1965 Topps #540 Lou Brock
About Lou Brock
#540 is a seventh-series high number from the 1965 set's short-print zone and Brock's first card as a Cardinal. Its back covers the half-season that changed everything: .348 with 81 runs and 33 steals in 103 games, lifting a club that sat eighth in the league on June 15 to a pennant decided on the final day. Against the Yankees that October he hit .300 with five runs batted in and homered off Al Downing in the fifth inning of Game Seven.
Lou Brock played 19 major league seasons, breaking in with a September callup by the Chicago Cubs in 1961 and spending parts of four seasons there before the June 15, 1964 trade that sent him to St. Louis for pitcher Ernie Broglio, a deal still remembered as one of the most lopsided in baseball history. Moved to left field and turned loose on the bases, Brock led the National League in stolen bases eight times between 1966 and 1974, broke Maury Wills' single-season record with 118 steals in 1974, and passed Ty Cobb's career mark in 1977 on the way to a total of 938 that stood until 1991. A six-time All-Star and a career .293 hitter, he helped the Cardinals to pennants in 1964, 1967 and 1968 and to World Series titles in 1964 and 1967, batting .391 with 14 steals across three Fall Classics. He collected his 3,000th hit on August 13, 1979 off Dennis Lamp of the Cubs, the club that had traded him, then retired at 40 with a .304 average. St. Louis retired his number 20 that September, and he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985, his first year on the ballot.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 2,484 | 8 | 121 | 557 | 550 | 462 | 323 | 459 | 4 |
| SGC | 709 | 0 | 12 | 65 | 115 | 143 | 180 | 182 | 12 |
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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Related cards
Team card: #57 St. Louis Cardinals
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
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- #10 National League 1964 Pitching Leaders
- #12 National League 1964 Strikeout Leaders
- #28 Barney Schultz
- #43 Mike Shannon
- #78 Dal Maxvill
- #100 Ken Boyer
- #116 Cards 1965 Rookie Stars
- #132 World Series Game #1 - Cards Take Opener
- #135 World Series Game #4 - Boyer's Grand-Slam
- #136 World Series Game #5 - 10th Inning Triumph
- #138 World Series Game #7 - Gibson Wins Finale
- #139 World Series - The Cards Celebrate
- #154 Bob Humphreys
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #540 card?
It is card #540 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Lou Brock of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Is 1965 Topps #540 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last series, #507-598. Unlike most 1960s Topps sets the 1965 highs are not scarce as a run - the premium sits on the short-printed cards inside #523-598. It is also a short-print zone card. Forty-four of the 76 cards in #523-598 were short-printed; #507-522 was not. The zone is stated as a range because the catalogs disagree on exactly which cards, so no single card is marked.
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.