1969 Topps #478 Don Buford
About Don Buford
By the time his 1969 Topps card, #478, hit shelves, Buford was Baltimore's entrenched leadoff man. He hit a career-high .291 as the Orioles won the American League pennant, then led off Game One of the World Series against the New York Mets with a home run off Tom Seaver, though Baltimore went on to lose the Series in five games.
Don Buford was a switch-hitting infielder-outfielder who broke in with the Chicago White Sox in 1963 after leading the International League in hitting at Indianapolis. Undersized at 5-foot-7, he grew up in Southern California and starred in both football and baseball at USC before signing with Chicago. He spent his first five seasons shuttling between second and third base for the White Sox, drawing walks and running the bases well even while his defense drew criticism. Traded to Baltimore after the 1967 season, Buford was moved to the outfield and installed as leadoff hitter by new manager Earl Weaver in 1968, a switch that unlocked his best years. He anchored the Orioles' leadoff spot through three straight pennant-winning seasons, scoring 99 runs in each of 1969, 1970 and 1971, and made his only All-Star team in 1971. He later played four seasons in Japan before working in personnel and later returning to baseball as a manager and coach.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 249 | 1 | 33 | 137 | 56 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 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.
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Related cards
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
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- #9 American League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #15 Boog Powell
- #37 Curt Motton
- #66 Orioles 1969 Rookie Stars
- #86 Pete Richert
- #113 Dave May
- #141 Bill Dillman
- #151 Clay Dalrymple
- #185 Tom Phoebus
- #203 Dave Johnson
- #228 Dave Leonhard
- #250 Frank Robinson
- #277 Rod Hendricks
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #478 card?
It is card #478 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Buford of the Baltimore Orioles.
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
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 2026-10-12.