The Seattle Pilots were a professional baseball team that played in Seattle, Washington for just one season in 1969 before relocating to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and becoming the Brewers. Due to their short stint in Seattle, baseball cards featuring Pilots players are considered quite rare and valuable for collectors. Let’s take a deeper look at the history of the Pilots franchise and what makes their baseball cards so desirable and valuable today.
The Pilots franchise was granted to Seattle as an expansion team starting in the 1969 season. They were owned by local businessman Dewey Soriano and played their home games at Sicks’ Stadium. Unfortunately, the team struggled both on and off the field during its lone season in Seattle. They finished with a disappointing 64-98 record and were near the bottom of American League attendance figures, averaging just over 10,000 fans per game. Off the field, the team was mired in financial issues due to the large costs of joining the league as an expansion club.
By the end of the 1969 season, Soriano had sold the team to Bud Selig of Milwaukee for $6.5 million. During the 1965 and 1967 seasons, Milwaukee had briefly hosted another AL franchise, the Milwaukee Braves, but they relocated to Atlanta following the 1965 season. Selig hoped to return Major League Baseball to Milwaukee and planned to move the Pilots there immediately for the 1970 season. The move was delayed due to ongoing bankruptcy proceedings in Seattle. In March 1970, an agreement was reached and the team officially relocated to Milwaukee to begin play as the Brewers.
Due to the Pilots’ short one-year stint in Seattle and immediate relocation, only a few different baseball card sets featured the team during its run. Most notable were issues from Topps, Fleer, and Play Ball. These 1969 cards capture the lone season the franchise spent in the Pacific Northwest and make them highly prized by collectors today. Here’s a breakdown of the most valuable Seattle Pilots cards on the secondary market:
1969 Topps Seattle Pilots: This is considered the flagship Pilots card set since Topps had the MLB license at the time. Roughest estimates place the set’s population around 800-900 total cards issued. High-grade rookie cards of future Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Reggie Jackson in their Pilots uniforms can fetch thousands. A PSA 10 mint Ted Kubiak card recently sold for over $3,000.
1969 Fleer Seattle Pilots: A much lower print run than Topps, possibly only 200-300 sets produced. Even well-worn copies of stars like Don Mincher sell for hundreds. An Ed Crosby rookie just sold for nearly $2,000 in PSA 8 condtion.
1969 Play Ball Seattle Pilots: Considered the rarest set, less than 100 full sets are thought to exist. Prices are all over depending on player, but a PSA-graded Jim Bouton averages $1,000.
Other notable subsets that often feature Pilots include 1970 Topps Postmasters (commemorating the team’s final season in Seattle/relocation) and 1969 Hostess ( featuring Pilots “Minibles” candies inserts). Individually, these subsets can carry $100+ price tags for graded examples.
The biggest factors that drive Pilots card values so high are their extremely small print runs due to the abbreviated franchise history in Seattle. Having only been around for a singular season, far fewer cards featuring the Pilots team were produced compared to long-standing clubs. Combine the rarity with capturing star players for their true “rookie” seasons in Pilots uniforms, and you have the recipe for immense desirability and value in today’s vintage baseball card market.
For avid collectors, locating high-quality Seattle Pilots cards in collection is a considerable challenge. Many of the rarest examples have long since found homes in the holdings of dedicated vintage card investors and comprehensive registry set builders. Even mid-range graded cards in the $200-500 range are hard to come by. But for those able to add a valuable piece of oddball baseball history to their collections, Pilots cards provide a engaging connection to this quirky short-lived former PCL/MLB franchise and its fleeting time in the Pacific Northwest. Their brief existence may have lasted just a season, but 50-plus years later the intrigue and lasting nostalgia of the Pilots lives on, preserved in the most collectible baseball cards of all.
The singular year that the Seattle Pilots franchise spent as a Major League club in 1969 means their corresponding baseball cards were produced in much lower quantities than more established teams. Extremely low print runs, short supply, and the capturing of future star players in their true rookie Pilots seasons all contribute to these oddball cards having immense desirability and value today in the vintage memorabilia marketplace. Top graded examples can sell for thousands, and even mid-range condition Pilots cards remain difficult to locate and carry hefty price tags for committed collectors. They serve as a tangible link to the quirky past of one of baseball’s most obscure former teams.
