1959 was a monumental year for Topps and the entire baseball card industry. It was the second year Topps had the exclusive license to produce baseball cards after winning the rights away from Bowman in 1956. The 1959 set is highly sought after by collectors and has become iconic representations of the players and era it captures. While graded cards have become extremely popular, there are still many ungraded 1959 Topps gems waiting to be discovered.
The 1959 set contains 520 total cards, including 498 regular issue cards featuring current Major League players and managers as well as 22 short print cards of past stars no longer active. The set did not have any variations like errors or missing team names like earlier Topps sets did. There were a few discrepancies in serial numbers on some short print cards. Overall design and image quality was improved significantly from the prior year.
Each regular issue card has a vertical format with the player’s name at the top followed by the team name and position in a bar at the center. At the bottom is the player’s statistics from the previous season. The iconic green and yellow border colors were first introduced with this set. The player images show more close-up head shots compared to fuller body images of earlier years. The overall sharpness and focus of the photography elevates the cards to be considered some of the finest of the pre-modern era.
Perhaps the most notable inclusion in the 1959 Topps set was the short print card of rookie Willie Mays featuring one of the most well-known action photos of the Say Hey Kid robbing Vic Wertz of a home run. Only around 100 of these cards are believed to have been printed, instantly making them some of the most valuable in the entire set. Other valuable short prints include cards featuring Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente and Warren Spahn among the game’s greatest players.
Grading has become extremely popular in recent decades with services like PSA and SGC authenticating and assigning grades to baseball cards. This has driven values of high graded examples through the roof, especially for key vintage rookies and stars. The vast majority of the over 500,000 1959 Topps cards produced were never professionally graded. This leaves a lot of room to still uncover virgin examples in attics, basements and old collection in need of revival.
For collectors seeking to build an ungraded set of 1959 Topps, there is no shortage of choices on the secondary market whether searching online marketplaces, local card shops or shows. Prices will vary greatly depending on the condition and centering of the specific card, but in general raw examples can be acquired for affordable prices compared to their PSA/BGS slabbed counterparts. While an ungraded card may not carry quite the cache or verified authenticity of a high grade, condition is still very readable.
Building an ungraded set offers collectors the nostalgia and thrill of the hunting raw vintage cards without breaking the bank. Many consider it a pure form of collecting before slabbing became so predominant. Over time, astute collectors can pick out potential candidates to cross-reference with population reports and potentially submit for grading. This allows taking advantage of grading potential down the line after firstly enjoying simply owning and displaying the classic set in its raw state.
For the more valuable short prints and star rookies in the 1959 Topps set, there are still finds to be made. While PSA 10 mint examples of the iconic Willie Mays rookie routinely sell for well over $100,000, raw copies in overall nice shape often trade in the low thousands of dollars. Similarly, a PSA 9 Hank Aaron RC would be a five figure card but one could still chance upon an ungraded example with strong color and details intact for just a fraction of PSA price.
In summary, 1959 Topps baseball cards were truly ahead of their time in terms of design, image quality and capturing the golden era of players within. Grading has elevated values of gem copies to astronomical heights, but smart collectors know there are still plenty of ungraded treasures from this landmark set waiting in obscure collections nationwide. For everyone from budget builders to sophisticated investors, an ungraded 1959 Topps set presents collecting opportunity on many levels compared to their encased and certified brethren. Discovering virgin examples should remain a most rewarding aspect of exploring the great vintage of Topps’ acclaimed second baseball card series.
