Ranking Topps Baseball Card Designs (1952-1959)

by Paul Semendinger

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As we wait for the season to begin, I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the old Topps baseball card sets and rank the designs. I'll give my opinions and then I hope the readers share theirs as well. This should be fun. Remember, please, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

We'll begin with the 1950s. Here are the deigns year-by-year:

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

Now comes the difficult part, ranking the designs.

I think it's easiest to list the four I like the least first:

1951 - a good start, but I don't love these

1954 - I don't like the face and cutout action shot

1955 - This was better than 1954, but still not great

1958 - I'm not a fan of the colored background, but I do like the design

The designs I like:

1952 - Classic, simple and nice

1953 - What an effort - paintings of every player!

1955 - Much better than 1955, the actions shots look better with a real background

1957 - I like the simplicity of this design with the real background

1959 - (Ethan's favorite set) I like this, it's a good design, the circle is fun.

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MY RANKINGS:

1. 1952

2. 1953

3. 1959

4. 1957

5. 1956

6. 1958

7. 1955

8. 1954

9. 1951

How do you rank these designs?