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1962 Topps Baseball Set Profile

The 1962 Topps Baseball Card master set is a monster currently totaling 613 cards, per PSA’s Master Set Registry. Topps stepped away from their traditional designs and produced a set with distinctive wood grain borders (nothing like they had ever produced before), reminiscent to the 1955 Bowman TV cards. The cards, naturally, ran the standard 2 ½” by 3 ½” with most of them holding a vertical layout. The players photos look like matted photos due to the wood grain border. Each player photo has its lower right corner curled up as if to turn the page to reveal the player’s information and statistics on the back. Rookie cards are indicated by a yellow star in the top corner with the words “1962 Rookie” inside. The entire set lacks team logos. When you flip the cards over, they have a deep orange and black, Halloween style, color scheme. The card numbers can be found inside a black baseball in one of the upper corners of the card. A large portion of the back of each card is filled with a cartoon created by Jack Davis; each of which highlights the player in some fashion. The players year and lifetime stats are listed in the bottom portion of the card as well.

Jack Davis’ art was well-known throughout American Pop Culture through the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Over the course of his 60 plus year career his art appeared in a number of Comic Book Strips, Advertisements and most importantly, for this post, on the back of Sports Cards. In the Early 1950s Davis produced the artwork for the horror comic “Foul Play”, which is a story that depicts a game of baseball played with a human head as the ball and arms and legs as the bats. Davis also contributed to MAD Magazine for nearly every issue up until his death in 2016. As MAD Magazine’s popularity soared, Davis’ work ended up intriguing Woody Gelman who, at the time, was the art director of then Brooklyn-based Topps Chewing Gum. Davis was initially assigned to generate the artwork for a number of non-sports card sets that were distributed with Topps gum. Eventually Topps turned to Davis to create the cartoons for the backs of their 500 plus card baseball and football sets.

Topps released the 1962 set in 7 different uneven series. Series 1 being cards No. 1-109, Series 2 No. 110-196, Series 3 No. 197-283, Series 4 No. 284-370, Series 5 No. 371-446, Series 6 No. 447-522 and Series 7 (entirely short printed) No. 523-598. On top of the 7 series, Topps also created 6 subsets within the 62 set as well. League Leaders (cards 51-60), the Babe Ruth series (cards 135-144), World Series Highlights (cards 232-237), In Action (cards 311-319), NL All-Stars (466-475) and AL All-Stars (390-399) and finally Rookie Parade (cards 591-598). Each of these subsets have a different design, but still incorporate the wood grain borders.

The 1962 Topps Baseball set contains two major rookie cards; No. 199 Gaylord Perry (HOF) and No. 387 Lou Brock (HOF). While these are the only two rookie cards that are of future Hall of Famers, the set also contains the key rookie cards for Tom Tresh (No. 31), John “Boog” Powell (No. 99), Joe Torre (No. 218), Ken Hubbs (No. 461), Jim Bouton (No. 592) and Bob Uecker (No. 594). Outside of the Rookie Class being somewhat lack luster in 1962, the set contains a plethora of Hall of Famers, 22 in total, including Sandy Koufax (No. 5), Roberto Clemente (No. 10), Stan Musial (No. 50), Mickey Mantle (No. 200), Willie Mays (No. 300), Carl Yastrzemski (No. 425) Duke Snider (No. 500) and more.

While waiting for each series to be released collectors had several ways of purchasing the 62 Topps Baseball Card set; bright green one-cent and give-cent wax packs, cellos packs, 24-pack boxes and 12-card rack packs at the holidays. On top of the cards within the wax packs, collectors were also given an opportunity to collect stamp panels. The 1962 Topps Stamps set totaled 201 stamps, 181 different players to go along with 20 team logos.

Collectors could purchase the 24-pack box for a whopping $1.20 in 1962. This meant that 60 empty coke bottles (2-cent deposit) would buy you a box. In today’s numbers a 24-pack box would cost us a total of $10.26 (www.usinflationcalculator.com) for the chance to chase this monster set.

