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 the designers 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 designers were able to employ their craft by adding a number of subsets within the issue including Sporting News All-Star cards MVP cards World Series cards and more. This results in a great 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 is an extremely clean and sharp example of the set with the overwhelming majority of the cards falling at the EX level or above. The initial collector took great care to select attractive cards with striking images though some of the cards appear very sharp but have their technical grades reduced slightly by centering issues. Our estimation is that approximately 14% of the set's cards fall into the NM range or better with 17% EX-MT; 44% EX; 23% VG-EX; and 2% VG with a handful lesser. Key cards in the set grade as follows: #2 Maris VG-EX; #10 B Robinson EX; #20 Roberts EX; #35 Santo EX; #80 Killebrew EX-MT; #88 Ashburn EX; #120 Mathews EX-MT; #141 Williams VG-EX; #160 Ford EX; #200 Spahn EX; #211 Gibson EX+; #260 Drysdale PSA NM 7; #287 Yastrzemski PSA NM 7; #290 Musial EX-MT; #300 Mantle SGC EX-MT+ 82; #307 Mantle WS EX; #344 Koufax EX-MT; #350 Banks EX-MT; #360 F Robinson VG-EX; #388 Clemente PSA EX-MT 6; #415 Aaron EX-MT; #417 Marichal RC PSA NM 7; #425 Berra EX-MT; #429 Kaline VG-EX; #443 Snider PSA NM 7; #472 Berra MVP EX; #475 Maris MVP EX; #484 Aaron MVP EX; #485 Banks MVP EX; #417 McCovey VG-EX; #545 Wilhelm NM; #576 Maris AS PSA EX-MT 6; #577 Aaron AS EX; #579 Mays AS VG-EX. An extremely attractive group which remains one of the more popular sets of the 1960s due to the extraordinary number of Hall of Famers and key cards. 587 cards total.