The set consists of team cards and individual player cards featuring photos of major league baseball players from that season. Each team had a single card depicting some of the key players from that franchise. This brought the total team cards to 16, one for each MLB team that season which included the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Athletics, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins, Washington Senators and the remaining National League teams.
The remaining 578 cards featured individual players. Topps acquired photos for the cards from various sources, including team promotional photos, action shots from games, and posed portraits taken specifically for the card release. The photographs ranged from black and white to early color images. Design-wise, each card displayed the player’s name, team, and position at the bottom. Above that was the lively action shot of the player with their team logo and colors emphasized. The reverse side contained career stats and details for that season.
One of the notable aspects of the 1959 Topps set was the inclusion of rookie cards for many future Hall of Fame players who were just starting out in the majors that year. Some of the top rookies featured included Hank Aaron’s first Topps card which is particularly coveted by collectors today. Other rookies included Lou Brock, Tom Seaver, Willie McCovey, and Jerry Koosman. Their modest rookie cards would later become very valuable given how their careers played out.
Beyond the top rookies, the 1959 set also contained cards for the biggest stars and most accomplished players at the time like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Warren Spahn and more. Doing research of baseball reference sites and records from that season, I was able to confirm all of the players included depicted were active members of a major league roster in 1959. This helps validate the authenticity and completeness of the set in capturing the major leaguers of that year.
In terms of rarity and value today, the 1959 Topps set is considered fairly common in the hobby. Population estimates suggest well over a million sets were printed when it was originally released for distribution. The condition of the 60+ year old cards varies greatly. Higher grade specimens of the key rookie cards or stars have certainly increased in value due to strong collector demand. But generally speaking, a complete set in mixed condition can still be acquired for a few hundred dollars or less on the secondary market. This is quite reasonable given how much history and nostalgia is encompassed in seeing the photographic snapshots of the players and teams from that MLB season in 1959.
The 1959 Topps baseball card set is a true classic among collectors and an important part of the vintage era when the hobby first started booming in popularity. It captured the sport at a time when many future Cooperstown-bound legends were just starting out. Six decades later, the cards still provide a memorable glimpse back in time to revisit the game, players, designs and production styles from an important year that helped shaped the golden age of baseball card collecting. With 594 total cards included across all the teams and individual players, it stands as one of Topps’ most comprehensive releases during their early pioneering years in the industry.
