1968 Topps #317 Ron Brand
About Ron Brand
Card 317, part of the fourth series of the 1968 Topps set, finds Ron Brand still with the Houston Astros, though he opened that season with the club's Oklahoma City 89ers affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. He played in just 43 games for Houston that year, 29 of them behind the plate, batting .160 with 4 RBI, his lightest big-league workload since debuting. Within months of this card's release, the Montreal Expos selected him in the 1968 expansion draft, ending his Houston tenure.
Ron Brand, born January 13, 1940, in Los Angeles, was a right-handed catcher who played eight major league seasons from 1963 to 1971. Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent out of North Hollywood High School, he spent five years in Pittsburgh's farm system before debuting in 1963. Selected by the Houston Colt .45s in the 1964 Rule 5 draft, Brand became a fixture of the Astros' catching corps through 1968, sharing duties in a season-to-season platoon with John Bateman. The Montreal Expos then drafted Brand in the 1968 expansion draft, and he resumed his partnership with Bateman as an original member of the new franchise. In his final Montreal seasons his role shifted toward utility infield work. Over 568 career games, Brand batted .239 with 3 home runs and 106 RBI. He later managed in the California League before retiring from professional baseball.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 396 | 9 | 87 | 225 | 49 | 20 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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. Slabs of the yellow team-letter #49 and #66 are 1968 Milton Bradley game cards and are not counted here.
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Related cards
More Houston Astros cards:
- #5 National League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #21 Ron Davis
- #41 Julio Gotay
- #57 Dan Schneider
- #77 Don Wilson
- #95 Bob Aspromonte
- #128 Houston 1968 Rookie Stars
- #144 Joe Morgan
- #161 Norm Miller
- #182 Dave Giusti
- #207 Carroll Sembera
- #232 Denis Menke
- #260 Jim Wynn
- #274 Mike Cuellar
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #317 card?
It is card #317 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ron Brand of the Houston Astros.
How many cards are in the 1968 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 606 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 without a gap and no printed number carries two different cards; eight cards - six of the seven checklists, #10 AL Pitching Leaders and #400 Mike McCormick - carry a catalogued print variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, Beckett, 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 2026-10-12.