Most Important Baseball Card!
 

In your opinion, what is the “most important” baseball card and why? Not necessarily the most valuable or the most sought after or iconic…what is the “most important card” in your opinion…and why?

I think I know what it means for a card to be iconic. I honestly don't know what it means to be important. That said, I would say the 52T Mantle, because it's universally known, and is more accessible than the Wagner.

https://www.collectorfocus.com/image...3-leard-zeenut

Whoops, wrong thread.

Most important card
 

Because, well, duh.

1869 peck and snyder cincinnati red stockings because it was a trade card of the first openly professional baseball team and one of the first mass produced collectibles

Boring answer, but the 52 Topps Mantle and T206 Wagner have both heavily contributed to even laymen's understanding of pictures of baseball dudes having extreme value and a desire to own one.

Which one is more important, no idea. Almost anyone can obtain a 52 Mantle and even in crud condition it will still be a card a collector shows to someone when showing off their collection. The T206 Wagner is so hard to obtain and no such thing as a cheap example.

I agree with Peter. Maybe you want to rephrase the question. These are baseball cards--none are "important".

The two most important cards for me are the 1985 Topps Dwight Gooden and the 1985 Topps Roger Clemens rookie cards. Those were the two dueling cards that everyone chased when I was a kid, and they were the ones that brought me (and perhaps a whole generation) into the hobby.

As for the most iconic, hard to argue with the 52T Mantle.

I'd go with the T206 Wags because it was the first card I read about that seemed to pay attention to the value of cards when I was a kid. It seemed that just about any card could have been had 5 decades ago, but Wags was the card that was way out there in the way of attainability. However, the KGB Chicken card has got to be a close second. When he was the KGB Chicken, Ted would go to concerts and do all kinds of funny and outrageous stuff. His heyday of craziness was in the 80s. Total show to watch him at concerts and sporting events.

52T Mantle is very iconic, but when I think of a card that has put the hobby on the map, I think Wags.

Uh, does that mean you think Anson in Uni is not important? :p

In my opinion 1952 Topps Mantle. Everyone knows it and most want it. And, it's a great looking card. The T206 Wagner is unobtainable for most and it's a fugly card, Alfred E. Neuman look alike :)

Much more of the general public could pick the Mantle out of a lineup versus the Wagner. In the card world people know the Wagner, elsewhere not at much. When I owned the Wagner below, friends and family outside of the hobby had no idea what it was. I could show them a 1952 Mantle and everyone knows Mickey Mantle, even if they don't know exactly what year it is.


Pics of both of them for context....I have a good eye for 2's :)

Further consideration should be given to of all things the 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan Rookie. When the hobby was exploding circa 1990+/- it was the hottest card on the planet and still is in high demand in all grades. Like the Mantle high demand and ample supply make it a marketing darling. The Ryan Rookie was the gunpowder for the collecting boom of the 1990's.

For me that is easy. The card I coveted the most and got me into the hobby was the 1983 Topps Wade Boggs rookie. No other card is even close.:D

Have you seen the show “Kevin Can F$%k Himself”?

That card features prominently, LOL 😂

52T Mantle followed by Wags followed by 89UD Griffey Jr.

It was the 1983 Topps Ryne Sandberg rookie for me when I was 12.

Coolness and rarity-wise, it would be the 1969 Topps #567 Pirates Rookies 'no black outline' variation, which is monstrously hard to find, and for pure joy and nostalgia, the earliest card I recall from my youth (and it puts a smile on my face every time I see one) is the 1972 Topps #49 Willie Mays.
Pure awesomehood!

Scott,

Well said. Both of those cards look nicer than the grades shown.

“Important”? No clue. Probably the first “card” is the most important. So something like the CDV pictured below, featuring the 1859 Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team.

If you told me I could have any card I wanted, it’s the t206 Wagner- all day, every day

If you asked for most famous, I would say the 1952 Topps Mantle (followed by the Billy Ripken Fuckface)

Or this very underpriced cdv or the P & S trade card of the same team.

I understand why one of us collectors would single out the Peck & Snyder. That makes perfect sense--to this crowd. Few outside our circles are even aware of its existence.

I strongly disagree that "everyone" knows of the 52T Mantle. Most North Americans have heard of Mickey Mantle, but I recall having very few conversations come up with non-hobbyists about that card in particular. Mantle's name is more bound to come up in conversation for reasons other than that card or any specific one of his cards. I have certainly heard non-hobbyists mention "a Mantle card" or "Mantle cards", but it's always been in generalized terms. Mickey Mantle = $$$ to them, but they don't seem to know enough to get specific.

