5 Baseball Cards that "Traded" Their Own Way

Their wheeling and dealing changed the hobby forever

Happy Sunday…and happy Willie Randolph’s birthday!

Randolph was a fine ballplayer, even a great one at times, but he also sort of changed hobby history. Or, at the very least, he had a pretty big hand in setting us on one particular path that helped forge the New World (aka, the hobby boom of the 1980s).

We’ll get to that in a minute, all in the context of five cards that did “traded” their own way.

1972 Topps Joe Morgan (#752)

The Astros and the Reds both finished as also-rans in 1971, but Cincinnati General Manager Bob Howsam was not about to let his big stars languish through another tough season in 1972.

So, on November 29, 1971, Howsam traded Tommy Helms, Lee May, and Jimmy Stewart to the Astros for Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo, Denis Menke…and Joe Morgan.

This deal essentially put the final pieces in place for the Reds to become The Reds — The Big Red Machine that steamrolled the National League and all of baseball during the middle 1970s.

Of course, since baseball cards always depicted what happened the previous year, Morgan’s 1972 Topps card (#132) showed him as a member of the Houston Astros.

But Topps upped the bar in 1972, releasing series after series and pushing their offering to a mind-stretching 787 cards. That last series was issued late enough in the year for them to capture certain players in their new uniforms.

Thanks to Topps’ ambition and Morgan’s growing status with the Reds, Little Joe made his Cincinnati cardboard debut on card #752, which also featured the “TRADED” facsimile stamp across the front.

For the rest of the decade, Morgan made the Reds “go” and captured two NL MVP awards as Cincinnati pulled off consecutive World Series victories in 1975 and 1976, one of the most dominant two-year runs of all time.

And Topps had set the stage for all the year-end traded/update/rookies machinations to come.

I wrote more about both of Morgan’s 1972 cards, and their prognostications, right here.

1974 Topps Traded Mike Marshall (#73T)

The Los Angeles Dodgers cornered the market on major league Mike Marshalls.

To wit, of the two Mike Marshalls who appeared in the big leagues, both spent their most decorated years in Chavez Ravine.

Anyone who followed baseball in the 1980s — and especially fans of teams in the old National League West — will remember the Dodgers’ thumping right fielder who spent the decade helping L.A. contend and dating Belinda Carlisle.

A few years before the Dodgers drafted the 6’5” righty batter, though, they traded Willie Davis to the Expos for the first Mike Marshall — the 5’10” right-handed reliever who led the National League with 31 saves in 1973.

The trade happened that December, too late for Topps to do anything about it. Marshall the Elder thus appeared in his Montreal uniform in the 1974 set.

In Los Angeles, Marshall maintained his workhorse form, making a career-high and majors-leading 106 appearances, all in relief. He also racked up a starter-like 208.1 innings and posted a stingy 2.42 ERA. He finished a whopping 83 Dodgers games as the team ran up a 102-60 record to win the West by four games.

That was good enough to win the National League Cy Young Award for Marshall, and he finished third in MVP voting.

That year (1974) was the first time Topps issued all of their cards at once, instead of in series. They hedged their bets as the year waned, though, cranking up the presses to create 43 (plus a checklist) cards of “traded” players, inserted in late-season packs.

Marshall lit the way for the rest of the group with his radioactive Dodgers cap.

1976 Topps Traded Willie Randolph (#592T)

As I hinted at above, Willie Randolph paved the way for some of the biggest cards in the hobby. Here’s how it happened…

Randolph made his cardboard debut on one of those four-player cards in the 1976 Topps set, accompanied on a “ROOKIE INFIELDERS” pasteboard by Dave McKay, Jerry Royster, and Roy Staiger.

But Randoph’s headshot on that card showed him with the Pirates, who had drafted him in 1972. Problem was, the Bucs traded Randolph along with Ken Brett and Dock Ellis to the Yankees in exchange for Doc Medich in December of 1975.

