More 1964 Topps Venezuelan Progress (and a little bonus find!)

I'm still chipping away at this tough set, I am keeping my price at or below $10 a card, and limiting the budget month to month so I don't go broke doing this. It helps that I'm not going after graded cards and there seems to not be a ton of other collectors out there vying for these particular peculiarities. 

Really the only measure right now is glued backs / major paper loss. rounded corners are just fine, as these cards traveled a long way to get here. These cards have pushed me up over 200 for the set!

I almost passed on Nelson Mathews there, as there is a helpful "CF" written on the front, but I figured I won't find the same card any cheaper in that condition any time soon. I don't know how much upgrading I'll do on this set, it will depend on how close I can get to completing the set as is. 

I think the Tris Speaker trivia art on the back of Nelson's card is my favorite of this bunch too - another reason I'm glad I decided to add it. Mathews is not related to Ed Mathews, but Nelson's son T.J. Mathews was a middle reliever for 8 seasons in the 90s / 00s for Oakland and Saint Louis. FUN FACT.

 

The same eBay seller that has the 1964 Topps cards has a whole host of other random Venezuelan items like coins and paper money... and tobacco cards! This is one of several for sale from the same set, originally printed in 1943. This was the most interesting image of the group (in my highly subjective opinion). 

Any relation to José Briceño from the Rockies? The last names follow the mother's maiden name, rather than the fathers in most cases in Latin American countries, so this is probably not his great grandfather... who knows? Regardless, it was a fun little bonus to add to the collection!

Do you collect any cards from other countries (beyond the occasional O-Pee-Chee from Canada?)?

Thanks for reading!

Halfway Home! Building the 1964 Topps Venezuelan set

 Just received a stack of 1964 Topps Venezuelan cards in the mail today. Still haven't solved my scanner issue, so posting from my phone. Sorry in advance for the not so great photos...

I added 10 cards in total to my set build with this order, taking me past the 50% mark!

Not sure that I will ever finish this set as I don't think I want to pay $100s (or $1000s) to get either of the 2 Mantle cards in this set. 

Ironically, two MLB players from the 60s born in Venezuela are in the regular Topps set, but not in the Venezuelan version - Vic Davalillo and Luis Aparicio. Their cards are found after #370, the last card issued in Venezuela.

9 of the 10 cards were obtained for less than 10 bucks apiece, that's the price point I've set for myself for commons / minor stars. Right now, I'm only buying cards if they are free from glue residue on the back (When these were issued, Topps also sold an album for gluing the set into pre-printed pages, much like panini sticker albums.)

It might not look too pretty, but this was the big addition for this batch - Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal!

I'm not picky about condition, but I'm happy I found this card with no paper loss or glue residue. Sure, it's shape is more like an Oval than a Rectangle, but it's good enough for me!

I owe everyone a bunch of Black History Month posts - I will be tinkering with some combo of phone, old broken laptop, and new laptop to try to get the scanner reconnected. I've had plans to talk about:

- The Birmingham Black Barons (think Willie Mays, but also Piper Davis and Artie Wilson among others) ,

- One of the lesser known / underreported baseball families (The Hairstons) ,

- MLB Labor pioneer Curt Flood,

- The Cool Papa Bell book I just finished, 

to name just a few ideas I have cooking. I wanted to post more this month but I find using my phone to be about 150% less enjoyable for blogging. I might instead try to find appropriate dates throughout the year to post those, since Black History can and should be celebrated all year long!

Taking the Long Road

The last time I added a card to this set build was in January of 2019, and that was because I found a lot on eBay of  4 of the 5 checklists. Since then it's been all quiet on the 1964 Topps Venezuelan front.

I don't really like to build sets by buying them on eBay, it feels a little like cheating. But I decided to spend a little on this set build now since I can't go to card shows or card shops- since I'm limited to online sales anyway, might as well put them to use on this!

These are in pretty typical shape for this set, the cards were printed on less hearty stock, and the photos have a tendency to fade on the front. Not to mention that it's just not the same industry in VZ at it is here to maintain these collections.

I'm now up to 159 cards from the set, which is a little under half. There will be some cards, like Mickey Mantle, Pete Rose, etc. that I will likely never find for a reasonable price. Finishing the set will require some kind of savings plan or successful get rich quick scheme...

