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.

1967 Topps #45 Roger Maris
1967 Topps Roger Maris Yankees Proof

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.

1969 Topps #500 Mickey Mantle Last Name in Yellow
1969 Topps #500 Mickey Mantle Last Name in White

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

1952 Topps #48 Joe Page Correct Bio
1952 Topps #48 Joe Page Correct Bio Reverse

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

1952 Topps #48 Joe Page Sian Bio Black Back
1952 Topps #48 Joe Page Sain Bio Black Back Reverse

Johnny Sain Correct Bio Population of 583 – PSA 5 $90

1952 Topps #49 Johnny Sain Correct Bio
1952 Topps #49 Johnny Sain Correct Bio Reverse

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 #49 Johnny Sain Page Bio Black Back
1952 Topps #49 Johnny Sain Page Bio Black Back Reverse

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.

1952 Topps #307 Frank Campos Reverse
1952 Topps #307 Frank Campos Black Star

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.

1948 Leaf #102 Gene Hermanski Correct Spelling
1948 Leaf #102 Gene Hermansk Incorrect Spelling

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.

1958 Topps #433 Pancho Herrera
1958 Topps #433 Pancho Herrera Herrer

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!

How The Dodger Great Was Ignored By Topps

Ever wonder how Maury Wills’ rookie card ended up in Fleer’s 1963 set instead of Topps? Daniel Stone explained the history in a great interview published in Trading Cards Magazine in August 1995—though the title might seem a bit clickbaity today.

It’s interesting that Wills also considers his first Topps card in 1967 a “rookie card”!

Happy collecting!

Incredible Auction History – A Lot For Mickey Mantle’s 1967 Topps Stand-Ups Regular and Proof Cards

The 1967 Topps Stand-Ups are one of the scarcest Topps test issues, though Topps likely intended them as a 1968 release. Anyway, I ran across a December 2004 auction that featured both the Mickey Mantle proof and die-cut versions!

First, here’s what The Standard Catalog has to say about the set:

Never actually issued, no more than a handful of each of these rare test issues have made their way into the hobby market. Designed so that the color photo of the player’s head could be popped out of the black background and placed into a punch-out base to create a stand-up display, examples of these 3-1/8” x 5-1/4” cards can be found either on thick stock, die-cut around the portrait and with a die-cut stand, or as thin-stock proofs without the die-cutting. Blank-backed, there are 24 cards in the set, numbered on the front at bottom left.

In 2010, they priced the thick stock, die-cut set at $75k, and the thin stock, proof set at $60k. As for the dating, SABR has a great article explaining the likely intended release of 1968. Mantle is the set’s key player, followed by Clemente, Mays, and Aaron.

I’ve only found one other sale of a Mantle Stand-Up card when, in April 2005, Memory Lane Inc. sold the following GAI-8.5 graded die-cut example for just under $10k.

For SA, PSA has a single example of each Mantle variation in their Pop Report.

And since I run The Unopened Archive, here’s the lone wrapper example: Lelands sold it for $3k in November 2008.

TCDB includes this photo of what’s likely the only display box; the same one, I believe is shared in the article Standing Tall on The Topps Archives who shared a few more unopened items from the set in a piece called Yaz Sir!

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

1967 Topps Baseball 3rd Series Wax Box

Legit, who knows?! But Masto offered this 1967 Topps Baseball 3rd-Series 24-Count Wax Box for sale in August 2003 with a minimum bid of $1500.

Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks are in the third series, but interestingly, PSA hasn’t designated any of their 77 graded wax pack examples as being from the third series; 22 are undesignated, and then are the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th series packs. FWIW, all the graded 4th-series packs I ran across offered the “All Star Pin-Up Inside.” REA sold this one for $3960 in their Spring 2024 auction.

I asked some folks on the Facebook Vintage Wax and Packs group how Mastro could say the packs were the third series. They surmised Mastro pressed some packs to see the cards and determine the series. I had been wondering if the insert or wrapper color 1967 prevented that technique. I think Topps only used that specific wax box design (advertising the pin-ups) after the first few series were released; if you have more info about this, please leave a comment. Here’s an example from Heritage Auctions of a box without the pin-up ad.

Masto described the box as being in Ex-Mt condition, with a few of the packs showing minor faults or tears but the majority in near-mint condition.

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!