1958 Topps #490 Ed Bailey
Part of the Sport Magazine All-Star Selection subset (#475-495) — the first time Topps printed separate All-Star cards, closing the 1958 set with a Hall of Fame-dense 21-card run.
About Ed Bailey
Both 1958 cards follow Bailey's 1957 season, when he caught 115 games for Cincinnati, hit .261 with 20 home runs and 48 RBI, and made the All-Star team amid the Redlegs fans' ballot-stuffing campaign. Number 330 comes from the fourth print series. Number 490 belongs to the Sport Magazine All-Star Selection subset, numbers 475-495, the first year for that series, and appears in the seventh print series.
Lonas Edgar Bailey Jr., born April 15, 1931, in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, was a left-handed-hitting, right-handed-throwing catcher who gave up a University of Tennessee basketball scholarship to sign with Cincinnati. Two years of Army ball and a September 1953 debut later, he won the starting job in 1956 and turned in his career year: .300 with 28 home runs, 75 RBI and the league lead in baserunners caught stealing. He stayed Cincinnati's regular catcher until an April 1961 trade sent him to the San Francisco Giants, and he later caught for the Milwaukee Braves, the Giants again and the Chicago Cubs before the California Angels released him in May 1966. He made the National League All-Star squad in five seasons, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961 and 1963, and in the stretch when each summer held two All-Star Games he played in six of them. In 1957 he led National League catchers by throwing out 46 percent of base stealers. Across fourteen seasons he batted .256 with 155 home runs and 540 RBI. Teammates called him 'Gar,' short for Edgar, though teammate Jim Brosnan suspected it stood for garrulous. He went home to Knoxville after baseball and served twelve years on the city council.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 467 | 0 | 5 | 110 | 150 | 99 | 57 | 45 | 1 |
| SGC | 85 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 15 | 11 | 25 | 20 | 2 |
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).
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Live auctions Buy It Now Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
More Ed Bailey in this set: #330
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #12 George Crowe
- #27 Bud Freeman
- #34 Bob Thurman
- #49 Smoky Burgess
- #63 Joe Nuxhall
- #75 Gus Bell
- #103 Jerry Lynch
- #118 Harvey Haddix
- #126 Stan Palys
- #131 Bob Henrich
- #149 Tom Acker
- #157 Dee Fondy
- #160 Don Hoak
- #205 Johnny Temple
More from the All-Star subset:
- #475 All-Star Managers
- #476 Stan Musial
- #477 Bill Skowron
- #478 Johnny Temple
- #479 Nellie Fox
- #480 Eddie Mathews
- #481 Frank Malzone
- #482 Ernie Banks
- #483 Luis Aparicio
- #484 Frank Robinson
- #485 Ted Williams
- #486 Willie Mays
- #487 Mickey Mantle
- #488 Hank Aaron
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Ed Bailey card?
It is card #490 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 Ed Bailey, Cincinnati Reds.
What is the 1958 Topps All-Star subset?
Cards #475-495 are the Sport Magazine All-Star Selection subset - the first time Topps printed separate All-Star cards. The 21-card run is dense with Hall of Famers: Musial, Mathews, Banks, Aparicio, F. Robinson, Williams, Mays, Mantle, Aaron and Spahn.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Ed Bailey #490 are there?
PSA has graded 467 copies and SGC 85 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.