“The Holy Grail” — Chasing the 1961 Topps Dice Game

Ultra-Rare Mays and Mantle Cards

Topps had been making baseball cards for nearly a decade in 1961, and that year almost brought a new kind of product — an 18-card release with an affiliated dice game. Topps ultimately decided against rolling the dice on the unique set, which was designed to compete with Strat-O-Matic and APBA. But that was only after printing some of the player cards that were part of the 29-cent offering. Today, those cards are some of the most prized and rare in The Hobby.

In December 2025, a PSA 5 version of the 1961 Topps Dice Game Willie Mays sold at auction for a record $156,000. It’s one of just 35 cards from the set, actually intended for a 1963 release, that have been authenticated or graded. Those include four Mays cards. A Mickey Mantle PSA 1 sold in 2022 for $396,000. A higher-graded PSA 6 Mays from the dice game sold in 2014 for just $31,000, indicating a growing interest in these rarities over the last decade. 

The confusion over the year of issue is tied to Strat-O-Matic, initially released in 1961. But the 18 black-and-white cards in the Topps set include 16 1962 All-Stars and two players — Tony Kubek and Bill White — who were having All-Star campaigns in 1962. The Stan Musial photo on his dice card is identical to the 1962 photo used in that year’s Topps Flagship Baseball set. Unconfirmed reports say the cards were intended to be sold with a pair of dice and a scoresheet for the two-player game.

1961 Topps Dice: The Game That Never Was

While the Topps Dice Game was never formally released, some auctioneers claim that limited “test” copies did make their way into the world, and still more were produced but never saw the light of day. If these cards actually were released as a test product, it would be the most limited test run in company history. Three of the subjects have never even been found in individual, cut cards. 

The card back has no player information, just the game. Each possible combination of dice numbers has an outcome that changes based on one of four pitches the opponent selects. For example, on the Mays card, a dice roll of five is a strikeout if a fastball or slider is selected by the opponent, but a walk if it’s a slider or changeup.

There are 11 possible dice rolls and 44 outcomes determined by the pitch selected. On the Mays card, there are five possibilities for a homer — a rate of 11.3%. In real-life in 1962, Mays homered once every 14.4 plate appearances (and once every 12.7 at-bats).

Pitchers hit then, of course, so they were included in the run. Camilo Pasqual had 14 chances to get on base with a hit or a walk, out of the 44 possibilities (an impressive .318 on-base percentage). That seems unreasonably high, but in 1962, at the dish, Pasqual’s actual OBP was .311. 

Discovering a Topps Dice Game Uncut Sheet

In March 2025, an uncut sheet of all the players issued in the Topps Dice Game set was put up at Collect Auctions, ultimately selling for $252,000. Other Hall of Famers included Don Drysdale, Frank Robinson, Bill Mazeroski, Al Kaline, and Brooks Robinson.

All cards, including the most-prized Mantle, are on the single 18×14-inch sheet and will remain there. Liberating them by cutting into individual cards would make them ungradable, so they will not be added to the known population of 35.

“I think the Dice Game Mantle card is the Holy Grail [of Topps cards],” REA auction house president Brian Dwyer said in a 2018 interview with PSA. “No matter how much money you have, you just can’t go out and buy one.”

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