Vintage sports card guide: The 13 best players to buy across baseball, football, and basketball

The vintage sports card hobby has proven to offer safety and steady growth in value over longer time periods. The players are locked in time.

“Mickey Mantle isn’t going to have any bad years,” people say relative to the modern hobby, where career fortunes can turn on a dime.

But it can seem daunting for newcomers, especially those who aren’t sports history experts. There are thousands of Hall of Famers across all sports. So where to begin? It turns out, though, that the vintage card hobby is incredibly streamlined. In the Topps Era for vintage, which is 1951 to 1973, there are just a handful of safe havens. And it’s relatively easy to find cards in the respective player catalogs at a range of price points.

I’ve identified the players across the baseball, football and basketball hobbies (vintage hockey cards aren’t on the same level as the aforementioned) who have generally proven safe to buy at market auction prices for the grade. I’ve dubbed the 13 athletes the “Blue Chip Baker’s Dozen” of the hobby. This is based on my decades of collecting and my intensive tracking of prices since I began reporting on cards as investments in 2016. Note that just because it’s the Topps Era, the cards don’t necessarily have to be Topps issued.

I stipulate that the joy of collecting is going down whatever road you want. All Hall of Fame rookies have proven to be solid investments over long time horizons (though of course not necessarily starting with the Pandemic price bubble). And I don’t mean to suggest that it’s foolish to do runs of players who aren’t included here, beyond just their rookie cards. It’s just that those are far less likely to appreciate to the same degree.

The sports are listed in the order of expected appreciation, as are the players within the sports. In vintage,baseball is king. It leads by far with eight players making this level of top investment grade in the hobby.

When it comes to graded cards, SGC vs. PSA doesn’t matter to me and shouldn’t to buyers, but SGC can be slightly cheaper. Auctions are generally 20 percent cheaper than immediate-sale prices, but you can and should seek to buy at auction prices irrespective of the method of sale. You can find recent sale prices with apps likeCard Ladderor simply searching eBay sold items in auctions.

Baseball

Mickey Mantle:The face of the vintage hobby and that will never change. He dominated American sports on the dominant team from 1954 through 1964, the New York Yankees. But his popularity is enduring. There’s magic in that alliterative name.

$100 recommendation: 1964 Topps Giant in an “excellent” (5) grade. SGC is trending a little cheaper here than PSA. Sure, there are a ton of these, about 7,000 in higher grades. But it’s a Mantle and there are 25,406 Victor Wembanyamas in PSA 10 (Prizm base, as I write this,according to GemRate) and those sell for about the same amount.

$300: 1958 Topps All-Star in “excellent-mint” (6) condition. It’s a beautiful card. This is a 1950s Mantle, but he was already a star, so kids saved his cards andthis card was triple printed. It was also a high series issued in late summer when most kids stopped buying cards, though.

$1.000: You need to find an auction and may have to go slightly higher but the 1953 Bowman Mantle (his base card, No. 59) is quite rare relative to Topps offerings (half as many graded). You can get a top 25 percent (eye appeal) “good” condition card (a 2) for this price.

Jackie Robinson:Transcends sports and that will always be the case. One of the most important figures in American history. There will always be a Jackie Robinson Day in MLB, which keeps him front of mind. As a player, he’s No. 1 all-time at second base in OPS in the Integration Era, which he started.

$100: He only has six Topps cards. The days of getting any one of these in any number grade this cheap are long over. So you’ll have to save up for the next tier.

$300: The 1956 Topps Robinson is his last card and is beautiful. It comes in a white back and gray back, with the gray being more rare (though dealers reflexively try to overcharge for the white, which is only more rare in certain card numbers). You can definitely get a 1.5 (“fair”) with good eye appeal for $300 or less in white (but try for the more rare gray).

$1.000: If you are super patient, you can get a 1953 Topps Robinson, a contender for the most attractive card ever printed, for about this much money. It can be decently centered in “good” condition (2) for this price, meaning it ideally has the eye appeal of a higher graded card.

Willie Mays:Considered in his time the best player and remains widely considered today the best player ever. Mays invented the concept of a five-tool player. He isconsidered by many America’s first black superstar athlete.

$100: You can commemorate Mays’ return to the Big Apple with his only New York Mets card, the 1973 Topps, in EX-MT condition (6). This card will always appeal to Mets fans.