The Subsets

Within each series a subset of cards could be found. The first subset of cards is the League Leaders cards (No. 51-60). This set honors the top performers from the previous year. The Babe Ruth Series could be found in Series 2 and ran card numbers 135-144. This subset gave a brief retrospective of the Babe’s career. Card 139B (variation will be discussed later) is thought to be the toughest to find of this subset and no. 140 is the most popular. The third subset we can find in 1962 Topps Baseball is the World Series Highlights collection which encompasses just six cards documenting the five game series between the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds. Next, collectors would find the In Action subset in Series 4; cards 311-319 which contained a combination of a number of images conveying a specific play. For example card 312 has three images of pitcher Warren Spahn with the headline “Spahn Shows No-Hit Form”. The Sporting News All-Stars is the next subset which is actually spread out between Series 5 and 6 of the 1962 set. You can find the AL All-Stars in Series 5 (cards 390-399) and the NL All-Stars in Series 6 (cards 466-475. These All-Stars were the top names from the 1961 season. The final subset that can be found within this set is the Rookie Parade. This subset is considered to be one of the toughest to complete. It contains cards 591-598; each card is broken into 5 or 6 different boxes with 4 or 5 different floating heads of players of the same position. Interestingly, the Rookie Parade subset does not contain a single Hall of Fame player.

The Expansion Draft and Topps Dilemma

At the time of production Topps was faced with the tremendous dilemma of how to finish the photography for Series 1. The league had been expanded to add two new teams; the Houston Colt 45s and the New York Mets. Due to the addition of these teams an expansion draft needed to happen and Topps was unsure what players would be taken and end up on these new teams. Topps Solution? Take two photographs of each player; one with the team logo on the uniform and cap and the second without the logo. Unfortunately for Topps, someone forgot to separate the unusable photos that had been taken out of the production proofs. This lead to eight players appearing in the set with dual poses – these became known as photo variation cards.

Damage and PSA Sales

Due to the wood grain borders damage to the card edges is not uncommon. Due to this high risk of damage high-grade cards demand high purchase prices. In fact, Card No. 1 Roger Maris is extremely susceptible to damage from the rubber bands collectors use to bundle their cards when collating them in order. If you look at the Population report there is a total of 211,496 cards graded, only 66,237 of those cards have obtained a high number grade (PSA 8, 9 or 10). The 66,237 only comprised 31% of all graded cards. You are more likely to come across cards with mid-grades (PSA 4-7). These cards make up 66% of the graded population, totaling 139,134 cards.

It has been rumored that a majority of the high-grade cards that are currently on the population report come from Topps Blue Binders. These binders were only available to Topps employees and business associates.

As mentioned before, the two key Rookie Cards from this set are Lou Brock and Gaylord Perry. Average sale price, per PSA APR sale records, a Lou Brock rookie in a PSA 6 would fetch $139.26 on average in 2017. Currently Brock Rookies in a PSA 6 are pulling down $165.31 on average in 2020, an 18.7% increase from 2017. Conversely the second key Rookie, Gaylord Perry, has seen an 8.2% decrease in average sale price from 2017 ($70.62) to 2020 ($64.85). Another key card is No. 1 Roger Maris, which would pull in $167.91 on average in 2017 and is now pulling $192.35 in 2020; a 14.5% increase over the four-year time frame.

With a large sum of the graded population being mid-grade, I chose to compare PSA 6 sales to PSA 2 sales to highlight how damage to cards can drive price down. PSA 2 graded cards constitute a mere 1,404 cards on the population report, or about 0.6% of the graded population. Due to low population totals sale statistics were relatively limited for Lou Brock, Gaylord Perry and Roger Maris. There were no PSA 2 sale statistics for Lou Brock in 2020 or 2019. Regarding Gaylord Perry no records were available for 2020 or 2018.

1962 Topps Notable Card Sales PSA 6 v PSA 2

In 2017 a Lou Brock rookie PSA 6 was running at $139.26, conversely a PSA 2 was a mere $40.17. In 2018 the same card was grabbing $160.58 in 2018 for a PSA 6 and even less for a PSA 2 compared to 2017 at $36.66. A Perry Rookie would fetch a seller $70.62 in 2017 and $69.39 in 2019 in a PSA 6 while PSA 2s would catch $25.59 in 2017 and only $11.40 in 2019. Lastly, Roger Maris cards brough in $167.91 (2017), $170.17 (2018), $203.86 (2019) and $192.35 (2020) on average for a PSA 6. On the flip side a PSA 2 Maris would bring $31.46 (2017), $32.76 (2018), $35.79 (2019) and $33.48 (2020). If you’re a collector who doesn’t mind a low-grade or damaged card and you have a couple extra 20-dollar bills lying around you can get your hands on one of these three iconic cards from the 1962 Topps Baseball set.

