1966 Topps #550 Willie McCovey
Two of the four published short-print lists tag this high number, as does PSA's 1966 set description; the lists disagree, so scarcity is stated for the seventh series as a whole.
About Willie McCovey
The 1966 set gives McCovey two cards off a 1965 comeback: card 217, the league home run leaders alongside Willie Mays and Billy Williams, and card 550, a high number from the seventh series. With a ruined knee limiting Cepeda to six games in the field, manager Herman Franks moved McCovey back to first base for good, and he answered with 39 home runs -- second in the league to Mays' 52 -- along with 92 RBI, 88 walks and a .276 average in 160 games, the busiest season he ever played.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, on January 10, 1938, McCovey signed with the New York Giants in 1955 out of a Florida tryout camp. He reached the majors on July 30, 1959, four-for-four with two triples off Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, and finished at .354 with 13 home runs in 52 games to win National League Rookie of the Year. Six feet four, he was "Stretch" for the reach he gave the Giants at first base, and he grew into a dead-pull line-drive hitter who drew shifts and record intentional walks. He played 19 seasons for San Francisco, with San Diego and Oakland in between. He led the National League in home runs in 1963, 1968 and 1969 and in runs batted in in 1968 and 1969, and his 1969 line of 45 homers, 126 RBI and a .320 average brought the Most Valuable Player award. He made six All-Star teams and homered twice to win the 1969 All-Star Game MVP. His only World Series, in 1962, ended with his ninth-inning liner in the glove of Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson, tying and winning runs stranded. He retired in 1980 with 521 home runs, entered the Hall of Fame in 1986 on the first ballot, and gave his name to the cove beyond the Giants' right-field wall.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet (1) · Retrosheet (2) · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,396 | 6 | 49 | 276 | 315 | 273 | 196 | 281 | 0 |
| SGC | 312 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 54 | 73 | 68 | 88 | 7 |
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 McCovey in this set: #217 League Leaders
Team card: #19 San Francisco Giants
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #1 Willie Mays
- #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
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #550 card?
It is card #550 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants.
Why is #550 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #523-598 - the scarce end of the set. Forty-three of its 76 cards are short prints, so scarcity is stated for the series as a whole.
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.