$300: The 1957 Topps set is iconic (first set issued in the card size still used today) and a favorite of collectors. For some reason, you can get a very nice “excellent” condition (5) Mays in this price range. It’s his last New York Giants card.

$1,000: The 1965 Topps set is a favorite design of many collectors and Mays also won the MVP that year, becoming the only player to hit 500-plus homers over a 16-year span. You can find a top-of-the market (centered) “near mint-mint” (8) Mays in this range. That’s a pack-fresh card.

Ted Williams:Considered by many the greatest hitter of all time and also a hero in multiple wars. Williams played his entire career for a very popular team (the Boston Red Sox) and will always be associated with baseball in New England, a collecting hot bed.

$100: Williams has eight Topps cards (plus a card he shares with Ted Kluszewkski) and one high-ticket rarity for Bowman in the period we’re looking at. He has his own set of Fleer cards from the end of his playing days. But at this price point, my choice is his 1958 Topps All-Star card in “excellent” (5) condition.

$300: The 1955 Topps Doubleheader cards, with players depicted as life-like cartoons, can be gorgeous and Williams’ may be the best in the set. One in “very good-excellent” condition (4) can be had for about this price.

$1,000: In 1954, Williams was finally signed by Topps and given two cards to bookend the set, Cards No. 1 and No. 250. The former has an orange background and the latter yellow. Go with whichever one you like best; but both can be found centered in “excellent” (5) condition for under $1,000. These are basically his Topps rookies.

Roberto Clemente:He had a Jackie Robinson-like impact on Latin American players. There was nothing he couldn’t do at an elite level on the baseball field, though he sacrificed power for average, something that would never happen today. He easily had 500-homer power (but “only” hit 240 over 18 seasons).

$100: My recommendation is a centered 1963 Fleer Clemente. You can get a 4 that looks like a 7 if you’re patient and top-quality for the grade VG-EX ones go for about $100 in auctions. There are about 20 percent less Fleers than his 1963 Topps cards and they are much cheaper.

$300: You may have to reach up to 10 percent over this for a supreme one for the grade, but his last card, the 1973 Topps, with his entire career stats on the back, can be had in NM-MT (8) condition (basically pack fresh and centered) in the $300-$330 range.

$1,000: Lots of top options here. You can get a 1957 Topps, maybe the most gorgeous card in the set, in NM (7) condition and centered decently if not perfectly for under this price, or the 1956 Topps second-year card in EX-MT (6) condition. Let’s recommend the latter since that set is so iconic and we have not touched on it yet.

Hank Aaron:Considered by many still the sport’s true home-run king, but will forever be the man who broke Babe Ruth’s seemingly insurmountable roundtripper record. Aaron was far more than just a home run hitter, though. Did you know he had a 30/30 season?

$100: I’ll get creative here and recommend one of my all-time favorite cards, the 1966 Topps NL Batting Leaders one, featuring Mays, Aaron, and Clemente. You can still get 5s in auctions for under $100. There are about 60 percent as many graded ones as the Aaron base card. And you have three Mount Rushmore players on one card.

$300: Going back to the iconic 1957 Topps set, you’ll have to be patient and you’ll have to find an auction (though you can just offer this if best offers are accepted or simply make an offer by contacting the seller). But a centered 4 (VG-EX) in this price range is possible for what was inconceivably Aaron’s only MVP season.

$1,000: I’m going to recommend his card from the most condition sensitive Topps set ever — the 1971 Topps Black Beauties. You can get a centered 8 (NM-MT) for this price and it will always be an easy sell for the people insane enough to try to build a high-grade 1971 set. Aaron by the way in 1971, at age 37, hit .327/.410/.699 with 47 homers and more walks than strikeouts.

Nolan Ryan:We’re only talking about his 1968-to-1973 cards here. That doesn’t mean all Ryans don’t qualify, especially in the 1970s. (And I don’t mean to say that all Williams cards aren’t safe, though good luck buying a pre-Topps one on the cheap.) Ryan is the Cy Young of strikeouts. His 5,714 Ks can be etched in stone. You need 300 Ks for 19 years and you’re still short! It’s like Young’s 511 wins being cartoonishly absurd, incapable of being remotely threatened.

$100: Ryan’s Mets cards just fly off the tables at card shows but we’re going to go with the heavily influenced, almost psychedelic 1972 Topps set, which seems like it could have been designed byDock Ellis after he threw his famous LSD no-hitter. I’ve seen centered SGC 5s in this price range. A centered 4.5 is fine, too. (Pro Tip: Cards with the half-grade bump tend to be more well-centered than cards in whole grades.)

