1969 Topps #500 Mickey Mantle
Mantle's last Topps card as an active player. It comes two ways: last name in yellow, and the much scarcer white-letter printing.
About Mickey Mantle
#500 is Mantle's last Topps card as an active player; he announced his retirement on March 1, 1969, about a month before the season began. It reports a closing year of .237 with 18 home runs and 54 runs batted in over 144 games, the season that pulled his lifetime average under .300, to .298, the one thing he said he regretted. The card comes two ways out of the fifth series: last name in yellow, and the far scarcer white-letter printing collectors chase.
Mickey Charles Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, on October 20, 1931, and raised in Commerce, where his father Mutt, a semipro player, named him for catcher Mickey Cochrane and taught him to switch-hit: lefty against his father, righty against his grandfather. Yankees scout Tom Greenwade signed him out of Commerce High School in 1949, and he reached New York in 1951 at nineteen, taking over center field the next spring when Joe DiMaggio retired. The Mick won the 1956 Triple Crown, leading the majors in batting average (.353), home runs (52) and runs batted in (130), and was American League Most Valuable Player in 1956, 1957 and 1962. He led the league in home runs four times, was picked for 20 All-Star Games across 16 seasons, and won a Gold Glove in 1962. Playing on a knee he tore in the 1951 World Series and legs that never came back, he still reached twelve World Series, won seven, and holds Series records for home runs (18), runs (42), runs batted in (40), walks (43) and total bases (123). He finished in 1968 with 536 home runs and a .298 average, and the Yankees retired his number 7. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, first ballot, with 88.2 percent of the vote.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Print variations
Two states of #500 are tracked individually: 500a - Last Name In Yellow and 500b - Last Name In White. The difference is on the front of the card (name color).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500a - Last Name In Yellow | |||||||||
| PSA | 13,268 | 2 | 65 | 564 | 1,163 | 1,990 | 2,069 | 7,339 | 76 |
| SGC | 5,509 | 1 | 9 | 50 | 195 | 320 | 940 | 3,802 | 192 |
| 500b - Last Name In White | |||||||||
| PSA | 1,508 | 1 | 4 | 47 | 113 | 234 | 254 | 832 | 23 |
| SGC | 480 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 20 | 69 | 330 | 38 |
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.
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Related cards
More New York Yankees cards:
- #9 American League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #25 Roy White
- #46 Fritz Peterson
- #69 Steve Hamilton
- #87 Horace Clarke
- #114 Yankees 1969 Rookie Stars
- #191 Lindy McDaniel
- #212 Tom Tresh
- #237 Bobby Cox
- #262 Mike Kekich
- #292 Al Downing
- #313 Bill Robinson
- #332 Fred Talbot
- #354 Nate Oliver
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #500 card?
It is card #500 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees.
Is #500 Mickey Mantle's last card?
As an active player, yes: #500 is Mickey Mantle's last Topps card from his playing days - he retired that spring, announcing it on March 1, 1969 - though the 1975 Topps MVP subset (#194, #195 and #200) carries him again. It was printed two ways, with "Mantle" in yellow letters and, far scarcer, in white letters.
What are the key cards in the 1969 Topps set?
The #500 Mickey Mantle - his last Topps card as an active player, printed with his name in yellow letters and, far scarcer, in white letters - is the grail of the set, and the #260 Reggie Jackson rookie card is its headline rookie. The other major keys are #50 Bob Clemente (printed "Bob" on the front), #95 Johnny Bench, #100 Hank Aaron, #120 Pete Rose, #190 Willie Mays, #480 Tom Seaver, #533 Nolan Ryan (his first solo card; the rookie is 1968 #177) and #597 AL Rookie Stars with Rollie Fingers. The high numbers (#589-664) are the hardest run in the set.
Does 1969 Topps #500 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 500a - Last Name In Yellow (Mantle's last Topps card as an active player, with "Mantle" in yellow letters - the common state) and 500b - Last Name In White (The white-letter Mantle - the grail of the set, far scarcer than the yellow-letter card). Owning any one of them fills the #500 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.