1962 Topps #496 Wayne Causey
About Wayne Causey
Card #496 sits in the sixth series of the 1962 set - a late number - and it is the recognized Causey rookie card, arriving seven years after his major league debut. Topps has him in Kansas City flannels after the January 1961 deal with Baltimore. He opened 1961 as a backup behind Dick Howser and Rene Bertoia, then new manager Hank Bauer handed him third base in June and he ran with it: 104 games, a .276 average, 86 hits, eight home runs and 49 runs batted in.
James Wayne Causey, born December 26, 1936, in Ruston, Louisiana, was a sought-after third baseman out of Neville High School when Baltimore outbid Detroit and Philadelphia and signed him on June 4, 1955, for a $32,000 bonus. Any bonus above $4,000 made a player a bonus baby who had to be kept on the big league roster for two seasons, and Causey hit just .187 in 135 games as an Oriole. After nearly four years in the minors, a January 24, 1961 trade sent him, Bob Boyd, Al Pilarcik, Jim Archer and Clint Courtney to the Kansas City Athletics for Russ Snyder and Whitey Herzog. Kansas City made him a regular across shortstop, second and third, where he batted .270 with 640 hits in 689 games and drew American League MVP votes in 1963 and 1964. A separated shoulder and the arrival of Bert Campaneris ended that run, and he finished in 1968 with Chicago, California and Atlanta. He took off-season classes from 1956 on and earned an accounting degree from Northeast Louisiana State College in 1965.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 223 | 2 | 21 | 92 | 80 | 19 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
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: #384 Kansas City Athletics Team
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #13 Dick Howser
- #38 Gene Stephens
- #82 Deron Johnson
- #122 Norm Bass
- #127 Pride of the A's
- #147 Bill Kunkel
- #168 Leo Posada
- #184 Haywood Sullivan
- #246 Art Ditmar
- #254 Gordon Windhorn
- #275 Norm Siebern
- #305 Jerry Lumpe
- #333 Frank Cipriani
- #342 Ed Rakow
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #496 card?
It is card #496 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Wayne Causey of the Kansas City Athletics.
Is 1962 Topps #496 a rookie card?
Yes - #496 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Wayne Causey.
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.