$300: Many consider the 1971 Topps Ryan the No. 1 card in the entire set (those black-bordered, oh so delicate beauties). It’s an action shot with the RC Cola sign in the background. There was a day pre-pandemic where $300 would get you a NM card (7). Now you’ll have to settle for an EX-MT (6) that should seem under-graded (but isn’t).

$1,000: You need the rookie card. The 1968 Topps set was the most heavily produced and distributed set ever. I think every kid in America bought 1,000. So this card is not remotely rare. But it rises in price relentlessly. He’s paired on it with probably the best rookie-partner co-star ever in Jerry Koosman (over 200 wins). The card show dad joke is that it’s the Koosman rookie (eye roll). You can get an EX (5), if you’re lucky, for $1,000, but definitely a beautiful 4.5. The grader does not matter (I own a centered front and back BVG 5.5.)

Sandy Koufax:The Left Arm of God had the greatest run of pitching in MLB history. In the four seasons spanning 1963-1966: 1,192 IP, 1.86 ERA, 97-27 record, 1,228 Ks and a 0.91 WHIP. Then he retired due to unlivable elbow pain. He also played his whole career for the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles, the game’s most popular team alongside the Yankees.

$100: I want to recommend as many iconic Topps vintage set designs as possible. Topps changed them so radically year-to-year to show kids the cards were new and not the ones their parents just tossed in the trash. You can find a decently centered 1959 Topps with the beautiful yellow background in VG-EX (4) condition for this price, with some effort.

$300: There is a 1967 Koufax in the Topps “Who Am I” set with a total population of 127 that are gradable because the original owner didn’t scratch off the Groucho Marx disguise. But this is too oddball. So how about the 1963 Topps (MVP Year) Koufax — also very condition sensitive — with a color bottom border in EX-MT (6) condition? It will be a tight squeeze at this price, but is doable.

$1,000: I love true rookie cards, meaning the player never played previously as a professional. The 1955 Topps Koufax is not remotely rare. He was famous from the moment he signed as a bonus baby. He played in the shadows of the Topps Brooklyn headquarters. He was (and remains) a hero to every Jewish kid in the five boroughs. But you can get a beautiful 1955 Topps rookie “Sanford” Koufax, centered, in “very good” (3) conditions, for just under this ceiling.

Football

Jim Brown:Arguably the greatest football player ever and certainly the most dominant adjusting for era. Pre-Joe Namath, running backs were the stars of the game. His 17-game career average was 1,774 rushing yards on 5.2 yards per carry and 15 rushing TDs with an additional 38 catches for 320 yards and three more scores. A Superman, he never missed a play due to injury.

$100: I love the 1964 Philadelphia Jim Brown card where he’s kneeling in front of a chain-link fence with a Cadillac behind it. But that’s not any Caddy, it’s the one Brown won for being the 1963 NFL MVP. You can find a decently centered EX (5) for this price in SGC or drop down below the $100 ceiling for a perfectly centered VG-EX (4).

$300: There is a black beauty set in football, too — the 1962 Topps, a rare horizontal football card with a very sharp three-panel design including an action shot. Trust me, the EX-MT (6) will look like a NM 7, basically pack fresh. These black-bordered cards are harshly graded. You can find one for $300 or less with no chipping and well-centered. There will only be 200 of these cards in better grades.

$1,000: You can definitely get the iconic 1958 Topps Brown rookie, centered (only about 15 percent are centered) in VG (3) condition for under $1,000.

Joe Namath:A rockstar athlete who transcended sports. InventedThe Guarantee. With Johnny Unitas, made the quarterback the central figure in the NFL. Enabled the AFL-NFL merger, one of the most important single events in sports history. Popularized the Super Bowl (prior games didn’t even sell out). Made No. 12 the default number for quarterbacks. No. 1 in yards per pass attempt, 1967-74, at 7.9, which would rank sixth all-time. Was worth 4.1 wins over his injury replacements in that period for the Jets, per 14 games.

$100: I love Namath’s last Topps card with the “Joe” hat, issued in 1973. After that, Namath rescinded his image rights. You may have to go up to $125 but you can get this card in NM-MT (8) and it will be top 250 in the world in condition, just insane value.

