Here’s the original artwork Dick Perez painted for the 1989 Donruss Frank Viola #23 Diamond Kings card.
Ron Oser Enterprises offered it in a lot with a few other signed Perez originals in April 2001. I think the piece is 11” x 17”. I previously shared the Mike Schmidt and Bobby Bonilla cards from this lot on the blog.
Here’s the final card, followed by a side-by-side comparison.
Donruss obviously did some cropping for the final card. Happy collecting, and don’t forget to check out The Original Artwork Archive for more!
A few rare cards have managed to trickle into the hobby despite Topps’ intention not to release them. These cards were usually caught and updated or removed from production in the proof phase of the printing process. Topps had to make set modifications because of player rights (like the 1974 Topps Joe Namath card), trades (like the 1977 Topps Reggie Jackson and 1967 Topps Roger Maris cards), or printing errors. However, in the case of the 1980 Topps Yankees Team Card, it was for another reason entirely.
Billy Martin played 11 seasons of Major League Baseball, winning five World Series championships with the Yankees and finishing his career as a .257 hitter with 64 home runs and 333 RBIs.
1952 Topps #175 Billy Martin
But, it was Martin’s behavior as a manager who was often fired amid a scandal that led to the 1980 Topps Yankees Team Card proof.
You see, Martin’s first stint as Yankees Manager (after having already been the manager of the Twins, Tigers, and Rangers) was from 1975-1978. He resigned for health reasons in July of 1978, but he was probably going to be fired for cause if he hadn’t. After a lot more drama (which you can read about on Martin’s Wikipedia page), Steinbrenner brought Martin back as manager in June of 1979 to finish out that year after the Yankees’ slow start under manager Bob Lemon. Martin closed out the 1979 season with a 55-40 record. However, he was fired again in October 1979 for punching out a marshmallow salesman, which you can read about in a Lodi News-Sentinel article from October 31, 1979.
Lodi News-Sentinel Article About the Billy Martin Fight
Unfortunately for Topps, in October of 1979, they were already in the middle of the 1980 set’s production. However, they were probably only in the proofing phase because all of the known examples of the Yankees Team card with Billy Martin on it have blank backs.
1980 Topps Yankees Team Billy Martin Proof – Front
1980 Topps Yankees Team Billy Martin Proof – Reverse
By the time Topps issued the 1980 set, Martin had already been replaced on the card by rookie manager Dick Howser.
1980 Topps #424 Yankees Team with Dick Howser – Front
1980 Topps #424 Yankees Team with Dick Howser – Reverse
Now, there have only been a handful of public sales of Billy Martin’s 1980 Topps Yankees Team card.
In December 2003, Lelands auctioned off an uncut proof sheet with the Billy Martin variation. Bidders didn’t meet the reserve on this auction, but the description said the sheet was stamped “August 1989 Topps Auction NYC” on the back, referring to the famous Guernsey’s auction full of items from the Topps Archives; I’ve included a photo from that catalog showing the 1980 Topps baseball uncut sheets that were up for auction below.
1980 Topps Proof Sheet – Lelands
Guernsey’s Topps Auction – Baseball Production Material
In that same Lelands auction, they sold a lot of 78 1980-1983 Topps Archives uncut sheets for $926, including nine 1980 Topps progressives with the Billy Martin card.
A few years later, Robert Edward Auctions sold what appears to be a different 1980 Topps uncut proof sheet with the unissued Martin card for $406 in the spring of 2005 (you can see a corner is missing on Leland’s sheet but not on this one).
1980 Topps Proof Sheet – REA
Finally, the last public sale of a 1980 Topps Yankees Team card with Billy Martin listed as the manager was from a 2016 REA auction lot of eight 1980-1984 Topps proof cards. The lot included a black-only and blackless progressive proof and sold for $1080.
1980 Topps Yankees Team Billy Martin Proof – Black Only
1980 Topps Yankees Team Billy Martin Proof – Blackless
You can find a few more examples shared on vintage sports card forums. As far as we know, the card only exists as a blank-backed proof and never made it into packs. So, it’s not a variation I would say is needed for a complete set; it’s just an unpublished proof. But that’s not to say the card doesn’t have a great story and isn’t a great card to own. Happy collecting!
