1969 Topps #208 Donn Clendenon
Clendenon refused the trade that would have sent him to Houston and stayed with Montreal, and the Expos version of this card is the one collectors pay up for.
About Donn Clendenon
Card #208 comes in two collectible states: one with Houston, the common version, and one with Montreal, the scarcer state and the one collectors pay for. Montreal took him eleventh in the October 1968 expansion draft, then sent him and Jesus Alou to Houston for Rusty Staub; he refused to report to Harry Walker's Astros and stayed an Expo. The back carries his last Pittsburgh season: .257 with 17 home runs and 87 RBI. He played 38 games in Montreal before the June trade to the Mets.
Donn Alvin Clendenon was born July 15, 1935, in Neosho, Missouri, and grew up in Atlanta, a nine-sport letterman at Booker T. Washington High School and a twelve-letter man at Morehouse College, where Martin Luther King Jr. was his "big brother." Signed by Pittsburgh in 1957, the first baseman debuted in September 1961, took the job when Dick Stuart was traded to Boston, and peaked in 1966 at .299 with 28 home runs and a career-high 98 RBI for the Pirates lineup called the Lumber Company. Montreal took him in the 1968 expansion draft and dealt him to Houston for Rusty Staub; he refused to report over manager Harry Walker and stayed an Expo. Traded to the Mets that June, he was named 1969 World Series MVP, batting .357 with three home runs against Baltimore. He finished at .274 with 159 home runs and 682 RBI over twelve seasons, later took a law degree from Duquesne University, worked as an addictions counselor, and died of leukemia in 2005, the year the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame inducted him.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Baseball Almanac (3) · Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Print variations
Two states of #208 are tracked individually: 208a - Houston and 208b - Expos. The difference is on the front of the card (photo team).
States catalogued by the PSA master set registry and the Trading Card Database; each is tracked here individually.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 208a - Houston | |||||||||
| PSA | 238 | 2 | 26 | 107 | 46 | 30 | 15 | 11 | 1 |
| SGC | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 208b - Expos | |||||||||
| PSA | 205 | 1 | 7 | 55 | 53 | 35 | 27 | 27 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Not designated by SGC | |||||||||
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation; SGC slabs whose label names no variation are listed as not designated, while PSA slabs whose label names no variation are counted under 208a - Houston.
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- #156 Astros 1969 Rookie Stars
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- #337 Marty Martinez
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #208 card?
It is card #208 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Donn Clendenon of the Houston Astros.
Did Donn Clendenon play for Houston in 1969?
No. Houston had taken him in a January 1969 trade he refused to report for; he stayed with the Expos and was traded to the Mets that June. The Houston front is the common state and the base card here; the Expos front is the scarcer, premium state.
Does 1969 Topps #208 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 208a - Houston (Clendenon as an Astro - the common state. Houston had taken him in a trade he refused to report for) and 208b - Expos (Clendenon as an Expo - the scarcer state and the premium side; he stayed in Montreal and was traded to the Mets that June). Owning any one of them fills the #208 slot; the master set counts each state.
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.