The First Topps Sports Card Checklists

Continuing my series defining checklist groups and eras in the post-war sports card market, I’ve come to what I call the “first Topps sports card checklists.”

This group includes every 1956 and 1957 Topps baseball and football checklist: the 1956 Topps Baseball, 1956 Topps Football, 1957 Topps Baseball, and 1957 Topps Football issues.

They’re all unnumbered and share a similar design philosophy. Plus, while earlier checklist cards certainly existed, most notably the N173 Old Judge Cabinet Card checklist in the pre-war era, these are the first coordinated run of standalone checklist cards produced by Topps.

All 13 checklists have a clean, utilitarian design with little decoration beyond bold typography and colored panels. They’re about as functional as a checklist can be, but they also established a template that Topps would build on over the following decade.

Although they’re unnumbered, I think collectors should include them if they want to say they’ve completed the 1956 or 1957 Topps baseball or football sets.

Here are a few more details about each issue.

1956 Topps Baseball Checklist 1/3

The 1956 Topps Baseball Checklist 1/3 has a total PSA-graded population of 1,362 with zero PSA 10s, nine PSA 9s, and 110 PSA 8 examples.

The last PSA 9 sale, accordig to Card Ladder, was for $2,692 back in September 2020. And the last PSA 8 sale was for $841 in June 2026.

1956 Topps Baseball Checklist 2/4

The 1956 Topps Baseball Checklist 2/4 has a total PSA-graded population of 1,325 with zero PSA 10s, 14 PSA 9s, and 103 PSA 8 examples.

The last PSA 9 sale was for $3,800 by BBCEMPORIUM on eBay in December 2024. And the last PSA 8 sale was for $1,050 in March 2026. In the market surge in 2021, PSA 8s sold for between $1,500 and $2,000.

1956 Topps Football Checklist 1-120

The 1956 Topps Football Checklist 1-120 has a total PSA-graded population of 361 with zero PSA 10s, zero PSA 9s, and 24 PSA 8 examples.

The last PSA 8 sale was for $2,036 in June 2026 (4 Sharp Corners on eBay).

1957 Topps Baseball Checklists

Because of the different Bazooka and Blony variations, there are eight different 1957 Topps Baseball checklists. Bazooka backs are generally scarcer than Blony backs, and the checklists get more expensive as the series goes up. There aren’t any PSA 10 examples amongst any of the checklists, and for PSA 9s; two Checklist 1/2 Bazookas and two Checklist 1/2 Big Blony copies; that’s it for PSA 9s. 

The 1957 Topps Baseball set is incredibly popular, and competition competition on the PSA Set Registry is fierce, making high-grade checklists especially difficult to acquire. I think the record price for any 1957 Topps Baseball Checklist is $8,878 that a PSA 8 4/5 Bazooka checklist got in a September 2023 Memory Lane auction.

1957 Topps Football Checklist 1-154 Bazooka

The 1957 Topps Football checklists are among the toughest Topps checklists to find without writing, which helps explain their eye-popping prices in high grade.

The Bazooka variation has a total PSA-graded population of 180 with zero PSA 10s, zero PSA 9s, and just 3 PSA 8 examples. 91 cards in the population have qualifiers.

PWCC sold a PSA 8 for $10,000 in April 2014. The last PSA 7 sale, according to Card Ladder, was $7,300 also by PWCC in May 2017.

1957 Topps Football Checklist 1-154 Twin Blony

The Twin Blony variation has a total PSA-graded population of 169 with zero PSA 10s, zero PSA 9s, and zero PSA 8 examples. There are 4 PSA 7s, and 84 cards in the population have qualifiers.

Godin sold a PSA 7 Twin Blony checklist for $6,137 in October 2018.

Happy Collecting!