1954 Topps Baseball Set Profile
When it came to the design of the 1954 Topps Baseball set, Sy Berger, a Topps Designer, wanted to make huge strides in the trading card world. Berger, without a doubt, was able to develop one of the most iconic baseball cards sets of all-time that ended up setting the design standard for the foreseeable future.
1954 Topps No. 204 Angel Scull
The 1954 Topps Baseball set totaled just 250 cards, which was released in three series throughout the year. Series 1 (No. 1-50) were also released in Canada with gray backs which was used to distinguish them from the white back American cards. Series 2 was cards 51-75 and Series 3 cards 76-250. There is some speculation, but no solid confirmation, that Series 3 may have been released as more than one series. Unlike its predecessors (1952 and 1953) the 54 Topps set has no short prints within the set, making it much easier to collect.
In totaling just 250 cards the 54 Topps set is relatively smaller in comparison to the first two runs of Topps Baseball; 1952 totaled 407 cards and 1953 totaled 280 cards. Due to some contractual issues because of Bowman, the set was filled out by “anyone” Topps could find. “Anyone” included Rookies, Coaches and Managers. In fact, Topps would print a total of 25 cards that were coaches and managers. Many of these players and coaches that received a card would never have another card printed in their lifetimes. Even more interesting Card No. 204 of Angel Scull received a rookie card and he never actually made it to the big leagues.
The cards themselves are considered the most eye-catching design to date. Measure 2 5/8” x 3 3/4” these cards are printed on medium stock cardboard and have no top border. For the first time ever on a baseball card Topps used two player images; an up-close colorful headshot with a smaller black and white full body action shot as well. In either the top right or top left corner each card contained a team logo and directly to the side of the logo the players full name, team and position were listed. A facsimile autograph from each player was also printed in black across the front. One of seven colors (white, yellow, light blue, green, red or orange) were used as the background colors.
On the reverse side of each card there was a full list of vital information. Each card had its card number, a biography of the player, a short career summary, previous year statistics and lifetime statistics. There was also a cartoon that contained one to three pictures titled “Inside Baseball.” The back of every card also contained five colors; red, green, black, white and flesh tone.
Ted Williams No. 1, his first card after returning from war.
A major design flaw occurred because of the fact these cards were printed with no top border. If you were to collect all 250 cards in the set and stack them on top of each other, you will notice that the backs of the cards are all jumbled. This jumbling was the result of how the cards were printed on the factory press sheets. All cards were placed top-to-top to purposely not have the white border, however, the press operator forgot to reorient the backs of the cards which caused half of the set to have the card number at the top and the other half at the bottom when stacked. This can be frustrating when hunting through boxes for specific cards to finish off your set, but it is just part of the hobby. Luckily, Topps never made this printing mistake again.
As mention above, Topps had several contractual issues when trying to complete their 1954 set. Rival card company Bowman held the exclusive rights to several players forcing Topps to find ways to fill the set. Overtime Topps was able to win the battle by paying players $125 versus the $100 Bowman would pay. Mickey Mantle was the key player Topps was missing when it came to their 1954 Set, however, Topps countered this missing piece by signing Ted Williams to a 5-year contract and used his likeness to bookend the set with cards No. 1 and No. 250. It has been debated that Ted Williams No. 250 is highly sought after and considered to be one of the most popular cards in the modern hobby.
The Ted Williams contract was a turning point in the baseball cards world; it helped Topps to create a near 30-year monopoly on the card world. Due to the contract signed with Topps, Bowman was forced to stop production of card No. 66 in their set. One thing to note about Topps No. 1 and No. 250 is that they are often found in rough condition with numerous defects; the most common of which is damage from the rubber bands that held people’s sets together.
Despite being a smaller set, the 54 checklist is littered with Hall of Fame talent like Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Willie Mays, Ted Williams and Jackie Robinson. On top of these stars of the time, several players were being introduced as rookies; Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Al Kaline, Tommy Lasorda and AL ROY Harvey Kuenn.
The 1954 Topps Rookie Card for Kaline, Banks and Aaron all sit atop their PSA registry checklists as the cards to have! One thing to note about Kaline’s rookie card background may vary in color slight from a deep cherry red to more of an orange. Hank Aaron’s rookie is also one of the most recognizable cards in the hobby. When it comes to searching for the perfectly centered card of each of these players it tends to be difficult; finding one without some sort of print defect within it somewhere can also prove to be difficult.
