Topps Baseball All-Star Cards 50's to 80's

PowderedH2O

Question for you all. What are your favorite/least favorite All-Star cards from Topps? I am going from the 50's to the 80's in my opinions. I'd love to hear what others think.

1958 - cheesy, with bad photos - the Musial looks great, but the Mantle is lame
1959 - Absolutely gorgeous!!!
1960 - Some of my very favorites ever. - Mantle's card is one of my favorite's ever
1961 - I like the newspaper style, but a design incorporating the 61's would have worked better
1962 - Ok - not great, not horrible
1968 - I hate 68's, but these cards are great.
1969 - Somewhat dull
1970 - Gee this seems familiar... 1961?
1974 - The dual all-star cards are bland.
1982 - They all seem a bit washed out.
1983 - As much as I love the 83's, I dislike the All-Star cards
1984 - Simple, but not bad at all
1985 - These incorporate the 85's well
1986 - Just dull
1987 - Actually look better than the actual cards
1988 - The diamond design is fantastic.
1989 - Ok - nothing special

I'd rate them like this:
1 - 1959
2 - 1960
3 - 1968
4 - 1988
5 - 1987
6 - 1985
7 - 1961
8 - 1970
9 - 1984
10 - 1989
11 - 1962
12 - 1969
13 - 1986
14 - 1982
15 - 1983
16 - 1958
17 - 1974

estang

These are a main focus of my graded collection from 1975 to 1989. While I prefer the all-star simple designation on the player's base card (75 to 81) as opposed to a separate card, my 1980s ranking are as follows:

1) 1984 -- By far the best. Sharp photos and fantastic, clean graphics ---- Favorite cards = Eddie Murray & Tim Raines
2) 1988 -- Eye popping colors and sharp graphics --- Favorite cards = Jack Clark
3) 1987 -- League insignias featured on these, with a solid player selection -- Favorite card = Kirby Puckett
4) 1983 -- Love the big red & blue stars - great player selection --- Favorite card = Rickey Henderson
5) 1982 -- The design is good, but the photo selection on most cards is very disappointing -- Favorite card = George Foster
6) 1986 -- As dull a designe for an all-star card as you can get --- Favorite card = Dwight Gooden
7) 1989 -- Much prefer the National League blue background cards to the A.L. --- Favorite card = Kirk Gibson (wasn't even an all-star)
8) 1985 -- Ranked last for 80s because the photo quality is terrible & poor photo selection. Jeoffrey Leonard's all-star card is the worst of all-time, for quite possibly the worst player to be depicted on an all-star card -- Favorite card = Mike Boddicker
9) 1974 -- Do not like dual all-star or rookie cards --- Favorite card = Carew/Morgan

I'll refrain from ranking the others, but 1968 is better than 1969.

All-Time Favorite All-Star card = Mark Fidrych, 1977

estang

Not to hi-jack the thread too much, but here's my vote for worst all-star players for each year. My biggest weighting has to be a player that was a one-shot, one-year wonder, followed by: Historical career significance, deserved to be elected & card appearance/photo

1958: Frank Malzone (lots to choose from here)
1959: Wes Covington
1961: Frank Herrera (who?)
1969: Tommy Helms (say what?)
1970: Felix Millan
1974: Rick Wise
1975: Jeff Burroughs --- one year career
1976: Gene Tenace & Jim Wynn --- push
1977: Randy Jones -- had a nice run, but ugly card/uniform trumps Toby Harrah
1978: 9 Hall of Famers in the strongest group. Burleson gets the nod
1979: Rick Monday & Don Money - push
1980: Darrell Porter
1981: Jim Bibby (he shouldn't even be depicted -- JR Richard started the 1980 game, for goodness sakes!)
1982: Scott McGregor (nice player but historically doesn't hold up)
1983: Pete Vuckovich (gets bonus votes for his ridiculous auto fees)
1984: Johnny Ray
1985: Jeoffrey Leonard (worst All-Star & card of all-time)
1986: Tim Herr
1987: Tony Bernazard (2nd basemen in the 80s don't stack up)
1988: Shane Rawley (another SP one-hit wonder)
1989: Danny Jackson in a landslide
1990: Jeff Ballard
1991: Bobby Thigpen (well deserved but perhaps the biggest one big season player ever)
1992: Bryan Harvey
1993: Travis Fryman & Dave Fleming - push
1994: Mike Stanley
1995: Mike Stanley (I must have missed the Mike Stanley era)
1996: Hideo Nomo (perhaps the strongest year ever)
2002: Derek Lowe (strong year)
2003: Jody Gerut & Randy Wolf - push
2004: Mark Loretta
2005: Morgan Ensberg

bobsbbcards

1968 All-Stars had 11 HOFers (Killebrew, Cepeda, Carew, Morgan, B. Robinson, Yaz, Aaron, Brock, F. Robinson, Clemente, Gibson).
1970 All-Stars had 10 HOFers (McCovey, Carew, B. Robinson, Rose, Jackson, Yaz, Aaron, F. Robinson, Bench, Marichal).

Neat thread by the way! Here's how I'd rank them:
1 - 1961
2 - 1969
3 - 1970 [I LOVE exploding newspapers]
4 - 1968
5 - 1962
6 - 1959
7 - 1983
8 - 1958
9 - 1960
10 - 1974
11 - 1988
12 - 1986
13 - 1985
14 - 1984
15 - 1982
16 - 1987
17 - 1989

Edited to add: 1959 also had 11 HOFers if you count Stengel's manager card.
Edited again to add: 1958 had 12 HOFers (Stengel, Musial, Fox, Mathews, Banks, Aparicio, F. Robinson, Williams, Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Spahn)

No more edits, I promise.

PowderedH2O

You mentioned that you loved the Mark Fidrych card of 1977 with the All-Star designation. I also loved that card. I was 11 in 1976, so I just fell in love with the guy as a pitcher. I was sad when he got hurt. He signed a bunch of autographs for me. Couldn't have been a more gracious signer. I actually cried when I heard he passed away last week.

The card that always messed me up as a kid was the 1975 Topps Bobby Murcer. I was 10, and I had a moderate knowledge of baseball, but certainly was no expert. It listed him as an "A.L. All-Star" and as a Giant. I was trying to figure out all the ways this was possible. Did the Giants play in the AL for a bit? I also didn't realize that the designations were based on playing in the All-Star game and not for being the best player at that position. So, when the 1978 cards came out I was mystified how Don Sutton got the All-Star designation instead of John Candelaria or Tom Seaver.