PS: Martin went on to manage the Athletics from 1980-1982 and returned to manage the Yankees in 1983, 1985, and 1988.
Baseball Cards Magazine set the standard for hobby writing; here’s a piece by Tom Lamarre, published in December 1986, about the 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats set.
While Set Registry competition has driven up the prices of high-grade examples for some of the set’s key cards, complete raw sets in decent condition remain surprisingly affordable.
For example, Huggins and Scott sold an Ex to Ex-Mt near set of 152/154 cards for $390 in December 2023.
And Collect Auctions sold a similarly conditioned complete set for $566 in March 2022.
If you feel priced out of some of the more popular post-war baseball sets, consider collecting the 1952 Wheaties Baseball Player subset. The 1952 Wheaties set has 30 athletes across many supports, but just ten from professional baseball. However, each player has two cards, a portrait, and an action drawing, meaning there are 20 baseball cards to collect.
1952 Wheaties Roy Campanella Portrait
Each panel, the back of a Wheaties box, featured a variety of cards. Individually, the cards are 2’’ x 2-3/4’’ and have blank backs. The drawings are blue on an orange background with an ivory/white border. Under the picture are the player’s name, position, and team.
1952 Wheaties Panel
Many publications say the borders are rounded, and they are if you look at the white border. However, grading companies like PSA seem to grade them inconsistently. High-grade variants exist with borders cut off in squares, with rounded borders including a blue background, and rounded borders at the white edge. Because of this, I’d recommend focusing on authenticity and eye appeal and disregarding the numerical grade.
1952 Wheaties Bob Feller Action
The key card of the set is Ted Williams, but none of the ten players are commons:
Yogi Berra
Roy Campanella
Bob Feller
George Kell
Ralph Kiner
Bob Lemon
Stan Musial
Phil Rizzuto
Preacher Roe
Ted Williams
PSA has graded over 3,300 1952 Wheaties cards across all 30 trading cards. The baseball players average well under 100 combined between both their Action and Portrait cards. Williams has the most, with 162 Action and 150 Portrait cards (in February 2025). George Kell has the fewest graded examples, with 21 Action and 40 Portrait cards.
Mid-grade examples of Ted Williams cards have shot up in recent years, but most other cards can be picked up for ~$50 on average.
1952 Wheaties Ted Williams Portrait
Wrapping up, the 1952 Wheaties baseball subset is a visually appealing 20-card series that, with some patience, remains financially accessible for collectors seeking a graded set. Featuring a distinct design unlike the major releases of its time, these cards make a fantastic addition to any collection.
Do you collect any other 1950s baseball sets? I’d love to hear about them in the comments—happy collecting!
1952 Wheaties Panels
1952 Wheaties Panels
PS: Be careful if you’re buying raw copies. The Standard Catalog mentions that the set was extensively counterfeited around 2002.
I love uncut sheets of sports cards. They make awesome display pieces, they’re often scarce, they provide set education, finish “master” collections, and provide hobby integrity. So, despite the storage problem, they continue to be really popular. But how did these sheets make their way to the market if cards were meant to be cut up and put in boxes for sale? The conventional wisdom is that they came from Topps employees or out the backdoor of printing facilities. But the reality is a bit more complicated than that, particularly in more modern times, as Topps provided uncut sheets via direct sales, instant winner programs, marketing add-ons, and a few other planned/legitimate means.
You can see the code #945-84 sell sheet for Topps 1984 Uncut Baseball Card Sheets when it comes to direct sales. Topps offered six different sheets of 132 cards (132 * 6 = a complete 792 card set). Topps realized there was a market for uncut sheets and responded as any business would.
