The elegant, simplistic design of the 1961 Topps set is a stark contrast to the previous two years, where the card fronts depended heavily on graphic design and color.  For 1961, Topps elected to let the main card design focus purely on sharp, color photography, augmenting the photo with a simple player, team, and position ID.  The set also includes a number of special subsets, including Sporting News All-Star cards, MVP cards, World Series cards, and more.  This results in an extraordinary number of cards of the game's key players, a collecting challenge only increased by the presence of an extremely difficult run of high numbers that remains among the tougher high number series of all the Topps issues.

Presented here is a sharp, attractive example of the set, carefully assembled card-by-card with an eye for overall sharpness and image clarity.  Of course many of the cards have slight reductions in technical grade due to the Topps production issues that plagued cards of the era, including centering, miscuts, print snow, roller lines and the like.  However, despite these issues, the set presents extremely well.  11 cards have been graded by PSA, and six more by SGC, as follows: #150 Mays (SGC VG/EX 4), #300 Mantle (SGC FR 1.5), #405 Gehrig (SGC NM 7), #417 Marichal (SGC VG/EX 4), #475 Mantle MVP (SGC VG/EX 4), #484 Aaron MVP (SGC NM 7), #558 Ferrarese (PSA EX-MT+ 6.5), #560 Latman (PSA NM 7) #575 Banks AS (PSA NM 7), #578 Mantle AS (PSA NM 7), #579 Mays AS (PSA EX-MT 6), #580 Kaline AS (PSA EX-MT 6), #582 Battey AS (PSA NM 7), #584 Perry AS (PSA EX-MT 6), #586 Ford (PSA EX+ 5.5), and #589 Spahn AS (PSA EX 5).  Additional keys grade as follows: #2 Maris (VG), #10 B. Robinson (VG/EX), #20 Roberts (EX/MT), #30 Fox (G), #35 Santo (EX), #80 Killebrew (VG), #88 Ashburn (EX-MT), #120 Mathews (VG), #141 B. Williams (VG), #160 Ford (EX), #200 Spahn (VG), #211 Gibson (VG), #290 Musial (VG/EX), #344 Koufax (G), #350 Banks (G), #380 Minoso (EX/MT), #388 Clemente (VG), #415 Aaron (G), #425 Berra (VG/EX), #429 Kaline (VG/EX), #435 Cepeda (EX), #443 Snider (VG/EX), #482 Mays MVP (VG/EX), #517 McCovey (G).

A complete condition breakdown of the set might be 4% NM, 10% EX-MT, 20% EX, 37% VG-EX, 22% VG, 6% G, and a few lesser and possibly trimmed, but it is important to note that in the case of this set, the technical grade is far surpassed by its visual appeal. A largely sharp and attractive set, one of the most popular of the 1960s due to the number of Hall of Famers and key cards.  587 cards total.