Non-hobbyists have been much more prone to bring up the Wagner. I've heard that card mentioned countless times over the years. Countless.

1. More people know of Mantle than Wagner, but when it comes to cards,
2. More people seem to know the T206 Wagner than the 52T Mantle.

It's been awfully rare, but I have heard non-collectors speciffically refer to it as a T206! While I'm sure my experience differs from some of yours, nobody outside of the hobby has asked about a "1952 Topps Mickey Mantle".

My vote is for Honus.

Bond Bread Jackie Portrait

It is definitely the t206 Honus Wagner. The card makes the national news everytime it sells. Whenever someone finds out that I collect baseball cards, the first question they ask me is "Do you have the Wagner card?"

I don't think any card is important. It's a baseball card. It can be valuable, it could be rare, but I reserve important for ...more important things.

1987 Donruss Buddy Biancalana

That's an extremely important thing to consider. Certainly not the case with any other card. Even if it's one of the lowest grade copies, the Wagner still makes the news.

The Mantle card gets airplay if it's extremely high grade. The Wilt Chamberlain currently being discussed will, too. I've even seen the Peck & Snyder get a brief segment; must have been a slow news day. But these are all more isolated than how much buzz any Wagner card seems to receive.

Comic book collecting is certainly on par with our hobby in terms of popularity, yet not every single sale of Action Comics #1 gets news time. That seems to be reserved for only the really exceptional copies. A Wagner can look like it was put through the wash and run over by a truck and it still makes the cut for a news story.

Nice Ben, I knew you would say that. For me it is the '52 Topps Mantle for reasons already stated by many. A close 2nd would be the Walter Johnson card from T206. And to me what really brings these cards to life is listening to them tell their own stories in the audible book of "Glory of Their Times...."

The 1989 Hoops Mark Jackson featuring the Menendez Brothers sitting courtside.

Next card I buy is important to me.

My vote
 

1933 Sanella Babe Ruth since 100% of them are import-ed. Ba da boom.

The one I’m trying to sell right now had better be important to someone else!

I agree with others that the 206 Wagner is most important. Everyone knew of it(regardless if we could ever afford it) even non Collectors and every time is sold/up for auction we always followed it to see what it sold for and generated interested to many in cards and the history of older players and their records.

The Mantle is Iconic potentially more so than the Wagner but the Wagner was known for decades as the Holy Grail

I love my T cards, but would have to say the 1952 Mantle!

T206 Cobb
 

I'd vote for the T206 Cobb. Cobb was super popular and the 2 portraits were overprinted, and people hung onto those cards as you can see from pop reports on PSA/SGC (especially the red portrait). Back in 1910, kids started collecting on a more widespread basis. The success of T206 as a form of advertising led to the growth of collecting baseball cards as a hobby. The Ty Cobb cards were revered, and findable, since there were so few Wagners to find. Here's a green Cobb from my collection:

I also agree with the 1952 Topps Mantle - First Topps card which led to the explosion of the card market over the next 50 years. However, now that Topps is no longer owned by Topps, I wonder if Fanatics might come up with something entirely new.

The first baseball card isn't much important, as by 1869 the CDV era was in full swing and cards were very popular on both sides of the Atlantic. The focus of cards was just not on sports yet and it wasn't significant in its time.

The T206 Wagner was significant decades after its issue, but not much at the time. It didn't drive the T card explosion at all.

The 1952 Topps Mantle is the most important single card in a significant set, but its really Bowman that launched and pioneered the post-war card boom and while 1952 Topps values today might be a bit lower today if it did not exist, it didn't really have an impact on Topps winning the war and becoming the sole mainstream maker for decades.

Most of the big moments of card production history aren't because of a single card, and were often launched by non-baseball cards. Cards as cigarette inserts begin with non-sports, the picture card hobby begins with non-sport cards and explodes in popularity with non-sports. The post-war gum card popularity isn't the result of any particular card. Boring, but I cannot think of any baseball card that if it did not ever get made would have significantly changed card history. Hard to assign one as "most important". I'd vote Wagner for most iconic, Mantle #2.

I have to agree with this, but would rather actually own a Wags.

This is the answer

Big if true

The Texas Tommy Joe Jackson, just because I covet one.

I'm with you on that one John.

