1973 Topps #642 Jose Laboy
About Jose Laboy
Laboy's 1972 season was mostly lost to his right knee. He had cartilage surgery on March 14 and threw away his crutches after a week, and got into 28 games for Montreal, 24 of them at third base. He hit .261 with 3 home runs and 14 RBI. His 1973 Topps card is #642, a high number from the fifth series, and shows him with the Expos. He played his last game on May 16, 1973.
Jose Laboy, known as Coco Laboy, was a Puerto Rican third baseman born in Ponce. The San Francisco Giants signed him in 1959, and he spent a decade in the minors, with stops in Fresno, Springfield, El Paso, Tulsa, Winnipeg and Raleigh and winters with Ponce and San Juan in Puerto Rico. The Montreal Expos selected him in the October 1968 expansion draft. He won the starting job at third base and hit a three-run homer in the franchise's first-ever game. His five big-league seasons were all with Montreal, and a knee injury and surgery later limited his playing time. Pitcher Claude Raymond said Laboy was always a good defensive player. He finished his career with a .233 average, 28 home runs and 166 RBI. After retiring he returned to Puerto Rico and worked for the Commonwealth government for 27 years, eventually directing its athletic programs.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 181 | 2 | 57 | 95 | 20 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #642 card?
It is card #642 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jose Laboy of the Montreal Expos.
Why is #642 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the fifth and last print series, #529-660 - the scarce end of the set.
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.