1958 Topps #86 Valmy Thomas
About Valmy Thomas
1958 Topps #86 is Valmy Thomas's rookie card, printed in the first series and showing him with the San Francisco Giants. He had reached the majors in 1957 with the New York Giants, hitting .249 with 6 home runs and 31 RBI in 88 games as catcher. The card is dated by the move west: he opened 1958 as the starting catcher in the club's first official game on the West Coast.
Valmy Thomas was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, only because his mother went there for better medical care, and the family took him home to St. Croix; in 1957 he became the first Virgin Islander to reach the major leagues after integration. As a rookie semi-regular in New York he started more games behind the plate than any other Giants catcher, and in 1958 he opened the year catching the franchise's first official game on the West Coast. Philadelphia got him and Ruben Gomez from the Giants for Jack Sanford that December, and after short looks with Baltimore in 1960 and Cleveland in 1961 his big league book closed at 252 games, 144 hits, 12 home runs, 60 runs batted in and a .230 average, five seasons in five different cities, a run no other major leaguer has had. Winter ball was the steadier job: Puerto Rican Rookie of the Year with Santurce in 1950-51, 13 seasons with the Cangrejeros, five league championships and five Caribbean Series, plus a sixth as a reinforcement. His last minor league season was 1962, and he closed out his playing days in Puerto Rico that winter. Back on St. Croix he ran a Christiansted sporting goods store for more than four decades and served as a deputy commissioner overseeing the island's recreation programs.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 261 | 0 | 13 | 100 | 87 | 36 | 13 | 12 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
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 Valmy Thomas card?
It is card #86 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 Valmy Thomas, San Francisco Giants.
Is the 1958 Topps Valmy Thomas #86 a rookie card?
Yes - #86 is a rookie card, one of 103 in the 1958 Topps set.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Valmy Thomas #86 are there?
PSA has graded 261 copies and SGC 16 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.