Randolph grabbed onto the second base job in New York and helped the Yankees get all the way to the World Series (where they lost to Morgan and the Reds). With his sudden high profile as an All-Star middle infielder for the Bombers, Randolph was an easy choice when Topps rolled out their summer-end “traded” cards again after skipping in 1975.

Thus, Randolph became the first player to appear on both a multiplayer RC and a solo RC in the same year. It was a card combo Topps would use to help foment “rookie card mania” in the early 1980s with guys like Fernando Valenzuela, Tim Raines, and Cal Ripken, Jr.

Read more about Randolph’s humdingers right here.

1978 O-Pee-Chee Al Oliver (#97)

In December of 1977, the Pirates traded Al Oliver to the Rangers as part of a four-team deal that moved more players than Frank Lane on an escalator during an earthquake.

For the most part, Topps just shrugged and carried on with their plans for 1978, a roadmap that didn’t turn out to include any year-end updates. Collectors would just have to wait until 1979 to see Oliver in his Texas uniform…at least on a hunk of cardboard.

But when it came time for O-Pee-Chee to print up their version of the Topps cards for the Canadian market, they took advantage of being late(r) to the game. Released after their American counterparts, the OPC cards captured that trade (and others) for the players who made the cut in their truncated checklist (242 cards).

Still no new unis, but at least an extra hunk of text on the affected cards, as demonstrated by Scoops above. It was a device Topps themselves had used sporadically in the 1960s.

This particular card also played a role in a small bit of family theater that ended up with my dad placing himself in confectionery mortal danger and my clutching to a fistful of hobby history. Story at 11.

1988 Topps Dickie Noles (#768)

There have been at least four big leaguers who were, in effect, traded for themselves. The general script for this unusual circumstance has a team trading a player to another club for the dreaded “player to be named later.”

The traded player then heads to his new franchise and does what he’s going to do — plays in the big leagues, plays in the minors, fills a roster spot as a designated CO2 generator…whatever. And then, when the piper comes to collect his PTBNL payment, the second team sends the player back to his original team.

No, no. You can have him.

Must do wonders for a guy’s ego.

But even among the Indignant Four — Harry Chiti, Brad Gulden, Dickie Noles, and John McDonald — one stands out as having received an extra cardboard slap in the face for his troubles.

Specifically, the Cubs traded Noles to the Tigers in September 1987 for a PTBNL, and Detroit sent him back to the Wrigleys after the season. In between, Topps evidently solidified the plans for their 1988 set, which included tagging Noles’ Cubs card with “NOW WITH TIGERS.”

By the time the card saw the light of day, it could have read “THEN WITH TIGERS” or “BACK WITH CUBS”…but that latter wouldn’t have been right, either. Noles became a free agent in November 1987 and signed with the Orioles.

Read more about his journey and this card right here.

—

So what are your favorite traded-card oddballs? I’d love to hear your picks.

My only regret in all this is that Fleer and Donruss didn’t try to issue some sort of update sets in 1981.

The chaos and calamity that would have surely ensued would make C. Nettles and Lefty Littlefield look like paragons of virtue and cardboard truth.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam

P.S. – Thinking About Selling Your Cards?
Every week, I hear from readers (especially over on the market report) who ask some version of:

“Hey, I’ve got some cards in the closet. Any of them worth anything?”

It’s a great question, but the answer depends on a lot of different factors.
Grading, condition, timing, demand, era (hint: junk wax is a tough sell!),

So I’m putting together a short, no-fluff guide to help collectors figure out what they have, what it’s worth, and whether it’s worth selling…or keeping!

It’s for people who don’t want to get burned, or just want to stop staring at boxes in the attic.

Want early access when it’s ready?
👉 Sign up here, and I’ll let you know when it’s live.
(I may even follow up with a quick checklist or preview to help you get started.)

Last week in the daily newsletter…

• 1983 Fleer Wouldn't Let the Royals Heal

• July Starts Like a "Babe" in the Wax

• Jose Canseco Grabbed All the Headline(r)s

• Cesar Tovar Took a Well-Worn Off-Ramp

• Jim Beattie Had to Wait for Fleer Fireworks