1959 Topps: The Matted Photos — Detroit Sports Addiction

Set Profile

The 1959 Topps Baseball Card master set is a behemoth consisting of 581 cards in the Master Set and 572 in the Basic Set (nearly 100 cards larger than the 494 card 1958 Topps Baseball Set), per PSA Set Registry. Topps moved to a more modern design when creating this set, using a circular porthole in the center of the card. This porthole led to the use of the smallest photo of players ever by the company. Naturally, Topps ran with the standard size of 2 ½” by 3 ½” once again when producing ’59 Baseball. All player base cards are vertically oriented with strong solid background colors of red, blue, yellow, green, pink, or black with a thin white border around the entire card. It is thought that these white borders allow for a greater opportunity for high grades when submitting cards to grading companies. The circular portion of the card is relatively centrally located on the card and contains a background of a ballpark around the league along with either a full body action pose or a head and shoulder portrait of the player. The player’s name can be found above the circular photo in all lower-case letters and on a slight upward angle from left to right. When looking for the team names and player positions, they can be found in the bottom right corner in all upper-case letters, team above position, typically in two varying colors. Team logos are situated in the bottom left corner of the card and a black facsimile autograph can be found across the lower portion of the player’s photo. Due to the circular photos and solid background colors, it has been said that they cards have an appearance of a matted autographed photo.

When looking at the reverse side of the cards you will notice they are horizontally oriented. Cards 1-506 carry a red and green theme and the “high number” series of cards 507-572 carry a red and black theme. All card numbers can be found in the top left corner in a green or black box dependent on the two themes listed above. Immediately to the right of the number a red box can be found that runs nearly half the length of the card and contains the player’s name along with their measurables (height, weight, etc.). Across the bottom of the card the typical Topps statistical chart can be found just as in previous years. Typical to Topps you can find a cartoon depicting something about the player once again and these are in the upper right corner of the card back. Lastly, squished between the player measurables and stat lines you can find a short paragraph with biographical facts about the player.

Once again, Topps released the 1959 set in 7 different uneven series. Series 1 being cards No. 1-110, Series 2 No. 111-195, Series 3 No. 196-283, Series 4 No. 284-370, Series 5 no. 371-440, Series 6 No. 441-506, and Series 7 No. 507-572 (the “high number” series). Both Series 1 and 7 have shorter print runs making them more difficult to complete than the remainder of the set. Within the set several subsets can be found as well. Rookie Stars (cards 116-146), Baseball Thrills (461-470) and The Sporting News All-Stars (551-572). A number of combo, or multi-player, cards and team cards can also be found sprinkled throughout the set.

There are two major rookie cards within 1959 Topps Baseball; No. 514 Bob Gibson (HOF) and No. 338 George “Sparky” Anderson (HOF). Rookies for Felipe Alou (No. 102), Bill White (No. 359) and Norm Cash (No. 509) can also be found within the set. There is a large smattering of star players as well, including: Mickey Mantle (No. 10), Willie Mays (No. 50), Sandy Koufax (No. 163), Roger Maris (No. 202), Al Kaline (No. 360), Hank Aaron (No. 380), Roberto Clemente (No. 478), Ed Mathews (No. 450), and Harmon Killebrew (No. 515). This set left nothing to be wanted when it came to hunting down the key players of the time.

The above-mentioned smallest player photos ever used by Topps were not a fan favorite, in fact, that size photo was never used again by Topps when producing baseball cards. On the opposite side of things, the 572 or 581 cards (depending on what set you are building) was the largest set produced by Topps during the 1950s. This set was the first time, since 1954, that MLB Star Ted Williams did not make an appearance for Topps. This was due to the fact tat Fleer had secured the exclusive rights to Williams and produced the 80 card 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set. Due to the lack of Williams, then commissioner Ford Frick received the No. 1 card in the series run.

The cards could be purchased in both 1₵ and 5₵ wax packs. Each wax pack, of course, came with a piece of bubblegum. If a collector gathered five Bazooka wrappers, they could send them in to Topps and receive a 15-inch felt pennant of their favorite team in return.

Some collectors, myself included, believe that this is one of Topps best efforts to date. Not only did they give a new look to their cards, but they also stayed true to who they were by keeping a powerhouse of stars within the set. Despite losing out on the rights to Ted Williams, Topps was able to secure rights to slugger Stan Musial who made his first appearance for Topps on card No. 150.

