New Vintage Set Chase

So the summer is finally passed and now comes the excitement of playoff baseball. It's great to see many of the super power teams of the 1970's back in the hunt for the World Series trophy this Fall. Seeing the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Oakland A's, and (gulp) the New York Yankees will stoke many memories from years past. These teams definitely dominated the decade known for astro turf, afros, free agency, and disco.

Two of the franchises also making this years Fall Classic; the San Francisco Giants did have a great year in 1971, but lost in the NLCS. Same with the Detroit Tigers in 1972, losing in the ALCS to the A's. The Atlanta Braves struggled to reach 3rd place in the National League West throughout the decade, while the Washington Nationals left the nation's capital for Texas. The Texas Rangers although no playoff appearances, fared better finishing second place three times and third another two in the American League West. If not for the Kansas Royals, those Rangers may have had their own little dynasty. The St. Louis Cardinals had a similar decade to the Rangers, except theirs came in the first half of the decade.

All of this brings me to my next vintage set chase. I have always loved the 1971 Topps set for it's black borders, action photos, and first-time use of head shots on the back side of these cardboard beauties. It's a set I have thought about starting here and there, but knew it was probably a long shot at this point in time.

However, one late night poking around eBay, I stumbled upon this near complete set. When I look for these partial sets, condition is one of the last things I look at. I really care if it has a good chunk of the higher priced cards and a decent amount of high series cards. This set had both, PLUS the condition was more than acceptable for me! For less than two boxes of 2012 Topps Triple Threads (and that includes the shipping I paid), I was able to land one of my favorite sets of all time.

The one thing I was wary of with this set, was the possibility of black sharpie marker on the edges and corners. Thankfully, outside of four commons in the low series, this set with all it stars, rookies, and high numbers was clean of that issue.

The set already had a load Hall of Famers in Carlton, Seaver, Ryan, Rose, Bench, Clemente, Mays, Aaron in this set and quite a few high numbers. Rookies of Concepcion, Garvey, Blyleven, Baker/Baylor were also is nice, clean shape. Thankfully, I already had the Thurman Munson rookie so that was one  high-priced card I didn't have to chase down.

The set already had a load Hall of Famers in Carlton, Seaver, Ryan, Rose, Bench, Clemente, Mays, Aaron in this set and quite a few high numbers.

The Nolan Ryan has a little paper loss and faint tape mark, but luckily does not interfere with any copy, while the Mays has a couple of wrinkles on the right side. Otherwise no complaints.

The Clemente is probably in the bottom 10–15 cards for condition in this partial set, only because of the tape. I was able to carefully remove most of it without damaging the card further so it looks a little cleaner than shown above.

With the 1971 Topps I already in hand, I was able to upgrade a handful of cards and filled in a couple of high numbers as well.

I have posted my want list for this set on the right hand side of the blog. Please drop me a line if you can help. I do have a number of 1971 Topps I no longer need because of this set, so maybe we can help each other out if you too are collecting this set. I have a number of the leaders cards and post season cards. I also have an extra Concepcion rookie, Tom Seaver, Juan Marichal, and Gaylord Perry.

I also have quite a few 1972 Topps for those collecting that set and please look at my past posts on some of the vintage 60's I have. I'm willing to trade some of that in order to complete this set. And with that, I look forward to this years Fall Classic in a matter of hours. Here's hoping for a true 70's classic of A's/Orioles versus the Reds in the World Series. Thank you for reading.