I don't think I've ever known of a time while I've been alive where anyone couldn't get a 1952 Topps Mantle if they wanted one...and you know, had the money for it... That second part is important.

I agree with this. The last PSA 1 sold for 19k and it was missing a piece of the card. The one before that was 28k. Even when I bought mine in 1985, I paid 2k. The 1952 Mantle has never been affordable. It has always been a major investment like the t206 Wagner.

Not on top of the mountain like the T206 Wagner and '52 Topps Mantle clearly are, nor as valuable...but I'd submit that this card is quite important also...

Whatever card was the first card to be intentionally short printed to get people to buy more packs/cards...is/was the most important card.

1933 Goudey Nap Lajoie missing from packs created quite a chase…

The earliest short printed insert card done on purpose to inspire more purchases that I can think of off the top of my head is the chase card in the Spaulding & Merrick actress/pugilist and animal sets of 1889. We know about the redemption and which number they are, but have never seen either of the heavily short printed chase cards. There must have been baseball ones before the 1930's...

Of course. None are important in the grand scheme of things. But the most important card in the hobby is probably the 52 Mantle followed by the T206 Wags....I can't afford either one!
.

Stop disrespecting Jackie!

Hard to argue against a 52T Mantle or T206 Wags. I still think Jackie needs to be at the top when we consider the impact on baseball and American culture. I'm partial to the Bond Bread, for obvious reasons, but the 49 Leaf is great choice too.

Cool, how long have you had that?

In terms of what I personally think is important - the cards of course change with my seasons of life as a collector:

When I finally made the jump from Garbage Pail Kids to baseball cards in 1986, I was 9 years old. The card I wanted most out of the 35 cent 1986 Topps wax packs was Pete Rose - his player card, #1, which was for some reason impossible for me to pull from a pack that year. I had at least two dupes of his manager card. Never did pull one. I eventually got one during my first stint back into the hobby as an adult in my early 20's - I believe. I guess I latched onto Pete that year because he was probably still in the news a lot for having just broken Cobb's record the year before. At any rate, it was before his betting troubles coming to light really began.

When I moved on from current packs to "vintage" (then simply called old cards) when I was probably about 11 years old, the apple of my eye was the '56 Topps Mickey Mantle as soon as I laid eyes on it. I thought, and still largely do - that it's just one of the coolest looking vintage cards ever made. The portrait, the leaping action shot into the crowd, the use of color, the cartoons. Landed this at about age 14 by basically trading my entire vintage collection at the time to a mall shop. Worth it.

Fast forward to present day, I'm 47 - and have been back into the hobby this go-round for right at 10 years now - and I really am not sure what to say is the single most important card for me. As a long time Cubs fan, I had never really zeroed in on Cubs collecting - probably because my childhood collecting predated my real baseball fandom - I just always saw fit to collect everything. I made a large step in correcting the team collecting oversight at this year's National in Cleveland (my first) - by finally acquiring every Cub fan's grail - the '54 Topps Ernie Banks RC. Now I want to go back and complete Topps and Bowman team runs - yes even the super exciting guys like Bob Rush, Hobie Landreth, and George Altman. :-)

Beyond that, I'm feeling a pull into some prewar stuff for the first time really ever. I'd like to get some T210 Old Mill's of local minor league players in NC. And not sure what it would be yet - but I'd like to own an an attractive 19th century card just kind of as a type piece sometime fairly soon. Oh well, for right now the main thing I need to do is save money.

I would agree that "most important" card is hard to define, and likely to many collectors very personal. That's why I told my own story. Thanks!

N172 Anson in uniform.

Almost 10 years now. Time sure does fly.

It's a nice-looking card, yes, but the guy on it looks nothing like Mantle!

Here, look again and compare:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a5/37/4e/a...f230006a42.jpg

https://static.life.com/wp-content/u...9-694x1024.jpg

https://a.espncdn.com/photo/2022/082...60x660_1-1.jpg

Shape of the head is wrong ... skin color wrong ... ears are too big ... teeth too big ...

Most Important Baseball Card!
 

I’d agree. Judged on the aesthetics alone and not what we know of the card - I don’t think it looks fantastic. But of course it’s iconic, and has been for a long time, so most of that is just out the window at this point.

The ‘68 Topps Ryan / Koosman is another example of a card like that. I won’t call it downright ugly, but it’s certainly not the prettiest card ever made. But it’s become an icon unto itself, so nobody really cares.

