1952–1979 Basketball Card Hot Auctions

Vintage basketball sets are few, which makes their key cards prized: the 1957-58 Topps Bill Russell, the 1961-62 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, the 1969-70 Topps Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the 1972-73 Topps Julius Erving. Topps skipped basketball from 1958 until 1969-70, so the 1961-62 Fleer set stands almost alone for that decade.

Many vintage basketball cards were printed off-center or on rough stock, so well-centered copies command big premiums. PSA and SGC slabs are the standard for valuable examples.