Card Spotlight: 1954 Topps Ted Williams

During the height of the bubble gum wars between Bowman and Topps in the early 1950’s, exclusivity rights were paramount.

Bubble gum manufacturers, aka baseball card manufacturers, aka Topps and Bowman, were constantly battling with each other to sign players. With the boom of baseball cards already in full force, Topps and Bowman put everything into acquiring as many baseball players to exclusive image rights as they could, knowing that customers would only buy packs if they knew their favorite players were in play. Obtaining multi-year exclusive rights to the sport’s most popular players would go a long way to helping Topps become such a powerhouse in the industry.

It’s what helped Topps topple Bowman by 1956 and fueled their rise over the next several decades. Topps owned the baseball card world for nearly 25 years, mostly because they owned exclusive rights to players.

But one player eluded Topps during their initial run of acquiring player contracts. And it wasn’t because he didn’t want to sign.

Ted Williams’ exclusive rights

As many baseball fans already know, Ted Williams was drafted into World War 2 in 1942, then recalled for service in 1952 during the Korean War. In between his time in Europe and his time in Korea, Bowman managed to sign Ted Williams to an exclusive contract.

But Sy Berger, the vice president of Topps and lead designer of their baseball cards, was a huge Boston Red Sox fan. He wanted Ted Williams to be a Topps baseball card exclusive and said publicly he was willing to do whatever it took to make it happen.

“Teddy Ballgame” held him to that promise. Topps managed to acquire Ted Williams to a five-year exclusive deal, but Berger had to pay more money than he’d ever paid a player to make it happen.

Topps was ruthless in the early 1950’s. While signing players to multi-year contracts, the paid only $125 each year the player was featured on a card. Many players didn’t care, as they only cared about baseball. But Ted Williams knew the value of his own celebrity. He wasn’t taking such mere pittance.

The actual value of the Topps contract with Williams is unknown, but when it came time to renew it in 1958, Topps did not do so. Instead, Fleer bought the rights to Ted Williams for a whopping $12,500 and produced one of the worst baseball sets of all-time.

Two cards in one Topps set

In order to “catch up for lost time” (and also maybe to make the most of the money they were spending on the contract), Topps headlined its 1954 set with two Ted Williams cards: the first (card #1) and the last (card #250).

And so Ted Williams became the first “bookend” feature in a baseball card set.

Of course, card #1’s most prominent feature is that Ted Williams smile. It also features a Williams action shot, showcasing the best swing in baseball and the grace of baseball’s most popular player at the time.

The 2nd Ted Williams card in the set, card #250, features an even better shot of Williams’ smile and an action shot of the follow through of his swing. You can almost picture the ball he hit headed for the gap at Fenway Park.

The 1953 & 1954 Topps sets have a peculiar design feature that is a product of how it was printed and cut. While most baseball cards have four clear white borders, the ’53 and ’54 designs have only three. This is because the cards were lined up in the printing sheet with their tops adjacent, in order to save room on the printing sheet so they could print more cards in one run. In 1955, Topps decided to start printing horizontal cards to save room, then finally they expanded their printing capacity in 1956 to preserve four borders on all cards from then on.

1954 Topps Ted Williams card values

As you might expect, both Ted Williams cards from the 1954 set command top dollar sales, especially in high grades.

In a PSA 8, card #1 has an average sales figure of $10,973 over the last 12 months. The highest recent sale of card #1 was in May 2020 when a PSA 9 version sold for $46,111 at Memory Lane Auctions.

Card #250 has more modest prices over the last 12 months. PSA 8 values are at $7,072 and the highest recent sale was a PSA 9 which went for $32,400 in April 2021 at REA.

Raw card sales of 1954 Ted Williams have been very steady. Greg Morris Cards recently sold a VG-VGEX copy of card #1 (with a crease) for $226 at auction on August 27th.

Greg Morris sold a copy of card #250 in the same condition (but with no crease) on August 22nd for $232.

There have been no sales of either card in a PSA 10 (or any other Gem Mint condition holder) in history. There is only one known PSA 10 copy (card #250) but it has not surfaced on eBay or any other auction platform. The highest grade by Beckett is an 8.5, which has also never been sold publicly.

With these two cards being the first Ted Williams cards ever featured in a Topps set, not to mention the history of how Topps acquired the rights to the cards in the first place, it will likely always have value among baseball card collectors and investors.

Sources: vintagecardprices.com, “The Bubble Gum Card War” by Dean Hanley, “Mint Condition” by Dave Jamison