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.

Another day, another trade bait post

Sorta a mish-mash here. Flipping through some boxes and these popped out. Let's see if we can generate some more trades. If anyone has any needs for some football, I can post some of that for trade as well. Came across some 60's, 70's, and 80's.

Some long awaiting posting

Just looked at the last post and couldn't believe it's been over a month. And then I realize that the freelance I have picked up has almost become a second full-time job. Certainly not complaining but between work, freelance, and my commute I find I haven't been able to find time to blog. Some days I feel lucky I have five minutes to go to the bathroom.

Well without further rambling, I will jump right into this while I have the time. Over the past month, I have made a couple of trades (My Cardboard Mistress, Smed, and Angels in Order) that I have scanned, just need to write and post. I have some vintage eBay winnings to post but right now, I will throw some vintage (cheap, cheap) from the LSC.

So I keep finding myself going back to a 1600 shoebox that has all sorts of 1960's Topps odds and ends, mostly '61, '62, and '63s and managed to pull these out. Still like the simple look to the 1961 Topps, strong colors and one of the largest photo image areas in the 1960's Topps. I like the Fairly card because it's clearly Spring Training and you can see that the "dugout" is barely a bench against the stands. Nice touch with all the batting helmets lined up too. I knew I had a 1968 Curt Flood but something about this fielding shot drew me in.

These four cards came from the same shoebox at the LSC. Always love grabbing some vintage leader cards, especially when they have some HOF'ers on them (in this case Jim Bunning). Jim King hit for the cycle on May 26, 1964 and Perranoski was a hell of a reliever for the Dodgers during the 1960's. I think the '65 set is one of my all-time favorites. Nice design with the baseball pennant, great colors ...

Next box I jumped into was a 3200 count of 1969 Topps. While it's not my favorite design, it certainly yielded some awesome cards!!! One them, the Say Hey Kid. Soft corners, and a crease but for $5.00 I was not going to Say Ney. I had been looking for a Mays off condition card but couldn't land one this cheap on eBay. Nice showing of three other HOF'ers as well, although Topps was lazy and had used this Joe Morgan pic in it's 1968 set.

Next up some star pitchers from the 60's including the two stars of the 1968 Tigers World Series championship.

 Some Miracle Mets although I was a little shocked I didn't come across a Seaver from this set. I believe Terrific Tom is a double, if not a triple print in this set. It's on my list of cards I definitely want to track down.

Next batch I pulled had some stars and minor stars from that decade. In all the vintage Topps '60s I have gone through at the LSC, this 1969 All-Star was the first Willie Horton I came across. Had to have it. Odd to see the "A" on the A's hats not have the "A's". They had just moved to Oakland in 1968 and it wasn't till the 1970 season did the apostrophe and "s" appeared.

And finally, some vintage leaders cards. I think I grab the four of these for maybe a buck total. Where else can you find three HOFers on the same card? Marichal, Gibson, Jenkins!!!!  McCovey, Santo, Williams!!!! Love these and don't mind that they're a little beat up.

And with that, it comes time to make lunch for the kids. Have a bunch of stuff to post and hope to do some writing tonight while putting back a Shipyard Pumpkinhead or two. 

Another Ginter Mini Heist

So while looking for some Allen & Ginter mini cards, I decided to look for some of those lots that list "U-Pick 10, 15, 20, etc," so I was quite surprised when I came across a lot of 2006 minis in which you pick 30 cards and decent "Buy It Right Now" offer.

Now part of the problem with these lots is that they might list 100 or so cards, if that, with maybe a couple of images, so unless one of the images grabs you, or you have the time to go back and forth looking at their numbers and yours, it's easy to pass over these auctions and look elsewhere.

One thing I love about the 2006 edition of Ginter, is the retired player selection. HOFs like Banks, Yaz, Clemente, Brooks and Frank Robinson, etc. and the images that Topps used look great in the mini format. Now the image that lured me was the Nolan Ryan depicted as a California Angel. I have been looking for this mini for a while so right off the bat I knew I had to look and see if I could find thirty cards of my liking. So what did I find?

How about some Hall of Famers (minus the Moose) and original A&G original reprints!!!!! Score!! I love the Frankie Frisch, Yaz, and Frank, but c'mon Topps, why are you showing an end-of-the-line Brooks??? I'd like to know why they went with this shot.

Next up so "RC" designated minis ...

I like the Hanley mini because it's not an action shot taken from a mile away like a couple of his other Ginter cards. The McCann is petty cool, that Braves uniform was made for the A&G product line.

Next up are a whole bunch of current players ...

King Felix, Vladi, Chase, can't go wrong with those guys. Piazza and Nomar in jerseys no one thought they would end up in. As a BoSox, I know I never imagined Nomah in anything but a Red Sox jersey. Too bad nagging injuries and his ego got the best of him. Cubs, Dodgers, A's ... a shame he could be there for both World Series teams. We got some future HOFs here too with Biggio, Chipper, Piazza, and maybe Bonds, but that's a whole different story.

And finally some miscellaneous sports/non-sports ...

The best college basketball coach ever and a Hall of Famer as a player and coach! "Holy s@#t, that was Mike Tyson!" "I mean he's still got it!" ... Mike is back for a cameo again in The Hangover 2 due out this Memorial Day. And lastly, Lady Liberty. A classic indeed. I need more of these type of Ginters, ones like the St. Louis Arch, the Grand Canyon, Eifel Tower.

The average cost of these minis for the lot ... $0.38. This was one of the lots that reminded me of those dime/quarter boxes at card shows, and that with a little time and patience (and flipping between lists), good finds are often right before our eyes — we just have to open them.