The Super Rare (1951)
Most collectors know that Topps started their journey into the baseball card wilderness with a pair (Red Backs and Blue Backs) of 52-card “decks” that resembled playing cards and pictured baseball players in tiny black-and-white photos on the fronts. But what you might not know is that Topps issued two other sets that inaugural year, too. One was called “Connie Mack All-Stars” and featured 11 Hall of Famers. The other set was called “Major League All-Stars” and featured — you guessed it — 11 All-Stars from the era. Both sets featured long, tall cards measuring 2-1/16″ X 5-1/4″ and showcasing a black-and-white action photo on a red background and perched above a yellow biographical box. The rub is that the player photo was die-cut so collectors could stand them up like little baseball action figures. Most kids did just that, too, making high-grade specimens extremely hard to come by. To make matters worse, the cards were apparently distributed only in “fun packs” that season, with each clear plastic bag containing a full set of Red Backs, a game card, and five All-Star cards. The result is one of the rarer and condition-sensitive runs of all post-war issues, with graded commons bringing $100 or more and decent-grade stars fetching several thousand dollars whenever they come to market. To make things just a bit more challenging, cards of Robin Roberts, Eddie Stanky, and Jim Konstanty were short-printed and reportedly not even released with the rest of the set. To give you an idea of just how scarce these cards are, PSA has graded 133 Major League All-Stars cards in total as of this writing, with only one each of the three short prints. Contrast that with the nearly 13,000 Red Backs and more than 6000 Blue Backs the company has graded, and you might start to think these babies are out of reach. Heck, even the Connie Mack All-Stars are better represented, with 606 submissions.The Missing Years, Part 1 (1952-1957)
After Topps’ initial foray into the baseball card market in 1951, the company decided to stop nibbling around the edges with cutesy issues and took dead aim at Bowman. The 1952 Topps set was the largest, in terms of individual card size and overall number of cards, that anyone had seen since the tobacco issues of the early 20th century. Collectors immediately took notice, and the race for hobby supremacy was on. From 1953 to 1956, Topps issued what would be considered oversized cards by modern standards, but with each set being an icon in its own right. Each season
The Magazine Years, Part 1 (1958-1962)
In 1957, Cincinnati Reds fans stuffed the All-Star ballot boxes with Reds’ names at the goading of a local newspaper. The result was a starting lineup for the NL in the All-Star Game that included five Cincinnati players.
His feathers ruffled, Commissioner Ford Frick announced that All-Star lineups would no longer be determined by the players and managers themselves beginning in 1958.
Coinciding with this change exactly, Topps issued their first devoted subset of All-Star cards in 1958, featuring a different design from their base cards. The All-Stars showcased National League All-Stars against a blue background with white stars, while their American League counterparts were positioned in front of a red star-spangled canvas.
The cards also refere

The Lean Years (1963-1967)
Beginning in 1963,

The Magazine Years, Part 2 (1968-1970)
After a five-year absence, Topps brought back their The Sporting News All-Stars cards in 1968 and continued the series through the end of the fan-vote ban in 1970. The 1968 cards were situated in a horizontal fashion instead of the vertical orientation of the base set, and each card featured a large “68” next to the pl

The Missing Years, Part 2 (1971-1973)
Just as fans got the vote back in 1971, Topps again abandoned their All-Star offerings. It was curious timing made all the more so by the fact that 1971 and 1972 sets were Topps biggest offerings to that point.Two for One (1974)
Topps moved into a new era in 1974, issuing all their cards in a single series for the first time ever.
The Basic Years (1975-1981)
Topps kept All-Star cards in their rotation for 1975, but with a twist — rather than dedicated All-Star cards, the base card of each honoree was marked with a special designation.
It was a scheme that Topps would leave in place through 1981 and one which also proved popular with collectors, at least according to a recent Twitter poll.
Each year’s implementation was slightly different, though, so it’s worth a quick rundown of the variations:
1975 — The usual baseball denoting a player’s position was replaced by a star which noted position and the All-Star designation (“AL ALL STAR” or “NL ALL STAR”).
- 1976 — The usual positional player cartoon denoting a player’s position was replaced by a star which noted position and the All-Star designation.
- 1977 — A banner was added to the bottom of the photo on each All-Star’s base card (blue for NL players, red for AL).
- 1978 — A red, white, and blue shield was added to the photo on each All-Star’s base card.
- 1979 — A banner was added to the bottom of the photo on each All-Star’s base card (blue/purple for NL players, red/brown for AL).
- 1980 — A banner was added to the top of the photo on each All-Star’s base card (black for NL players, purple for AL).
- 1981 — A banner was added to the top of the photo on each All-Star’s base card (green for NL players, red for AL).


The Standalone Years (1982-1989)
Beginning in 1982 and continuing throughout the rest of the decade, Topps brought back dedicated, single-player All-Star cards with each of its base issues.













Awesome All-Star Autos (1937 All-Star Ball)
The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played in 1933 and gave America a brief respite from the worries of the Great Depression. With future Hall of Famers like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bill Terry, Chuck Klein, Lefty Gomez, and others descending on Chicago’s Comiskey Park, that inaugural Midsummer Classic was a spectacle like none others baseball fans had ever witnessed. Four years later, Ruth was long retired and Gehrig had less than two seasons left before ALS would rob him of his career and his life. But the All-Star Game itself had become an institution and once again provided welcome diversion from the pressures of the real world, which by then included the tensions that would eventually spawn World War II. This ball is loaded with American League signatures — including Gehrig — and is the type of artifact you could spend hours studying through photos, even if you can’t afford the real thing. Check It Out
1983 Topps All-Star baseball cards... 18
![]() | $10.00 End Date: Sunday 02/16/2025 11:02:55 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
Don Mattingly 1989 Topps Tiffany (Glossy) Base & All-Star Baseball Cards
![]() | $12.50 End Date: Sunday 02/16/2025 22:45:33 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
18) 1981 Topps STEVE GARVEY N.L. ALL-STAR BASEBALL CARDS
![]() | $1.00 End Date: Friday 02/14/2025 17:17:21 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
Ozzie Smith (2) 1989 Topps Tiffany (Glossy) Base&All-Star Baseball Cards
![]() | $10.00 End Date: Sunday 02/16/2025 22:01:33 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
8 1991 Score 1990 Highlight / ALL STAR Baseball CardS FANTASTIC GRIFFEY JACKSON
![]() | $1.25 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Dale Murphy (2) 1986 Topps Tiffany (Glossy) Base and All-Star Baseball Cards.
![]() | $10.00 End Date: Sunday 02/16/2025 22:01:44 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
Benny Santiago 1987 & 1988 Topps Tiffany Rookie and All-Star Baseball Cards
![]() | $7.00 End Date: Sunday 02/16/2025 22:30:56 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
1980 - 1989 Topps All Star Baseball Cards - Autographed - You Pick - Nice
![]() | $7.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
1983-2020 LOT OF 139 ALL-STAR BASEBALL CARDS-NO DUPLICATES
![]() | $1.99 End Date: Thursday 02/20/2025 16:57:46 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
Darryl Strawberry (2) 1989 Topps Tiffany (Glossy) Base &All-Star Baseball Cards
![]() | $10.00 End Date: Sunday 02/16/2025 21:46:15 EST Bid now | Add to watch list |
1979 Carew????
I bookmarked this article a while ago, and have re-visited it several times (along with other articles on your site). Really thorough history on this topic, which I’ve found quite helpful when researching and planning new artwork.
Keep up the great work!
Thank you!