1966 Topps #126 Jim Palmer
Palmer's rookie card, and the back's biography mistakenly calls him a left-hander.
Uncorrected error: The back bio calls Palmer a left-hander - he threw right
About Jim Palmer
Card #126 is Palmer's rookie card, a solo issue in the set's second series, and it looks back on 1965: 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA over 92 innings, mostly as a spot starter and long reliever for a 19-year-old who broke camp with the Orioles straight out of Single-A Aberdeen. He won his first big-league game in relief against the Yankees that May and hit a two-run home run off Jim Bouton in the same outing. The back's biography calls him a left-hander; Palmer threw right.
James Alvin Palmer pitched all 19 of his major league seasons with the Baltimore Orioles (1965-1967, 1969-1984), reaching the majors at 19 and finishing as the winningest pitcher of the 1970s with 186 wins. A right-hander whose best pitch was a high fastball, he worked on three World Series champions (1966, 1970, 1983) and six American League pennant winners, and he is the only pitcher to win a World Series game in three different decades. His Game Two shutout of Los Angeles in the 1966 Series, thrown nine days before his 21st birthday, made him the youngest man to pitch a complete-game shutout in a Series and sent Sandy Koufax off in his final appearance. Palmer won three Cy Young Awards (1973, 1975, 1976), four straight Gold Gloves (1976-1979), two ERA titles and six All-Star selections, and he won 20 or more games eight times, finishing 268-152 with a 2.86 ERA, 211 complete games and 53 shutouts. Arm trouble cost him most of 1967 and all of 1968, but he came back in 1969 with the only no-hitter of his career. Teammates called him Cakes for the pancakes he ate on the mornings he pitched. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990, his first year of eligibility.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 5,779 | 0 | 83 | 561 | 889 | 1,166 | 1,009 | 2,059 | 12 |
| SGC | 1,868 | 0 | 2 | 41 | 183 | 307 | 471 | 816 | 48 |
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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #126 card?
It is card #126 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles.
Is 1966 Topps #126 a rookie card?
Yes - #126 is the 1966 Topps rookie card of Jim Palmer.
What are the key cards in the 1966 Topps set?
#1 Willie Mays opens the set and #598 Gaylord Perry closes it. The #50 Mickey Mantle anchors it, with #30 Pete Rose, #100 Sandy Koufax (his last solo Topps card), #300 Bob Clemente, #500 Hank Aaron (his first base card as an Atlanta Brave) and #215 National League 1965 Batting Leaders (Clemente, Aaron and Mays on one card) among the headliners, and three Hall of Fame rookies: #126 Jim Palmer, #254 Phillies Rookie Stars (Ferguson Jenkins) and #288 Dodgers Rookie Stars (Don Sutton). The 76-card high series (#523-598) is the hardest run to complete - 43 of its cards are short prints.
Does 1966 Topps #126 have an error?
The back bio calls Palmer a left-hander - he threw right. It was never corrected, so there is no variation to chase - every copy of #126 reads the same way.
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.