Collecting a Monster

The 598 plus card Topps Baseball set of 1962 is a monster to collect. In fact, as it was mentioned earlier, the expansion draft caused Topps to make a rash decision to do dual photographs of players with and without team logos. Unfortunately for them, someone forgot to take the unusable photos out of the rotation leading to several cards in Series 1 having photo variations that are recognized by PSA on the Master Set Registry.

There are nine cards that have notable photo variations. Card No. 129, Lee Walls, has his portrait facing left or right. Card No. 132 of the Los Angeles Angels Team has either 2 inset photos or none and Billy Hoeft (No. 134) has a blue sky or green sky. Billy Kunkel’s card no. 147 has either a portrait or a picture of him pitching. When it comes to no. 174 of Carl Willey, he either has his cap or does not. Next, card no. 176 of Eddie Yost has either his portrait or him batting and the same goes for no. 190 Wally Moon. Most significantly, card no. 139 has four variations, two of Hal Reniff (portrait or pitching) and two of Babe Ruth (green grass and pole or dirt and no foul pole). Of the four variations of no. 139 the card with the pole in the background (also known as the “green tint” variation) pulls the highest value. In fact, a PSA 8 went for $978 at auction on eBay in 2012 and another went for $1,779 at auction on eBay in 2019. Conversely the dirt and no pole variation bring in $560 and $816.03 at auction on eBay, both in 2019.

This set also has the “green tint” variations which were the result of a printing anomaly. The story goes that Topps was looking to increase the print run for Series 2 after seeing the sales of series 1. In wanting to increase the run, Topps made the decision to have the additional print done at an upstate New York printing plant as a way to not burden Zabel Brothers in Philadelphia where Topps had their printing done at the time. Unfortunately, while the printing plates were on their way upstate, they were damaged in transit causing the bizarre green tinted cards. Subsequently, all future print runs remained at Zabel in Philadelphia. Some people claim that these green tinted cards draw a substantially higher price, however, from what I can see that is not the case.

Average prices between 2017-19 for a PSA 6 Al Kaline ranged from $28.13 up to $32.65 on average, while the Green Tint version of the card of the same grade ranged $28.32 to $32.32, essentially the same price range. Card no. 167 Tim McCarver ranged from $13.82 to $16 over the same course of time while his Green Tint variation ranged from $21.32 upwards of $25, a $10ish higher sale price. Lastly, Gehrig and Ruth card no. 140 ranged from 22.82 to $59.81 for a PSA 6 and the Green Tint ranged $31.17 to $38.55, relatively lower than the regular variation.

If you’re looking for other notable cards in the 1962 set there are quite a few. In regard to other notable rookies outside of Brock and Perry and the others mentioned earlier you can find Tim McCarver, Jim Fregosi, Al Downing, Sam McDowell and Joe Pepitone. There are also a number of cards collectors look to acquire from this set as well; no. 18 Managers Dream, no. 53 AL Homerun Leaders: Maris, Mantle, Killebrew and Gentile, no. 313 Maris Blasts 61st and no. 425 of Yaz kneeling with three bats.

Adding to the Headache: Stamps and Buck

1962 Topps contained Stamps as well. As mentioned before there is a total of 201 stamps within the set. These stamps have either a red or yellow background. Collectors were able to mail away for a special album to hold these stamps as well for a mere 10 cents. Prices for these stamps are nothing crazy per PSA SMR. See the below table for an idea on pricing.

Notice, PSA 5-8 are all relatively obtainable prices for most people when it comes to collecting these stamps. We see large jumps in price when we hit PSA 9 and none of the five highlighted stamps have PSA 10s graded so no prices are available.

If you were not satisfied with everything that it would take to hunt down the entire 1962 Master Set and the Stamp set, you can also find Topps Bucks from the same year. These were made to look like money that featured a picture of the player on the front. The back of these bucks had a drawing of the player’s home ballpark on the back and were sold separately in packs.

Topps Bucks can bring in some heft prices. Like the Stamps we can see a major jump as we get into the higher grades. Again, there are no PSA 10s available. See the below table for an idea on pricing.

Collecting anything Topps 1962 is a huge mountain to climb. If you are a completionist this might not be something you want to tackle. It can be a headache to go after everything from the base set, to variations, green tints, error cards, stamps and bucks! With all the errors and variations that were created during the printing process this set has become one of the hardest sets to complete and possibly one of the ugliest to date.