1964 Topps #279 Joe Koppe
The photo is a reversed negative, so his glove appears on the wrong hand.
Uncorrected error: The photo is a reversed negative - his glove is on the wrong hand.
About Joe Koppe
Third series, #279 - it carries the printing quirk collectors know it for: the photograph ran as a reversed negative, so a man who threw right-handed appears to be wearing his glove on the wrong hand. The season behind it is 1963, when the Angels used him everywhere. He started only 11 games at shortstop and filled the rest of his time at third base, at second, and in three games in right field, the only outfield duty of his career, batting .210 with 30 hits and 12 RBI across 76 games.
Joseph Koppe, born Joseph Kopchia in Detroit, Michigan, on October 19, 1930, was a right-handed-hitting shortstop who spent eight major-league seasons with the Milwaukee Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles/California Angels. He debuted for the Braves on August 9, 1958 and got into 16 games; Milwaukee won the National League pennant that fall, but he never appeared in the World Series. On March 31, 1959 the Braves shipped him to Philadelphia with Gene Conley and Harry Hanebrink for Johnny O'Brien, Ted Kazanski, and Stan Lopata, and he answered with the best year of his life - .261 in 126 games, 18 doubles, seven triples that ranked eighth in the league, seven home runs, 68 runs scored - and a place on the 1959 Topps All-Star Rookie Team. A wrist injury and a burst of transactions moved him out of Philadelphia in 1961 and into an Angels uniform for five seasons, where he played shortstop, second base, and third base. He retired with a .236 average, 19 home runs, and 141 RBI in 578 games, and died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on September 27, 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 328 | 3 | 55 | 168 | 65 | 23 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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- #127 Angels 1964 Rookie Stars
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #279 card?
It is card #279 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Koppe of the Los Angeles Angels.
Does 1964 Topps #279 have an error?
The photo is a reversed negative - his glove is on the wrong hand. It was never corrected, so there is no variation to chase - every copy of #279 reads the same way.
How many cards are in the 1964 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 589 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 587 with no gaps, and no number carries two different cards; two cards - #4, the A.L. Pitching Leaders, and #517, the seventh-series checklist - carry a catalogued back variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-11.