1958 Topps #401 Don Bessent
About Don Bessent
Bessent went to Los Angeles for the Dodgers' first West Coast season and made just 19 appearances, going 1-0 with a 3.33 ERA over 24 1/3 innings. He opened the year in relief at San Francisco, was placed on the disabled list with a sore arm by June, and returned in September. His #401 is a single-player card from Topps' fifth series.
Don Bessent was a Jacksonville, Florida righthander who signed with the Yankees out of high school and went 22-7 with a no-hitter in his first pro season. A spinal injury in 1951 left him paralyzed from the waist down; surgeons fused two parted vertebrae, and the Yankees let him go. Brooklyn drafted him, and after three seasons at St. Paul he reached the majors in July 1955. Working mostly in relief, he went 8-1 that year and threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings as the Dodgers won their first World Series. In 1956 he saved nine games with a 2.50 ERA and won Game 2 of the Series against the Yankees. Arm trouble and a fading fastball ended his big-league run after 1958, and he retired from the minors in 1962. He returned to Jacksonville, worked as a sales representative, and died in 1990.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 421 | 0 | 10 | 150 | 146 | 67 | 29 | 19 | 0 |
| SGC | 28 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-07-09. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8). PSA counts are straight-graded (the +/Q qualifier rows are excluded).
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Don Bessent card?
It is card #401 of the 1958 Topps Baseball set - Topps' sixth flagship issue: 494 cards numbered 1-495 (#145 was never issued), with die-cut player photos on solid-color backgrounds and the first team logos on Topps fronts. It pictures Don Bessent, Los Angeles Dodgers.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Don Bessent #401 are there?
PSA has graded 421 copies and SGC 28 as of the 2026-07-09 snapshot. Population is a scarcity guide, not a price - high-grade 1958s are notoriously tough because of the set's chronic centering and print-quality issues.
How many cards are in the 1958 Topps set?
494 issued cards, numbered 1-495 - #145 (Ed Bouchee) was pulled before release and never issued, leaving a permanent gap. The PSA master census counts 534 items: the 494 base cards plus 33 yellow-letter variations, 4 numerical checklist-back team cards, the 'Herrer' #433 error, and 2 unnumbered ad cards.
Sources: PSA CardFacts, Beckett, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports, and hobby press-sheet research (Topps Archives, 2026). Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-09-30.