1962 Topps #412 Charlie James
About Charlie James
The 1962 Topps card, #412, comes from the set's fifth series. It belongs to the best season of his career. A Minnie Minoso injury in May pushed Stan Musial back to left field and handed James the right-field job; he made 86 starts there and 95 in the outfield overall, batting a career-high .276 with eight home runs and 59 runs batted in. The signature swing came on September 22 at Busch Stadium, when he lined a first-inning grand slam off Sandy Koufax to start an 11-2 rout of the Dodgers.
Charles Wesley James was born December 22, 1937, in St. Louis, grew up in the suburb of Rock Hill, and graduated from Webster Groves High School. A football scholarship took him to the University of Missouri, where he was a halfback letterman in 1956 and 1957 and set a Mizzou record for pass receptions by a backfield player that stood 36 years. On January 6, 1958, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine signed him for a reported $15,000 bonus, costing him his senior college baseball season; James enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis to finish an electrical engineering degree. He was Texas League Rookie of the Year at Double-A Houston in 1958 and an International League All-Star at Triple-A Rochester in 1959, and debuted for St. Louis on August 2, 1960. A right-handed outfielder listed at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, he batted .255 with 358 hits, 29 home runs and 172 runs batted in over 510 games and six seasons, and won a World Series ring in 1964. St. Louis writers dubbed him Chop-Down Charley for chopping at pitches to make contact rather than waiting on walks; he drew only 48 in his career. He later served as president of Central Electric Company in Fulton, Missouri, retiring in 1998.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 227 | 0 | 8 | 104 | 71 | 33 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here. Slabs of the three cards printed #139 are joined by description, never by number alone. PSA registers the green tints as a separate set; a tint's population is listed under that state of the card it belongs to.
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Related cards
Team card: #61 St. Louis Cardinals Team
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
- #14 Bill White
- #19 Ray Washburn
- #28 Minnie Minoso
- #50 Stan Musial
- #83 Larry Jackson
- #106 Carl Sawatski
- #118 Julian Javier
- #149 Bob Duliba
- #167 Tim McCarver
- #198 Johnny Keane
- #202 Carl Warwick
- #223 Alex Grammas
- #241 Johnny Kucks
- #266 John Anderson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #412 card?
It is card #412 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Charlie James of the St. Louis Cardinals.
How many cards are in the 1962 Topps Baseball set?
600 cards, tracked as 708 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps, but three different cards were printed #139 - two Hal Reniff poses, catalogued 139a and 139b, and the Babe Hits 60 Babe Ruth Special, 139c - so 598 numbers make 600 cards; 93 cards carry catalogued print variations, the series-2 green tints among them, that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Baseball Almanac, Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.