2nd year cards are my favorite
 

Rookies, rookies, rookies, everyone loves their rookies.

But how about 2nd year cards?

Sometimes I think the 2nd year card is as or more attractive than the rookie.

Here are some of my favorite 2nd year cards in the hobby.

Anyone else like 2nd year cards (or don't care so much about rookies more generally)?

Wow!!! What a fine assortment!!!!

(And it's super cool when the second year cards have the wonderful All-Star Trophy enhancement.)

Yeah, I am definitely a sucker for the trophy!

I am not so much a fan of the rookie cards that have multiple players on them. Just makes the pictures too small.

A few from the 60s.

I agree! I NEVER liked the multiple player format.

Outstanding cards, OP!

I am also a big non-RC guy, and it’s the main qualifier for my Topps era HOF pitcher project.

My progress thread is toward the bottom of the 1st page.

Added bonus for avoiding rookies…the dreaded multi-player RC.

Nearly 1/3 of the run would have been affected:

Niekro, Hunter, Jenkins, Carlton, Seaver, Ryan, Sutton, Fingers, Morris

71 Munson way better than the 1970.

2nd Year Cards
 

Ryan and Rose jump out at me!

Love these 2nd year cards.

Peter, that 65 Allen is amazing. I've been looking for one that nice for about a year and a half!

Here's a few of mine:

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Don't forget this one!

I think the Brooks is the most horrific second year card Topps ever porduced. Just a terrible photo after his nice rookie portrait.

Guys like Clemente, Koufax, Aaron, Banks, Kaline, Mays, Minoso, Mantle, Palmer have very nice looking rookies. Preference to the beholder, but I think the good examples are players who have ugly combo rookies like Ryan, Rose, Seaver, Carew, or cards with horrible photos.

TOTALLY AGREE!
When I started my Brooks set a few years ago, I would always say how ugly that card looked. My dad and I had a funny conversation about what happened. Was it mid-sneeze? Is it bad photography/touch-up? At that point, he was mostly a glove-first nobody, so I can imagine Topps just saying "Fine, whatever....just print the card. He'll be out of the league in 5 years anyway."

I was able to find a couple examples with great blue color that grew on me, but you're right. Not their best work.

I collected my 58 set with my father, the Brooks is always the card he stops on to talk about. I really like the 58 set but it's a shame they took the worst possible picture of the Human Vacuum Cleaner. Frank Robinson, Drysdale, Bunning, all have fine second year portraits in that issue but poor Brooks got the short end of the stick.

82. Left Hand of Fate (also Whitey Bored)
The fact that Topps seemingly had no other choice but to feature Whitey Ford holding out his southpaw towards the camera in the very same pose year after year after year.

See also: Gobbledybrook - having no idea what Topps was thinking when they put out Brooks Robinson’s 1958 card.

Haha, that '58 Brooks card is truly worthy of its own term. A Gobbledybrook indeed!

That '69 Ryan is a very cool card. He looks incredibly young, because he was. I guess he was only 19 when he debuted for the Mets in '66. Crazy to think he was still pitching in '93 when he was 46.

+1 for second year cards...mostly because of affordability.

When I got into vintage collecting about five years ago, I REALLY wanted to chase the 1951 Bowman set...but I decided that the Mantle and Mays rookies weren't going to fit in my budget.

So I went for 1952 bowman and picked up these two second year cards. While I obviously would trade them for the rookies based on value, based on pure aesthetics I do prefer the closeup images of the 1952s over their 1951 rookie counterparts.

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A trio of Catchers