1963 Topps #234 Dave Nicholson
About Dave Nicholson
Card #234 is a third-series 1963 Topps issue - Nicholson's first Topps card as a member of the White Sox after the January 1963 blockbuster that sent him, Hoyt Wilhelm, Ron Hansen and Pete Ward to Chicago for Luis Aparicio and Al Smith. It sits on top of the best year he ever had. He played 126 games, collected 103 hits with a career-high 22 home runs and 70 RBI, and batted .229 - and he struck out 175 times, a major-league single-season record that broke Harmon Killebrew's year-old mark and held up until Bobby Bonds fanned 187 in 1969.
David Lawrence Nicholson (1939-2023) was a right-handed-hitting outfielder from St. Louis who signed with the Baltimore Orioles on January 26, 1958, for a bonus that contemporary accounts placed anywhere from $100,000 to $120,000. He announced his power early, batting .298 with 35 home runs for Class C Aberdeen in 1959 under manager Earl Weaver, tying for the Northern League lead. He debuted for Baltimore on May 24, 1960, at age twenty, and went on to play for the Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves through 1967. His calling card was towering, infrequent power matched by extreme swing-and-miss: he finished with 573 strikeouts in 1,662 plate appearances, once every 3.4 times he came to the plate. Over 538 games he hit .212 with 61 home runs and 179 RBI. Two more seasons in Triple-A followed before he retired. He died in Carmi, Illinois, in 2023.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 295 | 0 | 32 | 153 | 80 | 15 | 12 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #288 Chicago White Sox
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #2 1962 American League Batting Leaders
- #6 1962 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #10 1962 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #16 Al Smith
- #35 John Buzhardt
- #54 1963 Rookie Stars
- #66 Mike Joyce
- #86 Charley Maxwell
- #100 Joe Cunningham
- #118 Sherm Lollar
- #160 Juan Pizarro
- #181 Sammy Esposito
- #223 Eddie Fisher
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #234 card?
It is card #234 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dave Nicholson of the Chicago White Sox.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: 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.