Trivia - 1960s Topps card numbers
 

I've been aware of this for many years, and am curious if anyone else has noticed it too. So I'll ask in the form of a trivia question:

Topps regular issue sets, 1960 through 1969, which player who had at least 7 regular cards during those years had the highest AVERAGE card number?

It isn't Mantle, but for clarification, this is what I mean:

Year Mantle
1960 350
1961 300
1962 200
1963 200
1964 50
1965 350
1966 50
1967 150
1968 280
1969 500


Average card number: 243

The guy I'm thinking of has an average card number over 400.

Just a wild guess, George Altman?

Willie McCovey? Seems he was a high number most of the time.

EDITED to add: 415.3

1960 316
1961 517
1962 544
1963 490
1964 350
1965 176
1966 550
1967 480
1968 290
1969 440

Yes, this is who I was thinking. When I started collecting cards seriously I noticed McCovey seemed to fairly consistently be in the later series and rarely in the first two or three.

Scary. Not the answer, that you knew it. :)

Can't disagree. Reminds me of when my daughter was in high school and was reading in the living room while I watched Star Trek. I started reciting the dialogue lines before they were uttered and she closed her book, stood up with large bug eyes, and backed out of the room.

Speaking of which, I bought this not long ago.

I think I ran across a player who would top McCovey, perennial 60's Topps high number Johnny Klippstein. He averaged out to 431.25. I originally came up with 414.25, but I double checked and now I come up with 431.25.
These are Klippstein's card numbers for 1960's Topps:
1960-191
1961-539
1962-151
1963-571
1964-533
1965-384
1966-493
1967-588
I came up with a total of 3.450, and that divided by 8 (years) came out to 431.25, which beats McCovey. If someone wants to double check please do, I messed up my first try.

Anyone else think Todd and Cliff need a hobby ?

I was looking through 1966 Topps semi high numbers on eBay and COMC for possibly creating a virtual original uncut sheet for that series but had to call it off for a lack of miscuts available, but when I noticed that Johnny Klippstein was #493 it popped in my head that he had numerous high numbers in the 60's so I went back to this thread and tallied up his aggregate number.

Amazing and congratulations! I'm glad you weren't spending the last month or so methodically tallying up every players' card numbers. :)

Younger folks will never know the excitement of opening up packs from a new series not knowing who was going to be in there.

Or spend time looking for card 145 Ed Bouchee, or Ted signing that contract, or cards 175, 186, 203 and 209 :)

Mark Belanger has a few high numbers

I found someone who has Johnny Klippstein beat and he has a card for every year of the sixties. Just like with Klippstein, I was looking through a semi-high series for a different reason and I noticed Don Cardwell was in the series. I thought he seemed to be in a lot of semi-high and high series so I figured I would add them up and divide the total by ten. His total is 4357 which comes out to an average of 435.7, which beats Klippstein's eight year average of 431.25.

First name that popped in my head was Frank Robinson......but his average is only 314.
Bob