backs (Topps always seemed to print more first series cards across all their sets as baseball cards were hot when they first hit the market in the spring). However, for cards 101-180, he said the gray backs are significantly more common (12 to 15:1), so the white backs carry a hefty premium, especially at higher grades (PSA 7+) since the white-backed cards seem to be more brittle, too. Another collector added that the white backs have at least a 50% premium and that putting together an all-white back run in decent condition would be almost impossible today.
You may already have gathered that Mikey Mantle’s card (#135) happens to fall in the second series. While I mentioned that PSA’s population report won’t ever be completely accurate, with the high prices that Mantle cards command, it behooves a collector with a white back card to get the card re-slabbed with the correct designation.
The following table shows that PSA has graded over 9,500 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle cards (as of October 16th, 2024), with about a 9.5:1 ratio of gray vs. white-backed cards. Also, the average gray-back grade looks to be between four and five, while the average white-back grade appears to be closer to three.
It’s tough to compare high-grade prices since so few exist and so few move publicly around the market. However, the white backs sell for more than the gray backs when you find examples from similar periods; here’s a summary of PSA 5-10 sales.
If you’re a 1956 Topps baseball collector looking to complete a master set, I wish you the best of luck, particularly in getting those second-series white-backed cards; happy collecting!
Time for another Carpet o’ Wax! This time, 24 1956 Topps Elvis Presley Five-Cent Wax Packs!
Mastro offered this non-sport classic in their April 2004 catalog; here’s the photo of the box they included with the packs.
The box has a factory-placed strip of clear tape and bears a “36 count” overprint, indicating that its contents were marketed in Canada.
The reference number for this 66-card set is R710-1. Most cards are marked “Bubbles Inc.,” so you may also see the set referred to as the 1956 Bubbles Elvis Presley card, which Topps also distributed in penny packs and vending boxes.
Check out The Unopened Archive for more!
Here’s George Woodruff’s portrait of Ted Williams that Fleer used as the photo on the box and wrapper of their 1959 set!
Mastro sold the 8” x 10” portrait in July 1998.
And yes, Topps used the same picture on the Splendid Splinter’s 1954 (#250), 1955, and 1956 Topps cards.
In terms of dating the photo, Memory Lane Inc. sold a Type 1 example for $1,501.20 in October 2017 and estimated the issue date right after Williams’ return from his final 1953 Korean War stint.
I shared a pair of 1956 Topps baseball 110-card uncut sheets a little while ago. Well, according to an article and this photo from the Spring 1982 issue of Baseball Cards, Topps also used uncut sheets as store promotional items. Has anyone seen another photo/item like this one?
The article said, “The descriptive advertising poster was pasted in the center of the uncut sheet to hype the sale of ’56 cards.” The author also argued that although the ‘poster’ proclaimed everything in 1956 was the biggest, he contended that the cards were the same size, had similar stars, and were only second in series/set size.
Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!