The one card you actually hear this subject discussed around a lot is the ‘63 Rose. Arguably the ugliest pricey card ever made…


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This should be the clear choice

EDIT: The pic didn't quote for some reason. It's the 1949 Leaf Jackie Robinson.

Let me make a pitch for this guy...the 1939 Playballs was the first substantial baseball offering made by Warren Bowman and the Williams rookie was the most significant card in that set. After the war, he rebranded his Gum, Inc to become Bowman and demonstrated that baseball cards were viable product. There is still a small part of the company's DNA in modern Topps and Bowman offerings. I get that this is a somewhat contrarian view, but seemed worth pondering.

Thinking a bit outside the box here, but...

the most important card is the one that got you interested in collecting cards.

Important for American history? I'd vote the Bond Bread Jackie portrait. Outside of that I'd be torn between T206 Wags and 52T Mantle. One is extremely rare and expensive and makes the news every time one gets sold, while one is the realistic grail card for many collectors.

If you had to rank your cards in an orderly stack of "Easiest to sell or trade" to
"Wouldn't sell or trade it even if a loved one's life was hanging in the balance,"
then that card at the bottom is the most important card.

Looks pretty close when you use the original photo it was made from.
https://i.postimg.cc/Cxn1jLzW/thumbnail123.jpg

Good story! And I agree that each collector may have his own personal most 'important" card.

That of course prompted me to try to select my own personal most important card. So of course I then asked myself which stars I like the most which is a tough question right there. Then which stars have the most attractive poses in some of my favourite sets, e.g. Topps 1959, 1960, 1963, 1954 and 1958. But then again I didn't actually buy and collect any Baseball cards pre-1962 at the time (though I acquired a few later) so I can't say I remember certain specific cards from those pre-1962 sets. Therefore the pull of nostalgia for any particular card from those earlier years just isn't there.

So when I then asked myself which one specific Baseball card I remember the most clearly from my early pack buying days, it's the #1 card from the 1962 set:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c5...3d2d388db9.jpg (Not mine.)

Though I didn't really like that Roger Maris card at the time since I was a Yankee hater, it's definitely the Baseball card I most clearly remember from my formative years. It also had a cameo in a Star Trek episode where Mr. Spock described it as "priceless".

Moreover since then I've read accounts of how many Yankee fans were hostile to Maris since he was threatening to break the record of their idol Babe Ruth. They thought if anybody broke Ruth's record, it should be their anointed dauphin Mickey Mantle. This put incredible mental strain on Roger Maris in that 1961 season. I've sympathized with Maris ever since I read those accounts.

And then to add insult to injury, Topps added a subset of Babe Ruth cards to the 1962 set! :eek: Even if I acquire the rest of the 1962 set, I'll pass on the Babe Ruth cards and leave those spots in my binder sheets empty.

:(

For me, this is the quintessential baseball card. So, in that respect, it's important to me.

Thanks, agreed. (This was in regards to Jackie’s 1948 Leaf Rookie that I posted).

BTW, there’s several nice examples in the Fall REA sale opening later today.

Leon- stunning Ruth!

Love it and tough call but I believe it's up there as well with the aforementioned.

The most important baseball card is the next one I need to fill a hole in my PC. :p

Got to be the Morehouse Baking Babe Ruth.

Isn't the Morehouse a regional release, not widely distributed?

Still.

What I'm getting at is if the Morehouse was available in a very limited area and is considered a "Rookie", why is there such a large argument about the Bond Bread Jackie NOT being his "Rookie" since it wasn't widely available?

If this has been hashed over already, then people don't need to reply and can tell me to F-off

To me, the Bond Bread portrait is his “rookie” card.

I'm going to posit a position for ultra modern cards, and in the moment right now, and say Pokemon 1st Series. I've never collected them. But everyone says that local shows are 50% Pokemon. It seems they are a gateway drug to the larger collecting universe.

If I had to pick a baseball card right now, at this moment, I'd say 1952 Jackie Robinson. Bond Bread is nice, but I think more people could pick out the 52 Jackie. COVID saw crazy price surges, but the Negro Leagues stars seemed to benefit more than other (percentage wise). I've said for years -- since the Jackie movie debuted -- that more of my high school students talk about Jackie Robinson than any other baseball player. Shohei Ohtani is maybe now tied for public awareness, but I think kids would say Jackie is more important.

If a youngster was ten years old in 1999 when Pokemon cards debuted in the United States, that youngster is now at the age of 35 looking back fondly at the items that he treasured and coveted during his formative years.

;)