My scanner chose to pixelate this one, but you can see for the most part these are in good shape for Venezuelan Topps, which were sold with a scrapbook and jar of paste back in '64. Only the Roman Mejias card has signs of being glued into a book previously. Unlike the U.S. release, the trivia answers were revealed in red ink- no need to rub with a coin. The kids of VZ would probably need a translation though, so it wasn't exactly giving the answers away!

Checklist Time

I found an eBay lot for the 1st four series' checklists  in the 1964 Venezuelan Topps set.

Minimal marks on the fronts, though it looks like they've been well loved over the decades.

The first three series have no marks at all except for a little glue on the 3rd series back. The 4th Series is the most beat up, but it's actually an upgrade over the one I had before. 

Building 1964 Topps Venezuelan, Back to Front

I set a goal this year to make some serious progress on my 1964 Topps Venezuelan set, and so far I've been able to make steady progress. I would have liked to find some of these in person, but the fact is that these cards are just not very abundant in Minnesota. I've asked every dealer at the local shows and whenever I'm in a new shop I ask if they have any. No luck so far this year, so I've had to go to eBay to add cards to my set.  

The nice thing about eBay is that there are vendors online from Venezuela, so the availability of the cards is much higher.

I started the set back in 2015 , With a lot that was put together by my regular vintage vendor of all Twins players. For the most part, I've been building the set by trying to find similar lots of cards from the same team.

Now they've dried up for the most part, or the lots that remain are fairly expensive.

So instead I am cherry picking cards of particular interest that are roughly $10 or less. That's how I picked these 4 singles.

The best part -- no glue on the backs!

1964 Topps Venezuelan - Tough to Find! (A Blog Bat Around Post)

Nachos Grande put out a topic for a Blog Bat Around, and I love having something to write about! The question is - What's the Hardest Set You've Ever Collected (or Tried to Collect)?

Above you'll find some of the sets I've built so far - 1965 O-Pee-Chee, 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Topps Heritage Minor Leagues, A Twins Frankenset, and a few partial sets I'm working on now. Second from the left is 1964 Topps Venezuelan.

The answer to this Blog Bat Around is pretty easy for me - I've been chasing the 1964 Topps Venezuelan set for a couple years now, and it is extremely rare to find even one card in the wild. I have been slowly picking away at the set, and I finally put them into pages. Still no completed pages, though the page above is the closest.

It's hard to tell here, but this is the page with the fewest cards -  just the Vic Power. This is close to the end of the set, I'm not sure if these are more or less rare than the earlier series. Online sales make up most of the set for me. I got started with a nearly complete Twins team set, then found some more at the 2015 National Convention. Oh, and see Luis Aparicio?

This is the last page of the set-just one card needed. But I decided to include the two Venezuelans in the league, too, even though they aren't in the official Topps Venezuelan set.

A bummer for Venezuelan fans, their two hometown heroes were nowhere to be found in the set released in their country. I may never be able to finish this set, as there are multiple Mantles, and the other Hall of Famers go for big prices online. If I ever manage to complete this set, it will be quite the accomplishment!

Los Dodgers

 The beat goes on in the set build for 1964 Venezuelan Topps - I found a 6 card lot on eBay, all Dodgers. The player in the background of the Dick Calmus card is the highlight for me! I think it is Nate Oliver.

 Torborg is given credit by Topps for his "Scholastic ballplaying" which is, I suppose, a nice way of saying he hit .223 in the minors.

As long as I keep pecking away every couple weeks or so on this, I should be able to meet my goal. So far I am still able to find single cards for single digits that are set needs.

A Quartet of Venezuelans

Making a serious dent in my 1964 Venezuelan Topps Set, one card at a time!

Joe Gaines is technically a high number for this set, which goes to Topps Card # 370 from the 1964 set. But in terms of scarcity, I don't know that it is any more difficult to find than any other card in the set.

1959 Topps All-Star Rookie Jim O'Toole!

This was obviously my favorite of the batch- Such a fun card.

Here are all the backs, very respectable given how rough these can get - lost a little info on the Jim O'Toole card, but for the most part these 4 stayed intact!

I'm up to 117 cards in the set, I'll be starting to put these in a binder soon, then we can see about getting some completed pages.

Getting Rolling on Those Goals

This will be a quick and dirty post - I received a lot of 1964 Venezuelan Topps when I got home...

