The 1966 baseball card season marked a transition period for the hobby. While Topps remained the dominant force in the industry as they had been for over a decade, there were some notable changes and new competitors entering the market.
Topps produced their usual full color, gum-included set of 714 cards in 1966. Some of the biggest star rookies included Reggie Jackson of the Kansas A’s and Tom Seaver of the New York Mets. Seaver’s rookie card in particular is one of the most iconic and valuable of all time. The design featured individual player photos with stats and career summaries on the back. Topps continued their tradition of including team cards, manager cards, and league leader cards to round out the set.
While Topps was still the 800 pound gorilla in baseball cards in 1966, they faced new competition from Fleer. Fleer produced their first modern gumless baseball card set in 1964-65 as a competitor to Topps. In 1966, Fleer issued another groundbreaking set. They became the first company to use action shots and multi-player cards instead of straight individual posed photos. Fleer’s 1966 set included only 132 cards compared to Topps’ massive 714 card count. They gained notoriety for innovations in design and photography. The Fleer cards were also printed on a higher quality card stock compared to the thinner stock used by Topps.
Another new competitor was Philadelphia Gum Inc, who issued a 132 card set under the “Philadelphia Gum” brand name in 1966. This set mimicked Topps’ design of individual photos and stats on the back. The photos and production quality were not nearly as high as the Topps or Fleer offerings. Philadelphia Gum failed to gain much traction and only produced sets through 1968 before leaving the baseball card market.
In addition to the main flagship issues from Topps, Fleer, and Philadelphia Gum, there were also a few smaller specialty sets released in 1966 as well. The most notable was the Kellogg’s 3-D Baseball Card set. Kellogg’s had previously issued baseball cards as premiums in cereal boxes in 1964-65. Their 1966 offering featured 50 cards with 3-D lenticular holograms on the front. Each card had a different posed action photo that appeared to jump out when viewed from side angles. While a novelty at the time, the Kellogg’s 3-D cards are now highly sought after by collectors.
The 1966 season was an exciting one in Major League Baseball as well. The Baltimore Orioles won the World Series, led by future Hall of Famers Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson. The rising MLB stars of the late 1960s like Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver, and others were just starting to make names for themselves in 1966 as well. Topps, as always, was there to chronicle all the action and players with their massive flagship set. Fleer continued to push the boundaries of design and photography.
While 1966 saw Topps remain dominant with their traditional design, it was an important transition year that set the stage for changes ahead. Fleer established themselves as a serious competitor with innovative styles. Other short-lived brands like Philadelphia Gum tried and failed to break into the market as well. Kellogg’s offered collectors something completely different with their 3-D technology cards. The seeds were planted in 1966 for Topps to face stiffer competition that would drive further evolution of the baseball card industry in the coming years. Major stars of the late 60s were also just getting their start, ensuring plenty of material for the card companies to work with.
The 1966 season showed both tradition and transition in the baseball card hobby. Topps remained the 800-pound gorilla but faced new challenges from Fleer. Rookies like Reggie Jackson and Tom Seaver entered the scene as future legends. Innovations in design and specialty promotions laid the groundwork for greater changes still to come. The 1966 cards serve as an important historical bridge between the earlier Topps-dominated years and the more competitive modern era of the late 1960s and beyond. They commemorate an exciting year in baseball history while representing transitional times for the collecting pastime as well.
