1966 Topps #405 Elston Howard
About Elston Howard
At 37, with the sore arm still bothering him, Howard appeared in 126 games for a Yankees club that collapsed to 70-89 and tenth place, New York's first last-place finish since 1912. His own line fell with the team - .256 with six home runs and 35 RBI - and his run of nine straight All-Star selections ended. His 1966 Topps card, #405, belongs to the fifth series.
Elston Howard was born February 23, 1929, in St. Louis and signed out of Vashon High School with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1948. The New York Yankees bought his contract in July 1950; Army service during the Korean War cost him two seasons, and a Most Valuable Player year at Triple-A Toronto in 1954 finished his apprenticeship. On April 14, 1955, he became the first Black player to appear for the Yankees. Casey Stengel used him as a spare catcher, outfielder and first baseman behind Yogi Berra, but he took over the majority of the catching in 1960 and grew into one of the American League's finest receivers, winning Gold Gloves in 1963 and 1964. The 1963 season brought him the league's Most Valuable Player Award, the first won by a Black player in the American League. He was picked for nine straight All-Star teams from 1957 through 1965, appeared in ten World Series - nine with New York and a last one with Boston - and won four championships as a player. He finished up with the Red Sox in 1968, then came back to coach first base for the Yankees as the American League's first Black coach. He died in 1980 at 51.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 332 | 1 | 26 | 108 | 81 | 63 | 24 | 29 | 0 |
| SGC | 40 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 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. Where SGC registers no separate row for a variation state, its slabs of that card are listed under the base state.
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Related cards
Team card: #92 New York Yankees
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- #68 Hal Reniff
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- #117 Jake Gibbs
- #138 Roger Repoz
- #160 Whitey Ford
- #177 Hector Lopez
- #186 Ruben Amaro
- #205 Tom Tresh
- #224 American League 1965 Pitching Leaders
- #234 Yankees 1966 Rookie Stars
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #405 card?
It is card #405 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Elston Howard of the New York Yankees.
How many cards are in the 1966 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 613 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no number used twice, and 14 cards carry catalogued print variations - five checklists, the trade and sold statement backs, the three-state #43 Don Landrum, three team-card dot pairs and the #161 Jerry Lumpe white streak - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, 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.