You probably know that the Robin Yount rookie card played second fiddle to the George Brett rookie card through most of the 1980s.
And you might know that Yount has dropped behind Brett again when it comes to the value of their 1975 Topps cards.
But when you whip out that phrase — “Robin Yount rookie card” — you really need to be more specific.
Because, by my count, there are at least eight different forms of cardboard that can fit that definition, depending on how liberal you get with the term.
Don’t believe me?
Fine, let me spell it out for you in this rundown of all the Robin Yount rookie cards from 1975.
1975 Hostess Robin Yount (#80)
Brett beat Yount to most early career recognitions — first (only) to get Rookie of the Year votes, first to get MVP awards, first to get an All-Star nod.
But that didn’t hold with rookie cards.
To wit, Yount checked in at #223 in the colorful 1975 Topps set, while Brett was pushed waaaaayyyyy down to #228.
Even more impressively, Yount somehow landed one of 150 cards in the 1975 Hostess set, the company’s first in a five-year run.
As with all the cards in this set, Yount originally appeared as part of a three-player panel that was actually baked right into the yum-yum boxes. In the Hall of Famer’s case, he shared the confection limelight with Andy Messersmith and Al Oliver.
Yount was also part of the scaled-down issue that went out as singles in individual Twinkies packages. As in, they were part of the backing that held the Twinkies in place, which meant you got plenty of cards with creme-grease on the back.
Either way, if you wanted Yount by himself, you’d have to cut him out of the surrounding cardboard, and most of the copies you’ll find these days are of this hand-cut variety.
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1975 Hostess Panel (Andy Messersmith/Al Oliver) Robin Yount
Of course, you could just take Yount as he came, which meant smack dab between Messersmith and Oliver.
It was pretty amazing company for a young lad who hadn’t done much of anything in the Majors. Of course, Hostess looks amazingly smart now for putting Yount front and center on this puppy.
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1975 Hostess Twinkies Robin Yount (#80)
OK, so what I said up there about having to cut Yount out of the panel if you wanted to have him by himself is only partially true.
It’s true if you want a Hostess Yount, single style.
But if you want a Yount single that looks pretty much just like the Hostess cards, modulo some dotted lines around the border and a thick line in the middle of the back, you could opt for the Twinkies version.
The Twinkies cards were issued as singles and were actually part of the packaging that separated the good, sweet stuff from the wrapping.
So, yeah, you end up with plenty of grease-stained cards (like I also said up there).
And … well, you still had to cut them if you wanted them to be baseball card size.
This is a tougher card to come by than the base Hostess issue, especially if top condition is a priority.
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1975 O-Pee-Chee Robin Yount (#223)
This card looks just like the famous Yount rookie card (see below) that grew up along with the hobby in the mid-1980s.
Well, at least until you turn it on its side and see the brighter card stock.
Or until you turn it over and see the block of French text.
Or until you study the edges and see that telltale O-Pee-Chee peach fuzz.
Or until you look at the PSA population numbers and see that this is a tougher find than its Topps counterpart.
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1975 SSPC Robin Yount (#238)
I’ve always considered this to be a 1976 issue since card backs reference 1975 stats.
But the copyright does show a 1975 date, and PSA classifies it that way. Most importantly, pegging the set in 1975 lets the Yount card qualify for this list.
The SSPC issue was basically a bootleg deal at the time that quickly became a hobby legend and gained a large cult following who dubbed it the “Pure Set” since it delivered big, full-color images and not much else on card fronts.
In a lot of ways, SSPC was the forerunner to the clean look that helped propel Upper Deck to stardom in 1989.
For his part, young Robin shows up here looking over his shoulder in the batting cage. It’s right up close and personal, too, a big contrast to the telescopic shot on his Topps rookie.
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1975 Topps Robin Yount (#223)
And speaking of that Topps rookie card, this thing spent seven or eight years just sort of being there, lurking in the shadows of the George Brett rookie, the Gary Carter rookie card, the Jim Rice rookie card, the Fred Lynn rookie card.
But Yount gave his cardboard a jolt with that 1982 American League MVP of his, and then he just kept playing at a high level.
By the time he copped his second MVP in 1989, the Yount RC was pretty much the equal of the Brett RC, and they stayed neck-and-neck, value wise, for years. And, though Brett has nosed ahead, these are still the two gems of the set, rookie-card wise.