Greg Morris Cards

This website may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.

SHARE

1971 Topps Tattoos

Set Spotlight: 1971 Topps Tattoos

By the 1970’s, the Topps monopoly on baseball cards was in full swing. Since beating Bowman at their own game in 1956, Topps stretched its legs for the next twenty years, owning the baseball card market and even getting into other products like tattoos.

In 1960, Topps released a set of tattoos with names like Mickey Mantle, Early Wynn, and Willie Mays. They followed up in 1964 with another set, this time adding names like Carl Yastrzemski, Ernie Banks, and Sandy Koufax.

Finally, in 1971, Topps released a third set, adding a host of Hall of Famers. They also added other artwork and team logos to the set.

Here’s a rundown of the 1971 Topps Tattoos set.

1971 Topps Tattoos: The Set

The set consists of 16 different long sheets of tattoos. Each sheet has six different players, two team pennants, five cartoon action shots, and one autographed baseball image. One pack of tattoos included one long sheet and one stick of bubble gum

1971 Topps Tattoos Wax Pack

The tattoos were on perforated sheets with the images being inverted. This was due to the way tattoos are applied to the skin. If the images were not inverted, the player and team names would not be in the correct orientation and could not be read easily. Ironically, since today the tattoos are no longer used for their original function, all of the collectable copies of the tattoos are inverted/backwards.

1971 Topps Tattoo Frank Robinson from sheet #11

1971 Topps Tattoos: The Sheets

As mentioned earlier, there are 16 different sheets possible in each wax pack. As you might expect, most sheets have at least one or two major stars (including Hall of Famers) and then four or five minor stars.

The checklist of 1971 Topps Tattoos features plenty of baseball’s greatest:

Sheet #1: Juan Marichal, Brooks Robinson, Sal Bando, Dick Bosman, Nate Colbert, Cleon Jones

Sheet #2: Carl Yastrzemski, Bob Robertson, Glenn Beckert, Tommy Harper, Ken Henderson, Fritz Peterson

Sheet #3: Reggie Jackson, Jim Palmer, Orlando Cepeda, Jim Fregosi, Randy Hundley, Jerry Koosman

Sheet #4: Sam McDowell, Dick Dietz, Clarence Gaston, Dave Johnson, Gary Nolan, Amos Otis

Sheets 1 thru 4

Sheet #5: Al Kaline, Vada Pinson, Billy Grabarkewitz, Lee May, Tom Murphy, Manny Sanguillen

Sheet #6: Luis Aparicio, Harmon Killebrew, Donn Clendenon, Paul Blair, Chris Cannizzaro, Larry Dierker

Sheet #7: Rich Allen, Boog Powell, Bert Campaneris, Don Money, Ted Savage, Rusty Staub

Sheet #8: Willie Stargell, Frank Howard, Leo Cardenas, Bill Hands, Wes Parker, Reggie Smith

Sheets 5 thru 8

Sheet #9: Hank Aaron, Jim Hunter, Tommy Agee, Dick McAuliffe, Tony Perez, Lou Piniella

Sheet #10: Roberto Clemente, Thurman Munson, Fergie Jenkins, Tony Conigliaro, Gary Peters, Joe Torre

Sheet #11: Johnny Bench, Frank Robinson, Rico Carty, Bill Mazeroski, Bob Oliver, Rico Petrocelli

Sheet #12: Billy Williams, Bill Freehan, Felix Millan, Dave McNally, Mel Stottlemyre, Bob Tolan

Sheets 9 thru 12

Sheet #13: Willie McCovey, Ron Santo, Roy White, Ray Culp, Bud Harrelson, Mickey Lolich

Sheet #14: Pete Rose, Tom Seaver, Bill Melton, Jim Perry, Maury Wills, Clyde Wright

Sheet #15: Rod Carew, Bob Gibson, Alex Johnson, Don Kessinger, Jim Merritt, Rick Monday

Sheet #16: Willie Mays, Larry Bowa, Ray Fosse, Tony Oliva, Mike Cuelllar, Carl Morton

Sheets #13 thru #16

1971 Topps Tattoos: What it’s worth

Valuing this set is tricky. There are a number of ways to collect the set, therefore a number of ways to value it. Are we talking about each full sheet? Or just each individual panel? There’s also many ways to grade the set, with some people grading individual player panels and some grading full panels with the action images.

Most full sheets of 1971 Topps Tattoos can be purchased for between $20 and $40. Here’s an example of sheet #9 with Hank Aaron that sold for $39 at auction on eBay. And here’s sheet #7 with Rich Allen and Boog Powell that sold for $18.50 at auction.

Assuming an average price of $30 per sheet, you could collect the entire set for around $480.

But collecting graded copies of individual panels will be more expensive, as you might expect.

For example, the Roberto Clemente single player panel in a PSA 9 sells for an average of $360. Thurman Munson in a PSA 8 averages $125, Pete Rose in a PSA 8 averages $81, and a Frank Robinson PSA 8 averages $51.

However, it’s important to keep in mind: there have not been many sales of this set in graded form. There are only 771 graded copies across the entire set of 1971 Topps Tattoos according to PSA. And they do not seem to hit the market very often.

The most recent sale on eBay shows a Bud Harrelson PSA 6 that sold for $19.99 at auction. That was on August 10th. Two days prior to that, a PSA 1 of Willie Stargell sold for $50 at best offer. You have to go all the way back to July 17th to find the sale before that, which was a nice one: a PSA 5 Roberto Clemente that sold for $158 at auction.

The bottom line is that this set can be difficult to find if you are looking for graded copies. A better bet might be to buy raw full sheets, cut them out, and send in panels for grading. The condition of the tattoos is not likely to result in high grades, but for collectors that prefer to collect authenticated/graded items, this might be the only solution.

Of course, collecting full sheets could be the way to go, as mentioned above. It saves you the hassle of grading and it’s likely to be much cheaper.

Want to see a pack opening of 1971 Topps Tattoos? Greg Morris Cards recently posted a break video of one! You can check it out here:

Sources: vintagecardprices.com; PSA