If you’re looking for scads of big-name rookies, 1964 Topps baseball cards may not be your favorite landing spot.
But if you’re content with tons of Hall of Fame cardboard with a clean, crisp design at prices that won’t completely break the bank … well, then the 1964 offering may be just what the card doctor ordered.
Featuring big blocky team names at the top of the card and not much else other than solid photography, the 1964s are a team collector’s/sorter’s dream, and you can usually find them at affordable prices.
Still, the 13 cards listed here — the most valuable from this classic set — can sell for pretty big numbers. Prices cited here are culled from PSA 7 listings in the PSA Sports Market Price Guide.
Let’s dig in!
1964 Topps Mickey Mantle (#50)
Another 1960s Topps set …
Another Mickey Mantle card …
Another 1960s Topps Mickey Mantle card that is the most valuable in its set.
This classic shot of the Mick is helped by a lack of big-name rookie cards in the 1964 Topps set, though it did have to out-punch a pretty strong second-year offering of the dude below.
Mantle was up to the task, though, and this one checks in at $400+ in PSA 7 condition.
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1964 Topps Pete Rose (#125)
If this photo of a young Charlie Hustle looks familiar, that’s because it’s a blowup of the tiny head shot from the 1963 Topps Pete Rose rookie card.
I have a personal love for this card because it’s the first expensive single I ever bought (OK, my dad bought it for me when I was 12).
Even wrote about it here.
But I’m not alone, as the second-year Pete Rose card is among the most popular non-rookies of the 1960s, and it brings in around $350 in PSA 7 today.
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1964 Topps Roberto Clemente (#440)
Does any card make you think “1960s baseball” more than this one?
Maybe, but the 1964 Topps Clemente immediately throws you into a 60s, Hall of Fame, long-sleeve Pirates kind of mood. At least, it does that for me.
I mean, what’s Clemente up to in this pic? I’d say getting ready for either a) a chilly Spring Training game or b) a chilly World Series game.
Either would have been possible for the Hall of Famer at various points during the decade.
No matter which way your fantasies swing on this issue, swinging “Bob” usually sells for around $175 in graded NM condition.
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1964 Topps A.L. Bombers (#331)
Who would be the big boppers in the American League in 1964? That’s the question Topps seemed to be tackling with this power-packed card, and they placed their bets on …
Roger Maris, Norm Cash, Mickey Mantle, and Al Kaline (non-Yankees and non-Tigers needed not apply, apparently).
Well, one out of four is … like, average-ish.
The actual leader board consisted of Harmon Killebrew, Boog Powell, Mantle, and Rocky Colavito.
Oh well! Still a great card, and one that commands about $125 in PSA 7.
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1964 Topps Willie Mays (#150)
Willie Mays turned 33 in the spring of 1964, an age when you might expect guys to start slowing down.
Only Willie ticked things up a notch, smacking 47 home runs in ’64 and 52 in 1965. Won the National League MVP award that second year, too.
Not that anyone really expected any less of The Say Hey Kid, who was a legend on both coasts and a Hall of Fame lock by that point.
This 1965 Mays Topps card, where the superstar seems to be watching something scurry along the ground, sells for $100+ in PSA 7.
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1964 Topps Tops In NL (#423)
One Mays card is never really enough, especially in a set that had no dedicated All-Star subset.
So, what was Topps to do?
Easy — pair Mays with another legend and call it soup!
And what better minestrone partner could there be for a slugger like Mays than another all-time great bopper in Hank Aaron.
None that I can think of.
Today, the duo sells for $100+ in PSA 7 condition.
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1964 Topps Sandy Koufax (#200)
Koufax reeled off his first monster season in 1963, but he’d pay for a workload that included 40 starts and 311 innings pitched, not to mention 306 strikeouts.
The price?
He’d make only 28 starts in 1964 before rebounding to 41 in both 1965 and 1966.
Of course, that limited use in ’64 was a harbinger of the blown elbow that would end his career at age 30, but that doesn’t much matter to the confident looking Koufax on his Topps card from that summer.
To collectors either, whose demand keeps this a $100+ item in PSA 7.
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1964 Topps Hank Aaron (#300)
By 1964, Aaron had settled into a nice, steady groove as an unassuming superstar who would bang out 30-40 home runs and hit .300+ each season, but who wasn’t a threat to do anything exciting … like break a big record.
No, nothing like that.
Well, at least not for another ten years, when suddenly Babe Ruth had reason to sweat.
Like Aaron himself, this 1964 card is an understated classic — one that sells for about $100 in graded NM condition.
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1964 Topps Phil Niekro Rookie Card (#541)
Believe it or not, Phil Niekro does not look like your grandfather on this 1964 Topps rookie card.
And neither does Phil Roof, probably.
What Niekro does bring to the table here, though, is the only Hall of Fame rookie card in the whole darn set. At least for now, because Tommy John might have something to say about that, eventually.
But on the off chance you’ve had your, um, Phil of my humor around this card, just let me say that the ol’ knuckler checks in around $100 in PSA 7.
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1964 Topps Roger Maris (#225)
Topps thought Maris was going to be one of the big sluggers in 1964, and it was hard to blame them.
After all, Rajah was just 29 and had set the single-season record with 61* in 1961.
He was also a two-time AL MVP winner (1960 and 1961).
So, yeah.
But, nope.
Maris never again touched even 30 home runs in a season after 1962, but collectors still love the dude who took down Ruth first.
For that, his 1964 Topps card remains a $75 buy in PSA 7.
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1964 Topps Yogi Berra (#21)
This is a weird card, right?
I mean, Berra finished his Yankees career — as a player — in 1963, and yet this card lists him as a manger.
Which he was, in 1964.
But after one year in the NYY dugout, Yogi headed to Flushing Meadows as a coach — and, for four games, as a player — for the Mets in 1965.
He even got a hybrid coach-catcher card in the 1965 Topps set.
This 1964 Berra manager card, though? It sells for about $50 in PSA 7.
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1964 Topps Ernie Banks (#55)
Which player who never made it to the World Series would you have most liked to see taste October glory?
There are lots of answers to this question, but I’d wager a plurality of fans would choose Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, for that honor.
That continued love for the great Cubbies shortstop and first baseman keeps all his cards in the limelight decades after their issue, and this one is no exception.
It’s a $50 buy in PSA 7 condition.
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1964 Topps Bob Gibson (#460)
Who was the greatest pitcher of the 1960s?
Again, as with the Banks question above, there are lots of contenders.
But you’d be hard-pressed to find a more tenacious competitor, more dominant winner, or a better big-game bulldog than Bob Gibson.
For all those reasons and more, this mid-career card sells for about $50 in graded NM condition.
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