Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A bonanza of '68s


So finally got a chance to hit up the LSC for the first time since I landed that partial 1968 Topps set and boy did it pay off. The above image shows the hual; 134 cards off the want list including; thirty-eight high numbers, thirteen Red Sox, 3 checklists, and numerous Yanks and Mets cards. Most cards fall in the VG-EX to EX range but did manage to obtain a number of cards that look like they just came out of the packs.


First batch of Red Sox landed me Elston Howard's final bubble gum card appearance. After playing his entire career with the Bronx Bombers, he was traded to Boston in August of 1967 and helped Boston capture the American League pennant. The middle row of Sox are all high numbers while the Lou Brock, game #1 card finishes off my World Series subset.


Second lot of Red Sox included skipper, Dick Williams. Having finish next to last (New York was only a half game worse) in 1966, no one predicted that Boston would find itself in the 1967 World Series. Williams guided the Sox through a heart-punding, four-team pennant chase with an aggressive style that make the Sox the toasts of New England.


Favorite card is this batch has to be the Manny Sanguillen rookie card. Manny always seemed to have some cool photos on his cards. His 1969–1971 and 1974 Topps cards stand out for me for some reason.


Good to see Walt Williams never had a neck to begin with. Is it me or does his head look grossly out of place on that body. The Wills is pretty beat up, but at this stage I'll take a filler card to erase a blank hole. Note sure when the A's team photo was taken, but it's the only A's card in the 1968 series that depicts the players without airbrushed hats. This card also falls within the high number series and notes the move to Oakland on the reverse side.


Always good to find some unmarked checklist cards, including the Boyer who falls in the last series.


After flipping through my pile of '68s, had to scan these guys as you can't beat some of these names. Dooley, Adolfo, Turk and who doesn't love a Bubba. Not sure I'd be wanting the name John Edwards right now for a variety of reasons and poor Dave Ricketts. Topps was not kind to him on several of his photo selections over his cardboard career.

Next time, I'll showcase some 1975 Topps I grabbed that leaves me with just 8 cards left to finish my set. Until then, please take a moment and look my 1968 Topps set and 1975 Topps set wantlists, as I am jonesin to make some trades.

4 comments:

  1. Nice batch of cards! I can still remember the thrill of opening packs of these back in 1968 (especially the high numbers). That was my 2nd year of collecting cards, and I always looked forward to finding cards of players that were not in the 1967 set.

    (I always wondered why the circle on Dick Ellsworth's card was red, not magenta like all the other Red Sox' cards.)

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  2. Jim, like you, I had been wondering the same thing with the Ellsworth card.

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  3. I think that's the only one in the '68 set that's "off-color".

    They also deviated from the team's color in the 1967 set with Harmon Killebrew, and with the Twins' and White Sox' multi-player cards.

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  4. (At least it's not as big a snafu as Ellsworth's 1966 card!)

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