$300: With his 1968 Topps card you can memorialize one of his two MVPs (not recognized because it’s the NFL MVP Award, not AFL). A NM-MT (8) condition 1968 Namath sells for about this price, centered.

$1,000: You can go about $300 under with a NM (7) 1966 Topps Namath, framed in an old wooden TV set that is prone to chipping. Or you can spend about $300 over with a NM-MT (8) 1971 Topps, which had color borders and thus is very tough to find in high grade. Given the rarity in this grade, I’d save up for the 1971 and grab Namath’s flowing locks in his classic throwing pose.

Johnny Unitas:He was the central figure in the 1958 and 1959 NFL championship games that heralded the television era of sports in general but began to put the NFL on more even footing with baseball as the national pastime. He had a 7.8 career YPA (8.1 from 1957-67) and was a three-time league MVP.

$100: I love the 1961 Fleer with the old-timey Colts logo and the great pose by Unitas with his right shoulder high above his left. You can get a centered one in EX-MT condition (a 6) for this price and there are only 731 in all grades by all graders, according to Card Ladder.

$300: You might have to extend yourself up to $50 for a NM (7) 1959 Topps Unitas with its wild design. Or you can downgrade a half a grade to a full grade and come in well under. This is peak-popularity Unitas and one of his many No. 1 cards (that are more condition sensitive because many people collected in number order back then and that card would be dented by a rubber band).

$1,000: Definitely grab the iconic Unitas 1957 Topps rookie card in centered EX-MT (6) condition and don’t look back. This is my favorite set design for Topps football in the 1950s. Very clean and symmetrical with great colors and card backs featuring cartoons.

Basketball

Wilt Chamberlain:The Paul Bunyan of American sports, more so than even Babe Ruth. The best athlete ever. The strongest athlete ever, maybe the strongest person, period. He won’t get the credit he deserves because he averaged about 10 blocks per game (8.8 per game in the 112 where records were kept, when he was age 34-35), so Chamberlain was pretty much a triple double every game. He averaged 50 points and 27 rebounds for a season. Had a 62 point, 28 rebound game against Bill Russell, who he also tallied 43 rebounds against in one game.This link says it better than I can.

$100: I love the 1973 Topps basketball design with action shots. There are only 1,931 Chamberlains in all grades by all graders. You can get a NM (7) for $100, centered. By comparison, most of the baseball stars I’ve mentioned have five times as many graded samples.

$300: You can get a NM-MT (8) 1972 Icee Bear Chamberlain for well under this. There are only 667 in the total population and if you have an 8, about 100 graded higher. But these are so hard to find. So let’s audible to the 1971 Topps in NM (7) with decent centering (very rare for this set) and good color registration (a BIG problem, especially with this card).

$1,000: Wilt’s second card is the 1969 Topps oversized ones where centering is very tough (about 15 percent at most have it). But it’s possible to get one in NM (7) condition at this price. A nice 7 would be topped by only about 200 of the 4,501 in all grades by all graders (note there have been a number of vending-machine finds with this set but probably will not be any more).

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:He will always be the all-time points-scoring leader prior to the three-point explosion. His skyhook is the most unstoppable shot in NBA history (unless you were Wilt Chamberlain, who once blocked it twice on one possession).

$100: My choice here is the 1973 Topps in NM-7 condition with some money to spare. I especially love that Wilt is also in the action photo on this card, depicting what may have been the greatest heavyweight rivalry in sports history.

$300: The 1970 Topps Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) can be had in SGC NM-7 condition for this price, though it’s about $50 more in recent sales in PSA (again, there is no difference in these slabs, generally — it’s not like SGC is an easier grader; they are just more consistent because they have less cards and thus less graders and also specialize more in vintage sports).

$1000: As much as I would want you to get the amazing 1969 Topps Ruler with its glorious 1970s-style cartoon visage of Kareem, depicting his height, they are too rare. So go with a centered VG-EX 4 rookie card in the 1969 Topps set, also a true rookie (meaning issued before he played in the NBA). You can find a rare centered one for just under this price. That was a $2,300 card at the pandemic peak, but is still up about 200 percent since pre-pandemic.

Feel free to opine in the comments. Note Bill Russell is not included because he has two cards, one of which is insanely expensive. Pete Rose was not included because he’s the odd vintage player still tied to news (will he be allowed into the Hall of Fame or won’t he), and thus too volatile.

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