Not my best photography work, but there are the 14 new cards for my set!

And the Backs - very little glue, so I'm very happy. There were also 9 more cards in the lot that are doubles, and look like upgrades, all in all a very nice find!

I think the best addition is the Series 5 checklist, which is marked up, but nearly the last card of the set and otherwise in great shape.

2 down, 48 to go ('64 Venezuelan)

Quick post today on my way to the first card show of 2017! I am going to make a run at building up my '64 set, so I went on eBay and ordered the two lowest hanging fruit needed for my set.

I have always been a fan of this card - DOOM!

Here are the backs, you can see the spots where the glue was used to paste these into the books distributed in Venezuela.

The seller also included the regular Topps Bauer card, so let me know if you need it (no glue on that one)!

2017 Collecting Goals

I made some ambitious goals for 2016, so what I've put here in 2017 may look a little familiar. I think hard to meet goals are good, it makes the year more interesting!

Here are the cards I am targeting in 2017, along with runners-up that I will chase (just not as hard/expensive):

Mickey Mantle 1956 Topps #135:

If I'm ever going to finish my 1956 Topps set, all roads lead through this card... After reeling in Aaron, Clemente, Mays, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson and the big Luis Aparicio rookie, Mantle looms large. I will be patient. I will stalk eBay. When the time is right, I will strike!!!
Runner-up:  Mickey Mantle 1965 Topps #350

1956 Topps - Complete Set! 

I am close enough to taste it. I have less than 50 cards remaining to complete the set, and most of them are commons or minor stars. I think I can finish the set this year, assuming I can find a Mantle in my price range!
Runner-up: Complete 1969 Topps Deckle Edge Insert set


"Satchell" Paige 1953 Topps #220

I have a fair number of Paige cards in my collection (including a reprint of this card), but none from his playing days. This card hasn't been on my radar in the last year, but I'm putting it on there now. The 1953 Topps Set is literally a work of art, and ol' Satch is one of the most remarkable and intriguing baseball players of all time.
Runner up: 1949 Leaf Satchel Paige

Ted Kluszewski 1957 Topps #165

My dad grew up in Central Ohio and my whole family are Reds fans. This is one of the more iconic Reds cards from the 50s and Kluszewski is a beast. This card is probably going to be the most affordable on the list so far, but I am going to be a bit pickier on condition- I will be a stickler for really red reds and a bright, centered border. 1957 Topps cards have a tendency to fade over time...
Runner-up: 1957 Topps Frank Robinson RC

William J. O'Neil, T206 tobacco card

I've been "working" on the T206 Minneapolis Millers team set. This guy's name is very similar to mine, so he's the next guy on the list for me to chase!
Runner-up: Jimmy Collins, T206

1964 Topps Venezuela Set - add 50 cards towards completing set

My current progress on the Topps Venezuelan set of 1964 is 117 out of 370 - that's a shade over 30%. I would love to get closer to 50%, so my goal for 2017 is to get 50 more cards for the set - that would get to 45% complete, which is fairly ambitious considering I added ZERO new cards to this set in 2016...
Runner-up: Specifically the 1964 Topps Venezuelan League Leaders subset - Cards #1-12


Reduce and ORGANIZE! 
Several other collectors have stated similar goals, to get their collections into a more organized and focused state. I have lots and lots of cards that frankly are not part of my future collecting plans. The only bummer is that most of them are not really appealing to anyone. My collection of Braves, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers, Blue Jays, and Pirates have been picked pretty clean through trades, most of what's left are those 80s and 90s junk wax that no team collector really needs anymore. There's a bit more variety for the other teams, but again, most of it is not anyone's first choice.
By the end of 2017, I would like to have a much better grasp of what exactly is in my collection, and what I have to offer to others in trade.

A 1964 Venezuelan Update: New Lot from the National

I didn't exactly meet my goal of adding another 10% of the set, but I'm very happy with what I did find:

 A nice mix of teams and players.

 Best of all, the backs are all clean!!

 Fred Whitfield has the last card in the 1965 OPC set, and he's nearly the last card in the VZ set as well, sitting at #367 out of 370 cards.

 Here were the two biggest names in the lot, both managers.

Again, clean backs!

So, I added just 14 instead of 37, and I still went slightly over my budget. It was harder to find these in good shape than I thought it would be...

 Current Progress: 117 / 370, or roughly 32%