Pete Maravich Mint Condition 1970 ‘Tall Boy’ Rookie Card Sells for Record $552K

Set Number: X18130

A 1970 Topps card featuring “Pistol Pete” Maravich just became one of the most expensive vintage basketball cards of all time.

A mint-condition “tall boy” Maravich rookie card was bought for $552,000 on Thursday night, making it the most expensive Maravich memorabilia and 1970 Topps card ever sold, per ESPN’s Dan Hajducky.

The item was sold on trading card marketplace PWCC. It is now the fifth-most expensive pre-1980 basketball card of all time, according to Hajducky.

The card was part of Topps’ “tall boy” set, a series of vintage basketball cards released in 1969 and 1970 which measured slightly more than an inch taller than standard cards. The size first debuted with a 1964 Topps hockey set.

According to PWCC, these cards are made even more valuable by the fact that they did not fit into the standard-sized protection cases available to collectors in the 1960s, making mint-condition ones like the 1970 Maravich card even rarer.

The Maravich card earned a perfect 10 Gem Mint grade from card grading service PSA. As of June 4, PWCC reports 232 of 67,093, or .003 percent, of graded cards from the 1970 set had earned a PSA 10.

The 1969 and 1970 releases are also valuable due to the design’s tight fit within the narrow margins of the card, which invited unique misprints that can raise the cards’ value, PWCC said.

Six other “tall boy” cards with a PSA 10 grade set memorabilia price records for individual players Thursday, Hajducky reported, including 1969 rookie cards for Walt Frazier ($252,000), Willis Reed ($150,000), Nate Thurmond ($114,000) and Wes Unseld ($111,000) as well as 1969 cards for Oscar Robertson ($186,000) and Jerry West ($180,000).

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