1964 Topps #533 Johnny Klippstein
About Johnny Klippstein
Card #533, another series-7 high number, credits what his biographer rates the best season of his professional career. Used in relief in all but one of his outings for Philadelphia in 1963, the 35-year-old put up a 1.93 ERA with eight saves across 49 appearances and 112 innings, five times going six innings or more out of the pen, for a Phillies club that finished fourth at 87-75 - its most wins since 1952.
John Calvin Klippstein was a right-handed pitcher who spent 18 seasons in the majors, from his 1950 debut with the Chicago Cubs to a last outing for the Detroit Tigers on May 27, 1967. Born October 17, 1927 in Washington, D.C., he was spotted at 15 at a Cardinals tryout camp in Appleton, Wisconsin, and signed the following spring. He pitched for the Cubs (1950-1954), Cincinnati (1955-1958, 1962), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-1959), Cleveland (1960), Washington (1961), Philadelphia (1963-1964), Minnesota (1964-1966) and Detroit (1967), finishing 101-118 with a 4.24 ERA, 66 saves and 1,158 strikeouts in 1,967 2/3 innings, starting 161 of his 711 games and working out of the bullpen in his later years. Persistent wildness - 97 career wild pitches, with league-leading totals in 1952 and 1961 - earned him the nickname "The Wild Man of Borneo." On May 26, 1956 he held Milwaukee hitless for seven innings, walking seven; Hersh Freeman and Joe Black finished the ninth with the no-hitter still intact before the Braves broke through in the tenth and won it in the eleventh, and a 1991 rules change struck the game from the official no-hitter list. He reached the World Series with the 1959 Dodgers and again with the 1965 Twins. He died October 10, 2003, in Elgin, Illinois.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 235 | 2 | 26 | 117 | 53 | 22 | 9 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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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Related cards
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #533 card?
It is card #533 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Johnny Klippstein of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Is 1964 Topps #533 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh print series, #523-587, distributed last. Scarcer than the rest of the set but only mildly so - the high premium runs roughly 55-60 percent, far milder than the 1952-62 highs.
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.