1956 was a banner year for the Topps baseball card set. The company was truly on 'top' that year considering they had just bought out the popular Bowman Gum Co., which had been Topps' main rival.

It was also one the bigger sets to come out and the set contained more cards than any other since 1952. In prior years some players had had contractual agreements with Bowman and were therefore omitted from Topps series cards, but now that Bowman was no more, all the greatest players in the league got their face on a 1956 Topps card. The only notable exception was Stan Musial.

The 1956 Topps set consisted of 340 cards and used a design scheme that fairly closely resembled the 1955 set. The distinguishing feature of the theme was to pair a close-up portrait alongside an action shot on the front of the card in a horizontal layout. The design was tweaked a bit by moving the box with the player`s name to the upper corner of the card and making that box a little smaller.

The cards also featured a faux 'autograph' on the front as they had in previous years. Some card used pictures of players which had been taken in previous seasons, and supposedly Topps only employed one photographer who only worked part time. This understaffing accounts for the lack of new photos with his series.

There were few rookie cards in this series and this has led to some criticism among collectors. Luis Aparcio, Walter Alston, Herb Score, and Roger Craig all had first cards in this series though. The set also broke new ground by featuring whole team cards. These had never been seen before and neither had the 2 checklist cards in the series.

The checklist cards are not technically numbered parts of the set, but their scarcity makes them something of a novelty and has added to their value on the collector`s market. The series also was the first one to feature cards for the presidents of the American and National leagues. Those cards were numbered 1 and 2 in the series and featured William Harridge and Warren Giles.

The card backs displayed a unique multi-panel cartoon strip layout. The cartoon panels showed critical scenes from the player`s career. Below the panels were a biographical section and a stat table. The cards numbered 1-180 and were printed on either gray cardboard or white cardboard. The other 160 cards were all printed on gray cardboard.

The set was released in 4 series and mainly the most valuable cards have low numbers. The higher numbered cards are much less rare. The first series is notable for including 6 cards which had variations in the dating and team name boxes.

The set has remained a favorite with fans of all ages and is thought to be the set with the most graded cards. Reportedly 120,000 Topps 1956 cards have received grades from the PSA! Big name stars and unique and attractive new design features all combined to make this one of the most beloved and prized sets in the history of Topps baseball card production.