PSA Statistics: Total Cards Graded and PSA 4 Sales
According to PSA they have graded a total of 154,930 1954 Topps. The population report shows that 136,763 of those cards have a whole number grade, 9,881 have a “+” or half point grade and 8,286 cards have a qualifier. When looking at the set as a whole the cards with the most graded are: Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams (No. 1) Ernie Banks and more….
The 1954 Rookie Class included Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Al Kaline. Each of these players rookie cards are highly coveted and can pull a premium price when making a purchase. The PSA website contains a section labeled APR or Auction Prices Realized where one can look back and find final auction/sales prices for a card in a specific grade. I was able to analyze sales of PSA 4 graded cards between the years of 2016-19 and determine an average sale price of these Rookie Cards for each year. A total of 159 sales for Hank Aaron (No. 128), 118 sales for Ernie Banks (No. 94) and 83 sales for Al Kaline (No. 201) were available in the APR. The below table shows the average sale prices for each of these cards during the time frame.
Once I determined the average sale price for each year, I plotted the information on a line graph to work out what the overall percentage increase in sales prices over that four-year time frame as well. The Hank Aaron RC saw an overall 32.3% ($1,355.27 to $1,792.88) increase in final sale price from 2016-19, however, from 2016-17 this card did see a 4.1% decrease in sale price from $1,355.27 (’16) to $1,299.08 (’17). Ernie Banks saw an increase of 37.5% from $433.38 (’16) to $595.95 (’19). Lastly, Al Kaline saw a mere 9.2% jump in final sale price over the course of the four-year time frame, jumping from $287.84 in 2016 to only $314.36 in 2019. Remember, these percentages are in relation to PSA 4 sales.
According to PSA a total of 5,217 Hank Aaron, 4,198 Ernie Banks and 3,315 Al Kaline rookie cards have been graded and logged into their system. Of these 12,730 graded cards a mere 5 have been graded PSA 10 GEM MT (2 Aaron, 2 Banks and 1 Kaline).
The final thing I broke down regarding PSA statistics and the 1954 Topps set was finding total percentages of the graded card community. I broke this down into four different categories: The Big 3 Rookies, Star Players, Cards with 500 or more graded and Cards with 500 or less graded. I was able to determine that the Big 3 Rookies graded cards make up a total of 8% of 154,790 cards that have been graded. The Key Players (13 players but 14 cards, Ted Williams No. 1 and No. 250) make up 21% with a total of 32,604 cards graded. There is a total of 61 cards of the 250 card set have 500 or more cards graded making up 24% (37,771 cards) of the overall graded numbers. This means that 79 of the 250 cards in this set make up more than half (53%) of the total number of graded cards of this set.
Back to the 1954 Set
When it came to the design of the 1954 Topps Set, Sy Berger wanted to go back to using colorized photos like they had used for the 1952 set as well. This is much different than the 1953 set which had required artists to hand draw each card. Years after the set had been out, Berger said:
I had advocated action photography for three or four years. They wouldn’t hear of it. And I had two big file cabinets full of action pictures. They did a survey and found out that kids wanted action pictures. They came to me in December and said, ‘Where are we going to get color action pictures?’ – I had them.
1954 Topps Baseball packaging.
Collectors could purchase the 1954 set in a few ways; one-card penny packs, four-card nickel packs and fifteen-card cello packs. Each of these wax packs had four colors: red, green, white and black. These packs not only contained the cards they also contained a stick of everyone’s favorite bubble gum…bazooka, unfortunately, these pieces of gum were routinely stale and left gum stains on cards.
The 1954 set also has a few unique cards, three of which are error cards (No. 14, 19 and 178) that went uncorrected. Card No. 14 of Preacher Roe has February misspelled on the back; Johnny Lipton’s No. 19 has the Orioles team name on the front and White Sox on the back while Lipton is wearing a Red Sox cap and lastly No. 178 of Bill Glynn has is name spelled as Gylnn on the front. The other unique card within the set is No. 139 of the O’Brien twins Johnny and Eddie. This card became the first of its kind depicting two players on the front.
1954 became the third consecutive year in which Topps outsold Bowman in the baseball card market. This set is undoubtedly one of the most attractive baseball cards sets that has ever been produced. One seller noted that 1954 Topps regularly outsell Bowman five cards to three. This set was Topps making their mark on the market and clarifying their intentions of wanting to become the widespread powerhouse card company in America.
What do you think about the 1954 Topps Baseball set? What is your favorite set of all-time? Do you wish Topps would go back to designs like these?