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1954 Topps Hank Aaron Rookie Card Shines in Vintage Collection Purchase

Love for Stan The Man Musial Sparked Baseball Card Collection

March 06, 2025

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A 1954 Topps Hank Aaron rookie card highlights a collection of vintage baseball cards proudly purchased by Just Collect. The original owner of the cards began his love of baseball after watching Stan Musial play in a game he attended with his dad at the age of nine.

On May 2nd, 1954, Don attended a double-header between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Giants. On that day, Stan "The Man" Musial hit five home runs - three in the first game and two in the second. From that day on, Don's hero was Musial. Don's childhood card collection includes legends of the games including rookies, stars, and Hall of Famers.

THE COLLECTION

The majority of Don's collection is from the 1954 Topps baseball set and 1955 Bowman baseball set, each of which are filled with a who's who of the diamond.

In the first photo below, you can see the three top cards of the 1954 Topps set: rookie cards of Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, and Hank Aaron. Kaline, Mr. Tiger, made 18 All-Star teams, won 10 Gold Glove awards, collected over 3,000 hits, and won the World Series for his Detroit Tigers in 1958. Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, made 14 All-Star teams, won two MVP awards, and crushed over 500 homeruns. Hank Aaron, The Hammer, made 25 All-Star teams, led his Braves to the 1957 World Series championship, broke Babe Ruth's career home run record, and still holds the MLB record for career RBI despite not playing a game since 1976!

As you feast your eyes on the second photo below, you'll see more iconic players from the 1954 Topps set that Don collected. Both Ted Williams cards - one orange background and one yellow background. Yogi Berra, Warren Spahn, Willie Mays, Duke Snider, and Jackie Robinson. The stars continue from the 1954 Topps set in the third photo as you see the likes of Whitey Ford, Eddie Matthews, and more!

The 1954 Topps cards measure 2-5/8" by 3-3/4, slightly bigger than today's standard size for cards of 2-1/2" by 3-1/2". You can see an action shot the background of each portrait, and vibrant colors that jump out at you! One notable name is in the 1954 Topps set and one notable is not. Have you guess these names yet? Ted Williams, Teddy Ballgame returned to baseball from his military service. Topps put Ted Williams on the first card in the set at #1 and the last card in the set at #250. Being in these positions makes it difficult to find either card in top condition as kids often put rubber bands around the stack of cards and placed that stack in a shoebox. Guess which cards took the brunt of the rubber band? The card on top and the card on the bottom - first and last cards - Ted Williams. Condition is VERY important when determining the value of your cards. This is why we provide tips on how to safely store your cards! When grading your cards, marks from a rubber band or dinged corners from putting the stack in a shoebox could alter the grade and therefore the value. Using a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being Gem Mint, perfect, a rubber band mark will prevent that card from ever getting a 10. The difference in value could be hundreds, if not thousands of dollars between a 10 and 9! Now that we know Ted Williams IS in the set, you'll see that Mickey Mantle is NOT in the set! Bowman had signed Mickey Mantle to a contract for the 1954 and 1955 seasons and he is not featured on a Topps card in either season. Don still had a 1955 Mantle in his collection, though! Get ready to look at picture number four below.

Mickey Mantle is the star of the 1955 Bowman baseball set in the fourth photo below. Measuring 2-1/2" by 3-3/4”, each card resembles a TV set that takes you back to those three-channel, rabbit ears, no remote control, TV sat on the floor days! We still remember needing to "warm up" the TV for mom and dad. In total, 320 cards make up the 1955 Bowman set with Mantle leading the way. The three-time MVP won seven World Championships for his New York Yankees. Did you know our sister company, VintageBreaks.com, pulled a pack-fresh Mickey Mantle from a sealed cello pack of 1955 Bowman baseball cards?! We did so live on the stage at the National Sports Collectors Convention in 2018, and you can see the video HERE. Flanking Mantle in the photo are 1955 Bowman cards of Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. You can see more stellar players from the 1955 set in each of the fourth and fifth photos below.

The last photo has a few cards from the 1958 Topps baseball set. We love the All-Star cards from this set, and Don had a few in the collection. The red and yellow background, and the blue and white backgrounds are aesthetically-pleasing cards, aren't they?

Don did not have any Stan Musial cards in the collection that he wanted to sell at this time. He is holding onto to them to remember that day when Stan hit five home runs in one day! He did mention to our Vice-President, John, that he really didn't know what most of these players looked like. Back then the games were heard on radios or when a game was shown on TV it was usually the game of the week that featured games with Mantle, Teddy, Mays or Aaron. When he opened these packs he finally got to see what these superstars looked like. He was able to put a face to the names!

Photos of the collection:

Do you have any similar cards from this collection that you'd like to sell? We are buying! Click here for more info:

APPRAISAL AND PURCHASE

Don reached out on our website and completed our very easy-to-use form. After reviewing images of the cards, our owner, Leighton, and our Vice President, John, went right to work. The retail stores are focused on selling modern products and simply don't have the time or the knowledge to carefully evaluate vintage collections. This is where we are happy to help you! We have purchased thousands upon thousands of collections and bought and sold over 50 MILLION dollars in cards. We even evaluated and purchased a collection of THREE Stan Musial rookie cards, Don's boyhood hero, that you can read about HERE.

After appraising the collection, we made Don a fair offer that he accepted. Don then chose to SHIP the collection with our two-day, fully-insured FedEx account. We then paid Don via company check. When you choose to sell your collection to Just Collect, we pay you how you want to be paid, be it cash, company check, or money order.

Can't ship your cards? No problem! We offer many ways to evaluate and purchase your collection. You're always welcome to come to our Just Collect store here in New Jersey. You can meet us at a show or a convention like The Philly show. We also travel for large collections like we did when buying a huge collection in Nebraska for $77,000 that includes items from Babe Ruth you can see HERE.

We want to thank Don for choosing Just Collect to purchase the collection he built as a kid in the 1950's. We remember going to games with our dad, rooting our favorite team on, and picking out our boyhood heroes just like Don did. Do you remember any games you went to with your parents that bring back great memories? Tell us in the comments below; we'd love to hear from you!

WE ARE ALWAYS BUYING

Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.

We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:

We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.

Travel to Us

If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.

Come to convention

We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.

Meet in-person

If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.

Meet in New York City

If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.

SHIP your collection

If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.

OUR BUYING PHILOSOPHY

We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!

Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.