1966 Topps #1 Willie Mays
Mays leads off the set at card #1; the 1966 League Leaders were moved to the middle of the set at #215 through #226 instead of opening it.
About Willie Mays
The 1966 set hands Mays card #1, the first time since 1962 that a single player opened a Topps flagship set - 1963, 1964 and 1965 all led off with leaders cards, and in 1966 the leaders were pushed to the middle of the set at #215 through #226. His card reports a huge 1965: a .317 average, a career-high 52 home runs, 112 RBI, a second Most Valuable Player award, and his 500th home run off Don Nottebart on September 13 to become the fifth man to reach that mark. He turns up three more times in that mid-set leaders run: #215 for batting, behind Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron; #217 for home runs, at the top over Willie McCovey and Billy Williams; and #219 for runs batted in, behind Deron Johnson and Frank Robinson.
Willie Howard Mays Jr. (1931-2024), the Say Hey Kid, played 23 major league seasons (1948 in the Negro American League, then 1951-1952 and 1954-1973), almost all of them in center field for the New York and San Francisco Giants. New York writers hung the nickname on him during his rookie year for the greeting he used in place of hello, though which writer coined it has been argued over ever since. Mays reached the Giants in 1951 out of the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons and won Rookie of the Year, then lost most of two seasons to the Army. He returned in 1954 to take the batting title at .345, the National League Most Valuable Player award and a World Series title, a year remembered for his over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz's drive in Game One. He moved west with the club in 1958 and stayed a star for another decade and a half: a second MVP in 1965, four home run crowns, twelve consecutive Gold Gloves from 1957 through 1968 and 24 All-Star selections. He finished with 660 home runs, third in history when he retired, and 3,293 hits, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979 on the first ballot with 94.7 percent of the vote.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · BaseballCardPedia · CBS Sports
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 5,714 | 0 | 26 | 243 | 402 | 644 | 890 | 3,490 | 19 |
| SGC | 2,241 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 64 | 137 | 315 | 1,657 | 59 |
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
More Willie Mays in this set: #215 League Leaders, #217 League Leaders, #219 League Leaders
Team card: #19 San Francisco Giants
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #39 Ken Henderson
- #61 Bob Bolin
- #78 Frank Linzy
- #94 Matty Alou
- #115 Bill Henry
- #132 Orlando Cepeda
- #156 D P Combo
- #176 Jim Davenport
- #215 National League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #217 National League 1965 Home Run Leaders
- #219 National League 1965 RBI Leaders
- #221 National League 1965 ERA Leaders
- #242 Jesus Alou
- #260 Bob Shaw
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #1 card?
It is card #1 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants.
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.
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.