1962 Topps #300 Willie Mays
About Willie Mays
The 1962 set reports a huge 1961: a .308 average, 40 home runs, 123 RBI and a league-best 129 runs, plus the April 30 game at Milwaukee in which Mays hit four home runs, matching the single-game record and only the sixth time it had been done in National League history. Card #18, titled Managers' Dream, is the cross-league pairing with Mickey Mantle. Card #54 is the National League home run leaders card, where Mays sits second behind Orlando Cepeda, who beat him out 46 to 40, with Frank Robinson third. His solo issue is #300 from the fourth series, and #395 is his National League All-Star card.
Willie Howard Mays Jr. (1931-2024), the Say Hey Kid, played 23 major league seasons (1951-1952, 1954-1973), almost all of them in center field for the New York and San Francisco Giants. New York writers hung the nickname on him during his rookie year for the greeting he used in place of hello, though which writer coined it has been argued over ever since. Mays reached the Giants in 1951 out of the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons and won Rookie of the Year, then lost most of two seasons to the Army. He returned in 1954 to take the batting title at .345, the National League Most Valuable Player award and a World Series title, a year remembered for his over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz's drive in Game One. He moved west with the club in 1958 and stayed a star for another decade and a half: a second MVP in 1965, four home run crowns, twelve consecutive Gold Gloves from 1957 through 1968 and 24 All-Star selections. He finished with 660 home runs, third in history when he retired, and 3,293 hits, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979 on the first ballot with 94.7 percent of the vote.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 4,317 | 1 | 9 | 86 | 362 | 809 | 911 | 2,127 | 12 |
| SGC | 2,000 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 79 | 198 | 427 | 1,185 | 91 |
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
More Willie Mays in this set: #18 Combo, #54 League Leaders, #395 NL All-Stars
Team card: #226 San Francisco Giants Team
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #9 Jim Davenport
- #18 Managers' Dream
- #33 Don Larsen
- #40 Orlando Cepeda
- #71 Dick LeMay
- #107 Mike McCormick
- #133 Felipe Alou
- #155 Stu Miller
- #188 Chuck Hiller
- #199 Gaylord Perry
- #231 Ernie Bowman
- #247 Joe Pignatano
- #260 Bill Pierce
- #319 Mike McCormick
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #300 card?
It is card #300 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants.
What are the key cards in the 1962 Topps set?
The #200 Mickey Mantle anchors the set, with #1 Roger Maris opening it, #300 Willie Mays, #320 Hank Aaron, #5 Sandy Koufax and #10 Bob Clemente (printed under the shortened name Topps used for him) among the stars, #18 Managers' Dream pairing Mantle and Mays, and Mantle again on the #471 AL All-Star card. The #387 Lou Brock and #199 Gaylord Perry rookies head the first-year cards, and #530 Bob Gibson sits in the short-printed high series (#523-598), the hardest cards to find. Behind them come the #218 Joe Torre rookie, Mantle's #318 In Action card and the ten-card Babe Ruth Special.
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.