Trying to collect the best baseball cards from 1972 Topps Baseball is a much more fun endeavor than collecting cards with boring designs with boring stars.
No set looks more like the decade it was created in than 1972 Topps Baseball, and we celebrate the set referred to as “Psychedelic Tombstones” for that fact! While there aren’t a ton of great rookie cards from this set, there are plenty of great superstars who are represented in the colorful marquee fashion of these cards.
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TCan you believe kids had to pay just 10 cents for a 10-card wax pack, as they hunted the best baseball cards from 1972 Topps Baseball! It’s a good thing the packs were cheap because kids would have to buy more of them if they hoped to fill the 787-card set – the largest in Topps history to that point.
This was the year Don Corleone was Godfathering, Elton John was Crocodile Rocking, all while Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford were yelling at their families – the year was 1972! What were the 10 best baseball cards from 1972 Topps Baseball!?!
Major League Baseball dealt with its first player’s strike in 1972, which truncated the season a bit. It was the last year before the designated hitter, but it was the first year for the Texas Rangers franchise, after the Washington Senators moved here. (Ted Williams was the manager for his final season in Arlington!)
While Roberto Clemente’s Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1971 World Series, 1972 was the first of the three Oakland Athletics’ championships! (Side note: When the A’s came back from the strike, Reggie Jackson had a mustache, which he refused to shave off. According to the legend, A’s owner Charlie Finley turned an about-face, and he offered a $300 bonus for any players sporting mustaches! Note the clean lips of the 1972 cards (from the 1971 season), compared to the hairy-faced A’s cards in 1973!
We’re also going to drop some Carlton Fisk trivia on you at the end!
For our card value rankings, we’re only talking about PSA 8 slabs of these cards, and we used the values from PSA’s online price guide. The card images are provided by BuySportsCards.com. We’re not going to share weird, random cards that are expensive because of a variation. We won’t talk about him.
1. Nolan Ryan, CAL #595 (HOF) – $550 – View on eBay!
Ryan was just 25 years old in 1972 and this is the first season after he was traded to the Angels from the Mets. Even though it’s not an action shot of him delivering a fireball to the plate, this is one of his prettiest cards overall, as we see a young Ryan in portrait form. He threw NINE shutouts that season, while striking out 329 hitters. Amazing. The Angels couldn’t support him offensively, though, as they finished last in scoring. That was a theme that would follow him throughout his career.
2. Hank Aaron, ATL #299 (HOF) – $450 – View on eBay!
Hammerin’ Hank was coming off a great season and he’d go on to earn his 18th All-Star selection in 1972. It’s truly a gorgeous card, and in some of his cards around this time, he started to look like an older player. But not this 1972 card – he was thin, looking young, and ready to pass Willie Mays on the home run list, which he did in 1972.
3. Roberto Clemente, PIT #309 (HOF) – $400 – View on eBay!
Clemente’s 1972 season was his last, sadly, before he died in a tragic accident. But he was somehow able to notch his 3,000th hit in his final at-bat of the 1972 season, before dying just three months later. Despite this being one of Clemente’s last cards from his career, it is absolutely one of the most beautiful cards. I recently sold a PSA 5 of this card because I plan to buy one from earlier in his career. But it’s doubtful it will be as pretty!
4. Willie Mays In Action, SF #50 (HOF) – $400 – View on eBay!
In one of the rare occasions where the “In Action” card out-values a player’s regular issue card, Mays is shown sliding into a base, possibly with a smile on his face! He should be! He has two cards among the 10 best baseball cards from 1972 Topps Baseball!
5. Johnny Bench, CIN #433 (HOF) – $350 – View on eBay!
Bench had a rough 1971 after going to the World Series in 1970. But Bench and the Reds rebounded in 1972, and this season could be pointed to as the beginning of the Big Red Machine era. The “Redemption” Reds traded for Joe Morgan and they returned to the World Series, only to lose in seven games to Reggie Jackson’s Oakland A’s. Bench won the NL MVP that year.
6. Willie Mays, SF #19 – $300 – View on eBay!
As I mentioned before, Mays’ “In Action” PSA 8 card is worth more than this regular base card of his, but this card here is worth more as a PSA 9 than the “In Action” version. An interesting article on OldSportsCards.com noted that Mays was in a contract dispute with the Giants to start this 1972 season, which led to him being traded back to the East Coast, to the New York Mets.
7. Hank Aaron In Action, ATL #300 (HOF) – $300 – View on eBay!
Hank Aaron is in his home run trot on this card, which is awesome, considering he smashed 47 bombs in 1971, which is when this photo was likely taken. No doubt, this was going to rank among the best baseball cards from 1972 Topps Baseball.
8. Carlton Fisk / Cecil Cooper (RC) #79 (RC) $280 – View on eBay!
With all those superstar veterans in the top 10 above Fisk, it’s crazy to think the most valuable rookie card of the year is Fisk’s! It’s among the best baseball cards from 1972 Topps Baseball, even though it ranks eighth in value. But catchers just aren’t as collectable, even though, Fisk became the first player ever to be a unanimous selection as the American League Rookie of the Year. What’s interesting is that a PSA 9 of this card is worth $2,000 – which is the second-highest value behind a PSA 9 Nolan Ryan!
9. Pete Rose, CIN #559 – $275 – View on eBay!
Most of Rose’s early cards of him in a batting stance, much like this 1972 version, but dang it, if this ain’t one of the most colorful cards of his career. He’d bat over .300 in 1972, with a majors-leading 645 at-bats, which is just impressive no matter how you look at it.
10. Tom Seaver, NYM #445 (HOF) – $275 – View on eBay!
So, if you’re trying to follow the Mets’ moves at this time, they traded away Nolan Ryan to the Angels, and brought in Willie Mays, but it’s important to remember they also held onto Tom Seaver. He led the club with a 21-12 record and a sub-3.00 ERA, but the Mets missed the playoffs.
Other Great Cards to Consider:
Card collectors should also try to track down the three high-number “Traded” cards of Baseball Hall-of-Famers Steve Carlton, Joe Morgan and Frank Robinson)! Seeing Carlton on his first Phillies card, and Joe Morgan on his first Reds card is a treat! But what about seeing Frank Robinson in a Dodgers uniform for the one and only time!
OK, I promised you a great piece of trivia about Carlton Fisk! Did you know that not only did Fisk once own the records for most career home runs for a catcher, and most games played at catcher, but he also once had 42 points and 38 rebounds at the Boston Garden – in the semifinal game of the New Hampshire State Basketball Tournament. THIRTY-EIGHT REBOUNDS! For a teenager nicknamed “Pudge” because he was a chubby kid!
Not good enough trivia? How about this one – Pudge changed how baseball was televised! His famous walk-off home run in extra innings at Fenway Park against the Reds is iconic, as he’s trying to wave the ball into fair territory. But the only reason we saw him emphatically waving like that was because the cameraman was unable to track the ball because he got distracted by a Fenway rat! Going forward, baseball broadcasts would start focusing on the players, as well as tracking the ball. That’s pretty cool.
This is a series we’ve created where we look at the most valuable baseball cards from different years in Topps Baseball history! Here are the years we’ve already covered:
And don’t forget to check out our article on the Best Rookie Baseball Cards From Every Topps Set Since 1952!
Let us know what you think about the 10 best baseball cards from 1972 Topps Baseball!
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