Whitey Ford – Post War Cards

10 Cards of the Greatest Post-War Pitchers in MLB History

May 12, 2025 by John

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!

A Scarce Early Process Proof 1962 Topps Baseball Uncut Sheet

January 20, 2025January 15, 2025 by John

It may be because I recently published The Uncut Sheet Archive, but I’ve been seeing a lot of awesome uncut sheets lately while perusing old catalogs lately, like this 1962 Topps uncut proof!

Ron Oser Entperises offered it in their April 2001 catalog and included the following description:

With 43 cards appearing on a 21″ x 28″ blank backed partial process proof sheet. Includes: Bunning, Snider, Kaline AS, Aparicio, Ford AS, Zimmer, etc. Only includes the actual photos used for the cards without the baseball card information. There is some moisture damage around the edge on the front with heavier damage on the reverse. Of the stars only the Bunning is affected. Minor creasing is also apparent.

Here’s an example of the final 1962 Topps Snider (top right corner of the sheet) and Ford All-Star cards for comparison (bottom row, third over).

There are quite a few production proof sheets in the archives of the major auction houses, but just a handful are actual photo-based. For example, REA sold this one, which included a handful of photos from the 1959 Topps set. It sold for $1,860 in the summer of 2019.

On the football card side of the house, Heritage sold this 1962 Topps Football Player Portraits Uncut Proof Sheet with 44 Players, including the Tarkenton Rookie, for $1,920 in December 2024.

Happy collecting!

Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!

A Great New Gift Idea! The Topps 1964 Baseball Gift Box

January 20, 2025November 24, 2024 by John

My favorite thing about the hobby is interacting with other collectors and hobby historians and learning about new items. Well, on the morning of May 1st, 2023, a collector contacted me via e-mail after perusing the site with two photos of an empty box of cards I’d never seen before.

He thought maybe they were issued around Christmas time in 1964 to sell leftover cards after the season had ended and asked if I knew anything about it. I searched some of my older books and came up empty-handed. He mentioned the box didn’t have any code on it, so I asked if he’d be ok with my sharing it on Facebook to see if anyone else could help.

On Facebook, a collector mentioned he had seen a reference to the box before and shared the following sell sheet.

One collector on Facebook commented that the box on the sell sheet looks a lot like a carton of cigarettes! And another was pretty sure Topps only made this product in 64.

The box wasn’t really meant for Christmas; it’s a gift box for any occasion, “what better way to say ‘happy birthday’ or just ‘hello.’ The boxes came 24 per case for $14.40 or 60 cents a box. Each box had 20 5-cent packs (100 total cards), though given the gift theme, I don’t think they were meant to be sold by the pack.

A ton of collectors reached out to me asking if the owner was interested in selling the empty box, but he’s not. Given how much interest it garnered in such a short period, I presume bidding would be intense.

I’m unsure how you’d price such an item, though. However, one collector shared that there was one on eBay many years ago, and he thought it was for $500, or maybe $338, but acknowledged it would go for much more these days. Another collector thinks he saw one around 2004.

The owner later shared three more photos of the box with me.

An interesting thing about the box is that that’s not Whitey Ford’s 1964 Topps baseball card printed on it; it looks like a 1964 design, but with his 1963 Topps photo.

Some collectors surmised it could have come out as early as December 1963, given the difference in Ford’s card design. And maybe the low item number of 400 (on the sell sheet) indicates an early release, along with the image of the smiling kid being the same as the one on the 1962 Topps Baseball Bucks dealer sell sheet?

Funny enough, Topps did something similar with the 1964 Topps Giants set; the picture of Whitey Ford on the box isn’t identical to his card.

1964 Topps Giants Box and Whitey Ford Card

If you have more insight into this unique Topps product, please leave a comment or e-mail me.

Check out The Unopened Archive for more!

1953 Topps #207 Whitey Ford Original Artwork

January 20, 2025July 24, 2024 by John

I ran across the original color artwork used for Whitey Ford’s 1953 Topps baseball card while flipping through Sotheby’s February 1992 Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia Catalog. It represented a quick flip from its sale in Guernsey’s 1989 Topps Auction.

First, Sotheby’s included few details, just that it was a full-color original artwork and that the lot included an example card in near-mint to mint condition. They described the original artwork as being 3 1/2 by 5 in.

But like I said, Sotheby’s wasn’t the first auction house to offer this Topps original artwork. It was first made available to the hobby in Guernsey’s Topps Auction in 1989, along with the original full-color paintings of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Bob Feller, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella’s 1953 Topps baseball cards.

Guernseys included cropped color photos of all six art pieces in the front (page 17) of the catalog; here’s a scan of the Ford.

The specific auction lots were found later in the catalog. Ford shared page 72 with Jackie Robinson. Notice the expected $2,000-3000 price.

The Ford did a little better than that; it sold for $35,200. Interestingly, less than three years later, Sotheby’s expected the Ford to be sold for only $20,000-25,000.

To round things out, here’s the original news photograph from the early 1950s that inspired Ford’s 1953 (and 1954) Topps baseball card. Heritage sold this PSA/DNA Type 1 example for $1,920 in November 2017.

Check out The Original Artwork Archive for more!

Whitey Ford, A 1982 Card Show, And His 1951 Bowman Baseball Card

May 30, 2024 by John

Have you been to any great card shows lately? I’ll bet the Sports Memorabilia Show #4 in Whippany, New Jersey, was a good one!

This ad comes from the July 1982 issue of Trader Speaks and highlights Whitey Ford’s attendance during Sunday’s show, where he had agreed to sign 1000 autographs on a first-come, first-served basis.

Given that the ad features Ford’s 1951 Bowman baseball card, I thought it would be fun to take a look at a few sales of them:

REA has sold a handful, including the following PSA VG 3 Auto 10 copy with an HOF ’74 inscription for $780 in 2018, a PSA authentic copy for $510 in 2021, and a fairly beat-up card with an authentic signature for $450 in 2022.

Interestingly, REA re-sold the PSA VG 3 Auto 10 copy in 2023 for $3600, quite an increase! That’s probably because Ford died in 2020.

Now, some cards change hands quite often, so guess what? Probstein sold the same PSA VG 3 Auto 10 Ford on eBay on May 29, 2024, for $2200.

What’s more, the beat-up version above with cert 17605781 is also on eBay, with an asking price of $1699. There’s another PSA authentic copy on eBay as well, with an asking price of $1299.99 (cert 43601626). Given these prices, someone possibly got quite a steal when they picked up this blue-label version in April 2024 for $500.