1984 Topps Baseball Uncut Card Sheets Sell Sheet
One collector on a forum had written that they had bought some sheets in the mid-1980s from local stores (not card stores), and the sheets came wrapped in plastic. So Topps sold some of these, though perhaps not through hobby stores. Another collector responded that as early as 1982, they bought sheets like this from ToysRUs. They were in a large box with the top cut off, left in the aisle for display, and sold for around $6. Others surmise this sales method may have happened as early as 1981
There are also examples of complete boxed sets of 6 uncut sheets of 1987 Topps that are still widely available. Whether they were sold by Topps or a 3rd party is less clear.
1987 Topps Uncut Sheets Complete Box Set
1987 Topps Uncut Sheets Complete Boxed Set Zoomed In
3 Boxes of 1987 Topps Uncut Sheets Baseball Card Collections
Topps also used to provide sheets to collectors through add-ons. In 1989, as the code #325 sell sheet indicates (courtesy of 4192Cards), if any store purchased a case of Bazooka Gum, they got two uncut sheets of Topps baseball cards. It’s believed this happened between 1986 and 1990.
1989 Topps Uncut Sheet Promotion
In 1984, OPC inserted instant winner cards into packs, and one of the prizes was the three sheets that made up a complete set.
1984 OPC Instant Winner Card
Earlier in the 1980s, for $4 ($5 in 1982), collectors could receive a full-sized uncut sheet of 1981 or 1982 Topps baseball and 1981 Topps football cards through a promotion with Coca-Cola (through the header card packed with team sets). Many of the sheets the distributor sent to collectors had errors. So, this tactic may have been a way for Topps to make some money rather than throwing away printer errors or allowing staff to walk off with them.
1981 Topps Baseball Press Sheet Offer
1981 Topps Football Press Sheet Offer
1982 Topps Baseball Press Sheet Offer
The distributor in Connecticut included an additional offer to get every sheet from 1981 for $4 a sheet or $24 for an entire print run.
1981 Topps Uncut Sheet Offer
There’s another example of acquiring uncut sheets as far back as 1972 for Topps basketball in partnership with Wheaties. The Topps Archives wrote about getting 132 player sheets for $2 plus two Wheaties proof of purchase panels. I’ve included the photos from the Topps Archives blog post below, just in case that site ever goes down and we lose access to its incredible history of articles.
Wheaties Box with 1972 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet Offer
1972 Topps Basketball Uncut Sheet
I’m sure there are dozens of more legitimate examples of how Topps distributed uncut sheets of cards in addition to the methods discussed in this post. If you know of any others, share the details in the comments below.
Happy collecting, and don’t forget to check out the Uncut Sheet Archive, too!
Mastro offered this 1979 Topps “Baseball Iron-Ons” Test Issue Keith Hernandez promotional piece in their Classic Collector Auctions Catalog in October 2007. After a lot of searching, I can’t find ANYTHING about it online or in The Hobby Library!
Unfortunately, the catalog was intended to augment an online auction, so there weren’t any item descriptions. On the net54Baseball forums, one collector wrote, “Topps would mock these up for internal use, creating Presentation Boards for one kind of pitch or another. Each piece was handmade by the New Product and /or Art Departments. I’ve not run across this one before but it’s pretty awesome.”
If you have any insight into this item or set, please get in touch with me.
The 1995 National Sports Collector’s Convention Auction featured some remarkable items, including the 1962 Topps Flexichrome artwork for card 461, Ken Hubbs’ rookie card, tucked away as lot 169.
Here’s the lots full description:
1962 TOPPS ORIGINAL FLEXICHROME ARTWORK FOR CARD # 461 KEN HUBBS ROOKIE 4 1/2 inch by 5 1/2 inch original one of a kind flexichrome for Ken Hubbs, “Rookie Of The Year” in 1962, killed in a plane crash in 1964, multicolored artwork comes with the 1962 Topps card final process #461, artwork is in perfect condition with no defects. MINIMUM BID: 200.00
Guernsey’s doesn’t appear to have sold it in their famous Topps Auction in 1989, but I may have missed it in that catalog. If you know the flexichrome’s provenance, let me know!
Finally, here’s a super clean copy of the final card, a PSA 9 that REA sold for $510 in May 2022.
