1956 Topps Pins Are Scarce And Valuable

Topps ventured away from baseball cards for the first time in 1956, putting out a set of 60 player pins that have escaped many collectors of vintage Topps items. Eleven Hall of Famers are part of the set, including Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks. Other stars include Ted Kluszewski, Gil Hodges, Dick Groat and Harvey Haddix.

It’s really a good group of players, but the set itself is rather scarce. The No. 1 set on the PSA registry, which averaged 8.43, sold in January for $12,593 (including a 20 percent buyer’s premium) in an auction conducted by Mile High Card Company. This particular set had 22 cards graded at PSA 8, 31 at PSA 7, and seven at PSA 6.

1956 Topps Pin Production

Topps uses shots from its 1956 baseball card set on the pins, which measure 1 1/8 inches in diameter. The player shots are set against a solid color background. The pins were sold separately from the cards, packaged in a small box featuring a photo of the Ted Williams pin or “button” as they were called.

The box cost a nickel and included a stick of gum.

The pins were examples of litho production, as the images were printed right onto the metal front. That differs from the method of pasting paper images on the pin. This litho look means the pins are extremely condition-sensitive and susceptible to scratches.

Hall of Famers and Rarities

As expected, Hall of Famers command a nice price in this set. What’s interesting is that three pins of journeyman players are among the most valuable. In the 2015 Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards, for example, three of the scarcest pins depict outfielder Hector Lopez, pitcher Chuck Stobbs and outfielder Chuck Diering. The book notes that a near-mint pin of Lopez would fetch $335, while Diering would be worth $275 and Stobbs $225. Both Lopez and Stobbs are classified by the catalog as short prints but an uncut proof sheet offered in a Topps Vault auction several years ago indicated the three players were actually on the bottom of the sheet.

Stobbs had a 15-year career and was one of baseball’s original “bonus babies,” signing with the Boston Red Sox as a 17-year-old in 1947 for a reported $50,000. He had the misfortune of pitching for the Washington Senators for most of his career. He is remembered as the pitcher who gave up arguably the longest home run of Mickey Mantle’s career, a 565-foot shot at Griffith Stadium in Washington on April 17, 1953. A few weeks later at Detroit, the left-hander threw what many baseball historians consider the wildest pitch in major-league history. During the first game of a doubleheader on May 20, one of his pitches landed in the 17^th row behind home plate.

Pitching for the Senators, who twice finished 43 games out of first place twice during the 1950s, would be unnerving.

The highest-graded PSA pin of Stobbs is a 7, of which there are 12. Overall, 37 have been graded.

Lopez played 12 years in the majors, breaking in with the Kansas City Athletics in 1955 and then playing for the New York Yankees from 1959 to 1966. In his 1970 book, “Ball Four,” Jim Bouton recalled that for his first major-league victory (May 6, 1962 at Yankee Stadium), “Hector ‘What a Pair of Hands’ bailed me out with about four leaping catches in left field” against the Senators. Lopez, now 86, had a career .269 average and played in five World Series.

Only three of the 42 Lopez pins submitted are graded as high as PSA 8.

Diering played nine years in the majors and was traded in December 1951 to the New York Giants in a deal that brought Eddie Stanky to St. Louis, where he became the Cardinals’ player-manager. Diering was a .249 hitter whose best season was with St. Louis in 1949, when he batted .263 with a career-high 38 RBIs.

There have been 32 pins submitted to PSA; only five grade as high as 8.

Grading and 1956 Topps Pins

The scarcity of high-grade pins is reflected in the PSA registry. A total of 2,861 specimens have been graded, and only 14 earned a 9 grade. The only Hall of Famers in that group are Aaron and Warren Spahn; others with one 9 included Don Mossi, Gus Zernial, Bill Tremel and Dale Long. Roy Sievers is the lone player with more than one PSA 9 grade. He has two.

There are currently 149 listings for 1956 Topps pins on eBay. It’s a difficult set to complete, and certainly extremely tough in high-grade. But some of the lesser-known players are obtainable for a reasonable price.

Here’s a checklist:

*SP denotes more rare single print pins

1    Chuck Diering SP

2    Willie Miranda

3    Hal Smith

4    Gus Triandos

5    Ernie Banks

6    Hank Sauer

7    Bill Tremel

8    Jim Hegan

9    Don Mossi

10   Al Rosen

11   Al Smith

12   Jim Finigan

13   Hector Lopez SP

14   Vic Power

15   Gus Zernial

16   Hank Aaron

17   Gene Conley

18   Eddie Mathews

19   Warren Spahn

20   Ron Negray

21   Mayo Smith MG

22   Herman Wehmeier

23   Grady Hatton

24   Jackie Jensen

25   Frank Sullivan

26   Ted Williams

27   Yogi Berra

28   Joe Collins

29   Phil Rizzuto

30   Bill Skowron

31   Bob Turley

32   Dick Donovan

33   Jack Harshman

34   Bob Kennedy

35   Jim Rivera

36   Ray Boone

37   Frank House

38   Al Kaline

39   Ruben Gomez

40   Bobby Hofman

41   Willie Mays

42   Dick Groat

43   Dale Long

44   Johnny O’Brien

45   Luis Arroyo

46   Ken Boyer

47   Harvey Haddix

48   Wally Moon

49   Sandy Amoros

50   Gil Hodges

51   Jackie Robinson

52   Duke Snider

53   Karl Spooner

54   Joe Black

55   Art Fowler

56   Ted Kluszewski

57   Roy McMillan

58   Carlos Paula

59   Roy Sievers

60   Chuck Stobbs SP

About Bob D'Angelo

Bob has been a sportswriter and copy editor for more than 45 years and a blogger for two decades. He is celebrating his 60th year of card collecting, and still counts his 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle as his favorite. You can reach him at [email protected].