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1957 Topps Bill Russell Rookie Card Sold for Record $660,000

Just Collect is Buying Bill Russell Rookie Cards!

May 19, 2023

A 1957 Topps rookie card of Bill Russell was sold for a staggering sum of $660,000! This particular rookie card of the Boston Celtics legend is the highest-graded example publicly available.

The 1957 Topps basketball set filled a huge void in the hobby. After the release of 1948 Bowman basketball cards, there were no major products distributed. Imagine that today - for about a decade, you couldn't find a basketball card! When Topps brought us these amazing, color-filed card, they included a player that would become a pure legend - a winner's winner. Bill Russell's rookie card is in the coveted 1957 Topps set!

Bill Russell-2

There is card #77, an all-time, iconic card in our hobby. Bill Russel is wearing his Celtics #6 jersey and playing defense in the card you see above.

In his career, Russell won 2 National Championships in college, 11 NBA Championships (including two as a player-coach!). A Gold Medal from the 1956 Olympics is also on Russell's resume, as are his 5 NBA MVP awards. Bill Russell simply won.

If you're not familiar with grading cards, a professional company will review your cards and assign a grade on a scale from 1 to 10. A grade of 10 is not easy to come by, especially with vintage cards. Either you or your parents would place their cards in bike spokes or played games of FLIP. In the 1950's, few, if any kids knew how to safely store their collection.

Currently there are only 3 cards of the 1957 Topps Bill Russell that were given a perfect grade of 10 out by PSA. These three cards have not been publicly listed at auction; we may never seen these for sale! The next highest-graded copy is a PSA 8.5, and that card came up for auction through PWCC. The PSA 8.5 card sold for $660,000! This card is now the third-most expensive vintage basketball card just behind a 1961 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain PSA 9 ($670,000) and a 1949 Bowman PSA George Mikan ($800,000).

If you have a Bill Russel rookie card or a complete 1957 Topps basketball set that you're interested in selling, we would love to hear from you; we are always buying!

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

We have another location in New York you can meet us at; 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.