1961 Topps #480 Roy Campanella
About this card
Cards #471-486 are the Most Valuable Players subset - sixteen tributes to past MVP winners, American League #471-478 and National League #479-486, each printed with the franchise of the MVP season.
About Roy Campanella
Card #480 places Campanella in the 1961 set's Most Valuable Player subset, the run Topps built from the previous decade's award winners. It is a card out of the sixth series, and Campanella had been retired since the January 1958 crash that ended his career. Topps lists him with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the club he was catching for when he won all three of his National League Most Valuable Player awards, in 1951, 1953 and 1955, and the club that took the 1955 World Series with him behind the plate - though by 1961 the franchise had been playing in Los Angeles for three seasons.
Roy Campanella spent nine years in the Negro leagues and the Mexican League, mostly with the Washington and Baltimore Elite Giants, before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers' farm system in 1946; at Nashua that summer he became the first Black man to manage in organized professional baseball. He reached Brooklyn in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson broke the major league color line, and caught for the Dodgers through 1957. Campanella was the second Black player, after Robinson, to win a major league Most Valuable Player award, and he took the National League honor three times, in 1951, 1953 and 1955, batting over .300 with more than 30 home runs and more than 100 runs batted in each of those years. His 142 RBI in 1953 broke the franchise record of 130 and stood as the club mark until Tommy Davis drove in 153 in 1962. He made eight straight All-Star teams from 1949 through 1956 and threw out 57 percent of would-be base stealers, the highest rate in major league history. In 1955 he caught Brooklyn's first World Series winner. A car crash in January 1958 left him paralyzed and ended his playing career; he later worked in Dodgers scouting and community relations, and in 1969 he became the second Black player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia · PSA
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 921 | 0 | 17 | 180 | 227 | 188 | 128 | 180 | 1 |
| SGC | 229 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 28 | 49 | 56 | 75 | 6 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #480 card?
It is card #480 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Roy Campanella of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Cards #471-486 are the Most Valuable Players subset - sixteen tributes to past MVP winners, American League #471-478 and National League #479-486, each printed with the franchise of the MVP season.
Why is #480 harder to find?
It is from the sixth print series (cards 447-522) - noticeably tougher than the first five, easier than the true highs.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-05.