1961 Topps Mickey Mantle #300

Card #300 is Mickey Mantle's base card in the 1961 Topps set, issued in the season that became the most famous home-run race of its era. Mantle hit 54 home runs in 1961 and finished second to his Yankees teammate Roger Maris, who broke Babe Ruth's single-season record; New York won the World Series that autumn, one of Mantle's seven titles. Grey Flannel's lot description calls the card a “classic portrait” of Mantle, tied to the year of that chase.

The 1961 Topps set

PSA's CardFacts describes the 1961 set as 587 cards in the standard 2-1/2" by 3-1/2" size, in a vertical format with a large color photo and the player's name and team across the bottom. Although only 587 cards exist, the numbering runs to 598: #426, #587 and #588 were never issued, and two different cards carry #463. Topps added several features that became standard — numbered checklists, statistical league-leader cards and ten “Baseball Thrills” cards. The high numbers, #523–589, are the scarcest part of the set; Robert Edward Auctions has called the run “extremely difficult”.

Mantle appears on several cards besides #300. PSA highlights #44, the AL home-run leaders card he shares with Maris; REA's set listings also include his #475 MVP card and #578 All-Star card, which falls in the scarce high numbers.

PSA population snapshot

The shape is classic for a widely collected 1960s star card: thousands of mid-grade examples, a steep drop above PSA 8, and almost nothing at the top. When Heritage sold a PSA 9 in 2022 its description noted that “only two collectors can boast of owning a superior example” — the two PSA 10s, a figure that has not changed since.

PSA 9 results on public record

Four PSA 9 sales in fourteen months, each lower than the last, are a useful reminder that even a scarce grade of a famous card moves with the wider market. Heritage's 2022 listing praised the example's color, registration, gloss, centering and corners, and a bright white border around the portrait — the attributes that separate a 9 from the 518 copies at PSA 8.

PSA's table also lists a December 2025 eBay sale of a “PSA 9 (PD)” for $3,884. The PD — print defect — qualifier explains the gulf: as our PSA scale guide explains, a qualified 9 is a different card to the market from an unqualified one.

For set builders

Because the Mantle sits mid-set and the high numbers are the hard part, #300 is often bought inside complete sets. REA's Spring 2025 auction, for example, sold a complete 1961 Topps set (587 cards plus four graded variations) built around a PSA 7 Mantle for $5,160.