1970 Topps Baseball

By Patrick Mondout

An attractive and hard-to-complete (at least in high-grade) set, 1970 Topps featured a record 720 cards. Not surprising considering the leagues added two new team each. As with other card sets of the era, it was released in series with the cards that came out later in the year being more scarce (particularly 634-720, but also 547-633). Frank Robinson, Johnny Bench, Al Kaline, and Nolan Ryan appear in the high numbers making their cards even more valuable.

The printed gray border on the front makes it somewhat more difficult to find cards that will grade highly as it is more likely to show wear than a white border, though it is by no means as difficult as '71 Topps.

Topps brought back team cards for the first time in years (see the Seattle Pilots below). Other subsets included statistical leaders by league, World Series and LCS highlight cards, Sporting News All-Stars (the last time until 1982 that separate cards were produced for All-Stars), and rookie cards featuring two players from the same team. The major rookie in this set was Thurman Munson and it also features Reggie Jackson's second card. Other rookies include Vida Blue, Gene Tenace, Bill Buckner and Jerry Reuss.

There are variations in all six checklists - two involving typos (Adolpho vs. Adolfo and R Perranoski vs R. Perranoski) and the others involving different colored bats held by the cartoon batter on the front.

You could mail order the entire set through the back pages of The Sporting News in early 1970 from a long-time dealer such as Larry Fritsch for as little as $13 postpaid! However, an even better deal can be found in the November 14, 1970 issue. The entire 1954 Topps baseball set for only $29.

A checklist for all 720 cards is available here. Other Topps cards, such as inserts in wax packs, are discussed here.

1970 Topps at a Glance Back Checklist Wax Pack Team Card All Star League Leaders World Series Managers Rookies

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