1973 Topps #280 Al Kaline
About Al Kaline
Kaline went 5 for 19 with a home run in the 1972 American League Championship Series against Oakland. During the regular season he played 84 games in right field and 11 at first base. His 1973 Topps Tigers card, #280, came from the third series.
Al Kaline spent his entire 22-season career with the Detroit Tigers, signing out of Baltimore's Southern High School in 1953 and stepping straight into the majors at 18 without a day in the minor leagues. In 1955, at 20, he hit .340 with 200 hits and 27 home runs to become the youngest batting champion in big-league history. The long tie to one franchise made him Mr. Tiger. He was selected to 18 All-Star Games and won ten Gold Gloves (1957-1959 and 1961-1967) in right field, where he was known for his strong throwing arm. He did all of it on a left foot deformed by childhood osteomyelitis that cost him two inches of bone. His one World Series, in 1968, brought a .379 average, two home runs and eight runs batted in as Detroit beat St. Louis in seven games. He finished with 3,007 hits, 399 home runs and a .297 average, the twelfth man to reach 3,000 hits. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980 on the first ballot with 88.3 percent of the vote. He called Tigers games on television from 1975 to 2002 and worked in the front office until his death in 2020.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Print variations
Two states of #280 are tracked individually: 280a - 1st Printing (Band-Aid Visible) and 280b - 2nd Printing (Band-Aid Airbrushed Out). The difference is on the front of the card (airbrush).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 280a - 1st Printing (Band-Aid Visible) | |||||||||
| PSA | 1,683 | 8 | 151 | 612 | 318 | 237 | 135 | 222 | 0 |
| SGC | 346 | 0 | 7 | 47 | 90 | 72 | 56 | 71 | 3 |
| 280b - 2nd Printing (Band-Aid Airbrushed Out) | |||||||||
| PSA | — | Not listed separately in the PSA population report | |||||||
| SGC | — | Not listed separately in the SGC population report | |||||||
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. 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; PSA and SGC slabs whose label names no variation are counted under 280a - 1st Printing (Band-Aid Visible). A line marked “not listed separately” means that grader’s population report has no row of its own for that variation; it does not establish that no graded copies exist.
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Related cards
Team card: #191 Detroit Tigers
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #5 Ed Brinkman
- #29 Tony Taylor
- #51 Chuck Seelbach
- #88 Mickey Stanley
- #120 Joe Coleman
- #146 Woodie Fryman
- #168 Jim Northrup
- #218 Aurelio Rodriguez
- #256 Chris Zachary
- #304 Duke Sims
- #323 Tigers Field Leaders
- #349 Dick McAuliffe
- #369 Lerrin LaGrow
- #390 Mickey Lolich
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #280 card?
It is card #280 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers.
Does 1973 Topps #280 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 280a - 1st Printing (Band-Aid Visible) (The first printing: a Band-Aid shows on Kaline's forehead under the cap brim) and 280b - 2nd Printing (Band-Aid Airbrushed Out) (The second printing: the Band-Aid on Kaline's forehead is airbrushed out). Owning any one of them fills the #280 slot; the master set counts each state.
How many cards are in the 1973 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 679 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, in five series of 132 - #1-132, #133-264, #265-396, #397-528 and the high numbers, #529-660, printed in lower quantities; 19 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fifteen Field Leaders cards, the #20 Stan Bahnsen, #31 Buddy Bell and #504 Earl Williams border-gap pairs and the two #280 Al Kaline printings.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-25.