We all have favorites, whether that be pets or sport teams or, yes, even baseball card sets. What follows is a ranking of my favorite baseball sets, from 1962-1981. Should be obvious why this list starts where it does. The ending gives it a nice 20 years and corresponds almost perfectly with the end of my first phase in collecting. Yeah, I bought a bunch of packs in 1982 but it’s not like that set’s going to rank very high. This ranking will be listed in tiers and we’ll start from the bottom and work our way up.
Tier 7
1962 – This set is just ugly. It’s so ugly that I didn’t even collect it. My collection has complete sets from 1963 to 1998, and 1961. Currently, I’m putting together the 1960, 1957 and the first series of 1952. Maybe if I win one of those one-billion-dollar lotteries, the 1962 set will get started. But not until then.
Tier 6
1973 – After the over-the-top glory of the 1972 set, Topps put up the blandest set of its existence to that point the following year. It’s like they put zero effort into it. And the people who ran the machines that cut the cards put in even less effort, meaning there are tons of off-centered cards out there for this one.
1968 – An homage to the 1962 set with its wood-grained borders and they threw in the added bonus of two different types of wood. Only the rookie cards of Nolan Ryan and Johnny Bench save this set for me.
1969 – I like the set well enough but circumstances drive it down. This was during the dispute between Topps and the MLBPA, where players refused to be photographed, leaving Topps little choice but to recycle old photos. And with the expansion teams beginning play, along with trademark disputes with a couple of other teams, there are a plethora of players sans hat or with the logo airbrushed out. The last series is better – must have come to terms with the Players or they held back the good photos for last. It’s the saving grace.
Tier 5
1979 – Some really good photos but it gets dinged for me for copying the 1976 design.
1980 – It’s the Rickey Henderson rookie card and not much else.
1981 – I like the hats.
1978 – If you want to put this set lower, you won’t get much argument from me. But I dig the script lettering in the team names.
Tier 4
1975 – A lot of people love the colors but to me they fell on the wrong side of garish. I thought Topps executed the colors better in the 1990 set.
1974 – This was the first year where I bought a complete set and I just don’t feel close to this one at all. It ranks higher than 1975 due to the Washington Nationals cards that were included.
Tier 3
1963 – Sometimes I love this set and other times not so much. Ultimately, I prefer this design to the mid-70s from the previous tier.
1967 – I like this set a lot, even if I still have nightmares about putting together the high numbers.
1964 – The design for this year is very similar to 1967, with the original getting the higher rank.
Tier 2
1966 – I probably prefer the 67s to this one. But my brother and I were able to purchase the high numbers in one swoop, so there’s no negative connotation for me with the ’66 set.
1977 – The absolute peak of my first phase in collecting. Very similar to the 1964/1967 sets but somehow it feels better. Great memories of flipping and matching these cards at lunch time at IS 34.
1976 – They took the one good thing from the 1973 set – the position graphics – and made them better. I love the All-Time All-Stars subset. And it just has a very clean design.
Tier 1
1965 – While not a huge fan of pennants in real life, somehow it works perfectly for me on a baseball card.
1970 – The first set Gary and I ever completed makes this a special one for me. Lots of people are turned off by the grey borders but for me, that’s more than made up for by the blue and yellow card backs, which are sublime.
1972 – Psychedelia comes to baseball cards! The only reason this set doesn’t grab the top spot is due to no Rusty Staub card. Can’t tell you how much I wanted to see the Mets’ newest acquisition. Topps even had a “Traded” subset with a Met in it. It wasn’t Staub and it wasn’t Willie Mays. Instead, it was Jim Fregosi. That aside, the cards and subsets were tremendous.
1971 – Yeah, the black borders make the cards tough for people who insist on high grades. But they look fantastic, even with touches on all four corners. And the backs were pretty impressive, too. They had SB, which no other set to that point had. And they had a good size, B&W picture. Topps was able to do that because every player had just two lines – 1970 and career – for stats. A unique trade-off that I probably wouldn’t like for every year but makes the ’71 cards stand out.
Great recap, thanks. I may not have any left, but the 71 Topps is my favorite format for any sports cards.
I’m glad to see 1976 is high on your list. It’s my favorite!