Welcome to our Top 10 Topps Baseball Cards in Each Year Series! While we’re talking about the 10 best baseball cards from 1960 Topps baseball set, this is just the year we chose to kick off this entire series! We’ll be going through all of the Topps years in baseball – and possibly the other sports, later on!
We’re looking at the 10 most valuable cards from 1960 Topps to help you understand which cards are the best to acquire from that particular set. It’s also helpful for collectors in deciding which cards they might just decide to stay away from and concentrate elsewhere.
In this article series, we’re only talking about base cards – no parallels, no autographs, no inserts, no error cards – unless otherwise stated.
Also, we’re only talking about graded cards, unless otherwise stated, because that’s easier to get a general idea of both the value and condition.
The values come from PSA’s Price Guide, and we’ll always refer to the Collector’s Grade of that card. “Collector’s Grade” signifies a card whose grade is one higher than the decade number. In other words, for a card manufactured in the ‘60s, a Collector’s Grade would be a PSA 7. For a card from the ‘80s, then it would be a PSA 9.
We’ll also be posting a video for each of the articles in this series!
VIDEO
10 Best Baseball Cards From 1960 Topps Baseball
The card images are provided by our good friends at BuySportsCards.com, where you can create an account for free to buy or sell single cards and more. They have over 5,000,000 cards listed on that site!
1. Hank Aaron, Milwaukee Braves #300 – $3,200 – HOF
Hammerin’ Hank broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record in 1974, and he held that record with 755 HR for the next 33 years! Barry Bonds broke that record (wink-wink!) in 2007.
View 1960 Topps Hank Aaron cards on eBay!
2. Mickey Mantle, N.Y. Yankees #350 – $2,275 – HOF
Of course, The Mick is the most collectible player in sports card collecting, including Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. There might be a time, when that generation of baseball card collectors passes on, that Jordan or Brady overtake Mantle, but until then, his cards remain atop your… mantle. This is Mantle’s ninth year in a Topps series, and this is the best non-rookie card on this list.
View 1960 Topps Mickey Mantle cards on eBay!
3. Carl Yastrzemski, Boston Red Sox RC #148 – $1,000 – HOF
The Yaz rookie is the top rookie card in this 1960 Topps Baseball set and it’s one of the keystone cards of the ‘60s. Something important to note is that this 1960 card was his true rookie card, and that his 1961 card also has “Star Rookie” on it, which confuses a lot of people. Buyer beware! That 1961 card often pops up on eBay listed as Yaz’s “Rookie Card,” when indeed it is not!
View 1960 Topps Carl Yastrzemski cards on eBay!
4. Mickey Mantle All-Star, N.Y. Yankees #563 – $975 – HOF
That’s how collectible The Mick is – he has two of the top-five cards on this list! These Sport Magazine All-Star cards are so sweet, with the numbers “60” in the background depicting the year. While this card isn’t as collectible as Mantle’s traditional base card, it’s still certainly an awesome to own. Many say (including myself) these All-Star cards are more colorful and better designed than the base cards!
View 1960 Topps Mickey Mantle All-Star cards on eBay!
5. Willie Mays, San Francisco Giants #200 – $900 – HOF
Mays and Mantle, Mantle and Mays – can you imagine living in NYC in the ‘50s, before Mays’ Giants, Duke Snider’s and Jackie Robinson’s Dodgers moved to Southern California? What’s interesting is there were only eight teams in the American League and eight in the National League in the ‘50s. That means each team played just seven other teams over and over and over (no interleague play back then, of course). Think of the rivalries that built up because of that! Mays and his Giants were in San Francisco by the time this 1960 card came around, though.
View 1960 Topps Willie Mays cards on eBay!
6. Willie McCovey, San Francisco Giants #316 RC – $775 – HOF
Speaking of giant Giants, this McCovey card was one of the first cards with the Topps All-Star Rookie Trophy! Mays would pass the torch to McCovey, who would be the face of the Giants in the ‘70s. In 2000, when their new stadium was built (now called Oracle Park), the Bay area outside of the right field bleachers would become known as “McCovey Cove.”
View 1960 Topps Willie McCovey cards on eBay!
7. Bob Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirates #326 – $575 – HOF
Here’s an amazing nugget for you about the player considered the greatest Latino baseball player ever: Clemente signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers out of Puerto Rico in 1954! I had no idea! Then he played in the minors for Brooklyn’s minor league affiliate, the Montreal Royals.
The Pirates liked what they saw and they chose Clemente in the 1954 Rule 5 Draft – I had no idea that existed back then! The Dodgers had Carl Furillo manning right field in the mid-‘50s, so no wonder they let Clemente go! (I imagine Carl’s family is still currently not allowed into Dodger Stadium.
Clemente’s breakout year was in 1960! He batted .314 and made his first All-Star team! That makes his 1960 Topps Baseball card even cooler in my book!
View 1960 Topps Roberto Clemente cards on eBay!
8. Sandy Koufax, L.A. Dodgers #343 – $400 – HOF
Koufax was coming off his fifth season in the majors in 1959, and he turned just 24 years old in his 1960 Topps Baseball card. From 1961 to 1966, he would throw 250 or more innings four times! He is considered the best pitcher of his generation, preparing to hand that torch over to Nolan Ryan for the 1970s.
View 1960 Topps Sandy Koufax cards on eBay!
9. Bob Gibson, St. Louis Cardinals #73 – $390 – HOF
This is the second-year card for Gibson, one of the meanest sons of guns you’d ever see on the mound. It would be another eight seasons before he’d win the first of two Cy Youngs in his career.
View 1960 Topps Bob Gibson cards on eBay!
10. Jim Kaat RC, Washington Senators #136 – $375 – HOF
This might end up being the only Washington Senators card you see among these 10 Best Topps cards lists! My man pitched for 25 seasons over four decades! He was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021! Exclamation point!
View 1960 Topps Jim Kaat cards on eBay!
Other notable 1960 Topps baseball cards:
- Hank Aaron All-Star, Milwaukee #566 – $350 – HOF – View on eBay!
- Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs #10 – $340 – HOF – View on eBay!
- Willie Mays All-Star, San Francisco #564 – $320 – HOF – View on eBay!
- Stan Musial, St. Louis #250, $220 – HOF – View on eBay!
Keep your eyes open for more articles and videos in this Top 10 Topps Baseball Cards in Each Year Series! But we’re going to go out of order and bounce around the past 70 years!
Don’t forget to check out our other great “Top 10 Rankings” Videos from these other Topps Baseball sets:
I hope you enjoyed this article on the 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1960 Topps Baseball, and better yet, I hope you own a few of them!
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