The Subsets

The first subset that appears within the 1959 Topps Baseball set would be “The Sporting News Rookie Stars of 1959” running card numbers 116-146, a total of 31 cards. The background of these cards is a shield filled with red, white, and blue vertical stripes. Across the top portion of the shield the words “The Sporting News Rookie Stars of 1959” can be found and the players name can be found immediately below their photo and the team name and player position can be found below that. The players photo is laid over the vertical stripes of the shield. The back of these Rookie Star cards matches those of the base cards; however, the statistics portion is from their minor league playing time.

The next subset that appears within 1959 Topps Baseball would be the “Baseball Thrills” set (card No. 461-470), which is a measly 10 cards. Each of these cards depicts an exciting moment from the 1958 season. Of the 10 cards, 8 of them have a single picture depiction while the remaining 2 have a tri-picture depiction. The front of the cards contains a bright yellow oval outlined with a black border with the words “Baseball Thrills” in the center in vibrant red font. These logos can be found in the upper left corner. A solid red block runs across the length of the bottom of the card and has the name of the play in white inside. The reverse side of the cards have a red and green theme and carry a horizontal layout. The upper left corner has the card number in red print within a green box. The top right corner says “Action Photos” in red print within a green box as well. Across the top center “Baseball Thrills” can be found in green text. A detailed description of the play in question is given in a two-column paragraph and the name of each play runs the length of the card in red font directly above the paragraph. The cards are as follows:

· No. 461 “Mantle Hits 42nd Home for Crown”

· No. 462 “Colavito’s Great Catch Saves Game”

· No. 463 “Kaline Becomes Youngest Bat Champ”

· No. 464 “Mays Catch Makes Series History”

· No. 465 “Sievers Sets Homer Mark”

· No. 466 “Piece All Star Starter”

· No. 467 “Aaron Clubs World Series Homer”

· No. 468 “Sniders Play Brings LA Victory”

· No. 469 “Hustler Banks Wins MVP Award”

· No. 470 “Musial raps Out 3,000th Hit”

1959 Topps No. 470 Baseball Thrills Musial Raps Out 3,000th Hit

The last of the true subsets within 1959 Topps Baseball is the “Sporting New ’59 All Star Selection” set. These All-Star cards run from numbers 551-572. Both the American League and National League are given their own cards that follow a similar theme to one another. Both leagues carry the shield theme from the Rookie Star series in their own way. The American League has a blue background, and the National League has a red background with the shield overlaying with an action photo inside the shield. The top of each card has the words “The Sporting News” in yellow across the top above the shield and at the bottom of each within a yellow box (AL) and blue box (NL) is the players name, position and league in all capitals and black print. When looking at the flip side of these All-Star cards has a Bazooka cartoon with a fact about the player depicted on the front. The card numbers are located within the a shield on the upper left corner.

I have decided to identify two other card styles within this set as “subsets” and these would be the Combo, or multi-player, cards and the Team cards that can be found throughout the entire 572 card run. There are 15 different combo cards within 1959 Topps Baseball. Each of these cards has a horizontal orientation and varies in the number of players depicted on the front; anywhere from 2-4, typically. The card fronts carry the same solid background with a circle in the middle theme, however, the center circles are also a solid color contrasting the background color. The players are imposed over the center circle of the card. Card titles run across the entire top area and has the players names involved, center justified, just below. When you look at the reverse side the cards have a paragraph explaining the front side. Some of my favorite combo cards are:

· No. 34 “Pitchers Beware” – Kaline/Maxwell

· No. 147 “Cubs Clubbers” – Long/Banks/Moryn

· No. 317 “NL Hitting Kings” – Ashburn/Mays

The second non-traditional subset I have identified is the team cards. These cards total 14. Once again, these cards have a horizontal orientation on both the front and back. The team cards also carry the same solid color solid circle theme as the combo cards, however, instead of 2-4 players being imposed to the front it is a team portrait. You can find the team city and name at the top center, the city name in all capitals with the team name just below in script. The teams logo can also be found in the top left corner. The backs of these cards show series checklists. The interesting thing about these checklists is that they do not match the Series 1-7 numbering that was mentioned earlier in this piece, they are as follows:

· Series 1 – No. 1-88

· Series 2 – No. 89-176

· Series 3 – No. 177-242

· Series 4 – No. 265-352

· Series 5 – No. 353-429

· Series 6 – No. 430-495

· Series 7 – No. 496-550 & All-Star Subset 551-572.

You’ll notice that these series runs differ significantly from the original series run mentioned earlier. Also, numbers 243-264 are inexplicably missing from the checklists on the team cards. I have not been able to find any information as to why these series differ from one another or why those 22 cards are missing from within the checklists.

