Do you think 1955 Topps baseball cards knew the kind of history they were about to make?
Did they know they would be the last Topps set to face direct competition for more than a quarter century?
Did they know they would be the cardboard nail in the coffin of an industry giant, a boyhood staple?
Did they know, for gosh sake, that they were breaking all the rules by being so big and so colorful and so … sideways?
Nah … probably not. They were just dead trees, ink, and some sort of adhesive material, after all.
But of course, the set that killed Bowman managed to do all that and more, and they left behind a wad of beautiful cardboard that still amazes collectors all these years later.
And eats our hobby dollars, too.
Here, then are the 12 most valuable 1955 Topps baseball cards, ranked by values for PSA 7 copies as listed in the PSA Sports Market Report (SMR).
1955 Topps Roberto Clemente Rookie Card (#164)
As if Bowman wasn’t already having enough trouble keeping up with Topps after the whippersnappers brought Ted Williams back to the fold in 1954 and generally won the retail and design wars that summer … well, Roberto Clemente.
As in, Topps looked at the youngster whom the Pirates drafted from the Dodgers in November 1954 and decided he was worthy of a card.
Bowman … nah.
And, while Clemente and his .255 average with five home runs in 1955 didn’t beat the world, he had became a bona fide legend by the time of his death on New Year’s Eve in 1972.
It seems fitting that Bowman’s whiff corresponded with their demise, and Clemente’s Topps rookie card stands as a glorious monument to both the Bucs hero and the best in the (card) biz.
Expect to pay $7000+ for a copy in PSA 7.
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1955 Topps Sandy Koufax Rookie Card (#123)
You might say that 1955 Topps is the home of legends who spent the 1950s trying to decide whether they wanted to become, well, legendary.
I mean, Clemente turned in some decent seasons in the latter half of the decade but didn’t become an All-Star in 1960 … coincidental that was the Pirates’ championship season?
And then there was Sandy Koufax, who had all the talent and firepower in the world but was as wild as Michael Martin Murphey’s fire.
The enigmatic lefty struck out a ton of hitters from the moment he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in (yes) 1955. But control issues plagued him, and he had the up-and-down records and bloated ERAs to prove it.
It wasn’t until 1961 that Koufax became an All-Star, posting an 18-13 record. Maybe he had been inspired by 1960 Clemente?
Whatever.
Koufax appeared in just 28 games in 1962, but then ripped off four dominant years the likes of which actual mortals just don’t put together. He blew out his elbow in that final 1966 season and was done at age 30 … which may have made his legend even more shiny.
As it stands, the “what could have been” tantalization and “what actually was” actualization is enough to make Koufax’s 1955 Topps rookie card a $2500+ buy in PSA 7.
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1955 Topps Willie Mays (#194)
Willie Mays, on the other hand, didn’t take too long at all to warm up.
The Say Hey Kid won the 1951 National League Rookie of the Year Award at age 20, after all. And, even after nearly two full seasons of military duty, he stormed back in 1954 with 41 dingers and a Majors-best .345 batting average.
That’s where this classic Mays card comes into the picture, showing the young Hall of Famer just months after that famous 1954 World Series catch of his.
Not a rookie card, this beauty still sells for around $1000 in graded NM condition.
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1955 Topps Hank Aaron (#47)
Aaron didn’t start his career on quite the torrid pace that Mays managed, but Hammer did finish fourth in the NL ROY voting in 1954 on the strength of 13 home runs and a .280 batting average.
Of course, collectors could pick up his rookie card in packs that summer, even though no one really knew what an RC was at that point.
A year later, in 1955, Aaron hammered his first 20-homer season and picked up his first of 25 (!) All-Star nods.
While Henry was busy knocking 27 long balls, driving in 106 runs, scoring 105 of his own, and batting .314, his colorful 1955 Topps card was crashing store shelves across the land.
Today, it crashes collections to the tune of $700-1000, or even more, in PSA 7.
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1955 Topps Duke Snider (#210)
Every year for what must have seemed like centuries to the local faithful, the Brooklyn Dodgers slugged their way to a National League pennant only to lose the World Series to the New York Yankees.
Never mind that the 1951 and 1954 Giants, and the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies might argue with this view of reality.
It’s the way it was, and Next Year was always going to be the year.
But it wasn’t.
And then … in 1955 … it was.
The best player on that Series-winning team, if you believe in things like WAR, or other things like home runs and RBI, was Duke Snider.
Of course, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, and others, were pretty darn amazing, too, and Campy won his third NL MVP award of the decade.
But Snider cemented his place in the conversation about which of New York’s three center fielders was the best … Willie, Mickey, or the Duke?
In this set, Duke comes in second to Mays, while Mickey Mantle was a Bowman exclusive.
Snider checks in at $700+ in slabbed near mint condition.