1980 Topps

Card Set Name: Topps

Manufacturer: Topps Chewing Gum Company, Inc.

Set Count: 726

Front: No gloss, white border, facsimile signature. Most cards are portrait. Some subsets are landscape. The color scheme for each card features a colored banner with player position, different colored banner with the player's team and a third color as a frame for the photograph. Each team had a different color scheme. This is similar to many Topps sets in the 1970s and 1980s.

Back: No finish. Landscape. Features player game and personal statistics. Also features a cartoon with some fact about the player. Pale blue and black color scheme.

Subsets: All-Star, 1979 Highlights, Team Future Stars, 1979 League Leaders, Team Photo/Checklist, Set Checklist

Parallel Cards: None

Top Cards (April/May 2008 Beckett Baseball Card Plus):

# 482 Rickey Henderson (RC) - $50.00
#580 Nolan Ryan - $15.00
#390 Ozzie Smith - $10.00
$540 Pete Rose - $8.00

Inserts: None

Comments: I started collecting baseball cards seriously in 1985. At first I only bought new cards, and then I branched out into older cards that I found at flea markets and card shows. This is, of course, way before eBay. Around 1990 I set my collecting goal to owning every Phillies card issued. Consequently, my 1980 Topps cards are almost all Phillies because I've made no other attempt to acquire them. I only own 46 cards from the set.

According to Beckett, a full set is worth $120.

Base Card


All-Star Card Not a true subset. A bar is added across the top of the player photo indicating if player was a 1979 NL or AL All-Star.

1979 Highlights

Future Stars There was a card for each team featuring prominent rookie players from each team.

1979 League Leaders Each card featured the NL and AL player to lead his league in a specific category.
Team Photo/Manager/Team Checklist

Set Checklist These were pretty consistent with designs from the 1970s.