It was the autumn of 1951, and as 28-year-old WWII veteran Sy Berger sat alongside illustrator Woody Gelman at the kitchen table of his Brooklyn apartment, he realized he had something here. The two men had been tasked with creating the first set of baseball cards for the Topps chewing gum company, and after mocking up a design that featured each player’s name, photo, team name and logo, and a facsimile autograph, the 1952 Topps set was born.
The set was divided into two distinct series: a blue-back ""low number"" series covering cards 1-310, and a red-back ""high number"" series that featured cards 311-407. Series 1 was released in the spring of 1952 to a highly positive response from young baseball fans, leading Topps to produce Series 2 in much higher quantities. But with this second release coming toward the end of the summer and many kids turning their attention to the upcoming football season, sales of Series 2 tanked, leaving Topps with tens of thousands of unwanted cards. Beger and Gelman worked tirelessly in the following years to unload this overproduced stock, going as far as distributing cards to carnivals and toy companies—still, demand was so low they could not even give them away.
Today, it's the opposite. 1952 Topps Baseball sits on the Mt. Rushmore of sports card sets and is a massive part of hobby history. And while icons like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson may take a lot of the spotlight, lesser stars remain popular as well—particularly when they're in high grade.
Art Houtteman is one such example. Sure, he was an All-Star in 1950 and a member of the 1945 World Series Champion Detroit Tigers, but the right-handed pitcher isn't exactly a revered legend. Of the nearly 800 copies that PSA has assessed, just five have received Mint 9 grades without qualifiers. None are higher. This particular copy has also been awarded Fanatics Collect–E Eye Appeal designation further cementing its place as one of the top condition 1952 Topps Baseball cards in existence.
The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 01/06/2026.
