1965 Topps #401 Carl Willey
About Carl Willey
A Gates Brown line drive in an April 3, 1964 exhibition game against Detroit broke Willey's jaw, and he missed the first three months of the season; tendinitis and a torn forearm muscle followed. What was left of the year came to 14 games, three starts, 30 innings, an 0-2 record and a 3.60 ERA. Card #401 belongs to the fifth series of 1965 Topps and pictures him with the Mets.
Carlton Francis Willey was a right-handed pitcher from Cherryfield, Maine, who reached the majors with the Milwaukee Braves in 1958 after an earned-run title in the Provincial League, two Army years in Germany, and a Most Valuable Player season with Wichita of the American Association. An even six feet tall, with a fastball once clocked at 93 mph, he broke in at 26 and went 9-7 with a 2.70 ERA, led the National League with four shutouts and was named the league's rookie pitcher of the year by The Sporting News. That October he retired all three men he faced in the eighth inning of Game Five, striking out two, in a 7-0 loss at Yankee Stadium; the Braves lost the Series to New York in seven games. A staff fronted by Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl then squeezed him out, and after 1962 he asked to be traded. The Mets bought him, and he spent his last three seasons there. Eight big-league years left him 38-58 with a 3.76 ERA, 28 complete games, 11 shutouts and 493 strikeouts. He later scouted for the Philadelphia Phillies and is a member of the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Stats Crew · Maine Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 269 | 3 | 52 | 138 | 47 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 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. The two checklist variations, #79 and #508, are listed under the wording PSA uses for each state.
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Team card: #551 New York Mets
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #401 card?
It is card #401 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Carl Willey of the New York Mets.
How many cards are in the 1965 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 600 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no printed-number collisions, and two checklist cards - #79 and #508 - carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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.