Errors & Variations

It is estimated that there are around 64 blunders withing the 1959 set, a majority of which are uncorrected birthdays or position misidentifications. These errors are attributed to the expanded size of the set. Some of the uncorrected and corrected errors are as follows:

No. 40 Warren Spahn (corrected)
1. Correct Version: Born in 1921
2. Error 1: Born in 1931 – 3 obscured
3. Error 2: Born in 1931
No. 413 Camilio Pascual (uncorrected)
1. Card Front: First name spelled Camillo
2. Card Back: Last name spelled Pasqual
No. 416 Haywood Sullivan (corrected)
1. Correct Version: Circle around Copyright
2. Error 1: No circle around Copyright USA
No. 496 Wayne Terwilliger (uncorrected)
1. Card Front: Athletics spelled “Athlftics”
No. 518 Mike Cuellar (uncorrected)
1. Card Front: Last name spelled Cueller

To go along with the set sold State-Side Topps also produced a Venezuelan set which consisted of only the first 196 cards and was printed on a much poorer quality paper. This was the first parallel set Topps had printed due to the South American collector’s fandom becoming more and more prevalent. To date only 1,811 cards have passed through the grader’s hands at PSA.

Another interesting variation of the set, according to multiple sources, is the fact that the cards alternate white and gray backs, however, I do not have enough of this set built to determine if this is truly the case. Interestingly, cards 199-286 were printed with both white and gray backs and had similar print runs, but the gray backs pull slightly higher prices when up for sale.

The final variation worth mentioning is the Salesman Sample Strips. These strips were a preview set for retailers. Each strip consisted of three cards, showcasing three different card fronts from the set. The backside of the cards contained sample statistics along with details relating to the Topps promotion for the year; the 15-inch felt pennant mentioned earlier. These strips are EXTREMELY rare, in fact, only 12 have passed through PSA thus far, all graded PSA Authentic.

Values

According to PSA 329,333 cards have passed under the microscope. Of those 298,869 cards have a full number grade, 14,067 have a “+” half grade and 16,370 are graded with qualifiers. No. 10, Mickey Mantle, has had 7,920 specimens graded, No. 514 Bob Gibson has seen 4,676 inspected, and Al Kaline (No. 360) has seen 2,406 pass through graders hands.

The top two selling cards, value wise, of the 1959 set are Bob Gibson (No. 514) and Mickey Mantle (No. 10). When looking at average sale prices on both PSA and VCP I chose to analyze these two cards along with Al Kaline (No. 360), because he is my PC, to determine the average sale price of PSA 7 examples from the years 2017-2020. A total of 129 PSA sales and 172 VCP sales for Mickey Mantle, 142 PSA sales and 181 VCP sales for Bob Gibson, and 90 PSA sales and 122 VCP sales for Al Kaline were used to determine the data below.

After determining overall sale averages, I went through and determined the overall increase in final sales price. Mickey Mantle saw an overall increase of 64.96% ($980.07 to $1,616.75) increase per PSA and a 67.42% ($1,017.25 to $1703.10) increase per VCP. When looking at Bob Gibson’s rookie card there was a 74.15% (PSA) and 67.51% (VCP) increase. Lastly, No. 360 (Al Kaline) saw an increase of 82.18% and 73.14% for PSA and VCP, respectively.

The Top-10 cards, according to PSA, values for PSA 10 graded cards are as follows:

1. Bob Gibson (514)- $22,000

2. Mickey Mantle (No. 10) - $20,000

3. Sandy Koufax (No. 163) - $5,500

4. Hank Aaron (No. 380) - $4,800

5. Billy Pierce All-Star (No. 572) - $4,350

6. Willie Mays (No. 50) - $4,250

7. Roberto Clemente (No. 478) - $3,250

8. Ed Mathews (No. 450) - $3,000

8. Billy Loes No Trade Variation (No. 336) - $3,000

9. Mickey Mantle All-Star (No. 564) - $2,300

10. Roger Maris (No. 202) - $1,850

Back on June 28th, 2018 a complete graded set of 1959 Topps Baseball sold for a grand total of $301,907. At the time set was ranked No. 3 on the PSA Set Registry system and had a Set Rating of 9.48. Currently, username Hacnac has the top-rated set on PSA (100% complete) with an overall Weighted GPA of 9.33 and Set Rating of 10.27; 217 of the cards are graded PSA 10.

What do you think of 1959 Topps Baseball? Do you have an all-time favorite set? Do you think this sets design left anything to the imagination or was it a great way of presenting the players?