Throwback Thursday

 

Is there anything sweeter than Sweet Lou? How about Sweet Lou, presented by Coca-Cola? One can of Coke has 39 grams of sugar. That's pretty sweet!

This card is from 1981, and of course it has a pretty much identical design to 1981 Topps, save for the Coke logo in the corner. Of course, Coca-Cola and the Tigers have been linked to each other for a long time. The Georgia-based soda giant was one of Tiger great Ty Cobb's first big investments. 

At first glance, nothing too special about these early to mid 70's cards (maybe you notice that the position "Outfield" is missing from Jesus Alou's card), but flip them over and see... 

O-Pee-Chee! I don't really keep any kind of checklist for these, but I picked these up on eBay for a reasonable price. Everything in this post came my way in either November or December.

My brother pointed out this 1963 Fleer to me, and I sent one to him for Christmas. But I kept the saved search in eBay and eventually found this one to add to my own collection. The buy it now prices are out of control right now, but the auctions are the way to go if you can find one. 

Roberto Clemente - good at baseball.

Freaky Friday

One basketball great playing baseball, and one baseball great playing basketball. Like the post from yesterday, each of the cards shown in this post were added to eBay orders after finding the card I was actually looking for. 

 

Moving on to a real 2-Sport star, Bo Jackson! His 1990 Score card is getting a lot of hobby buzz lately, which shows Bo wearing shoulder pads and holding a bat. This "AAMER Sports" oddball is even better if you ask me. It even comes with a bootleg Rookie Cup!

The card back features his career stats in both sports so far. you could see he was just getting started in both with a great deal of potential still to come if not for his hip injury.

A few bootleg Kirbys and a Pizza Rolls Vikings card - This image looks like a Renaissance painting!

Here's the back of the Puckett cards, in all their non-descript glory. 

Here's a Barry Larkin rookie card from the folks at The Press Box.

Do you like to collect oddball cards, or do you prefer to stick to major brands?

Thanks for reading!

Throwback Thursday

 Nothing fancy, just a post of some "recent" vintage (pre 1980) pickups!

I found a seller on eBay that had some very sharp vintage. More than I would pay for cards at a show, but still I thought a fair price for cards that aged very well. Jerry Kindall is from my hometown of Minneapolis, MN!

I bought Bob Elliott, Frank Linzy, and Angel Scull as upgrades to cards I already had. Davey Johnson is a '67 Venezuelan release- hence the odd/missing border. I found that card looking for more 1964 Topps VZ for that Quixotic set build. 

Showing a little love for the other pastimes, including my first vintage Parkhurst card! 

Here's a look at the back of the "Parkie." ooh la la!

A few more cards that are just barely off the beaten path- an OPC of Andre Dawson, 1977 Cloth Sticker of Mike Schmidt with the Liberty Bell Bicentennial arm patch, a 1960 Leaf Junior Jim Gilliam, and a non-sport tobacco card that struck my fancy:

This is a 1910 "T30" Hassan Tobacco card. This is from a set of 25 cards with Arctic scenes. Just thought it was pretty! " F.N.A.G.S. " was pretty odd, I tried to figure out what it stands for, and I got as far as "AGS" being "American Geographical Society". Albert Operti is the painter that the card's image is based on- he was born in Italy but  grew up in England, then came to the United States and joined Robert Peary on an exploration of Greenland and the Artic in 1896 and 1897. 

Before we get too much farther, here's the backs of those foreign language cards from VZ and Canada!

One more oddball for the road, a 1977 Sertoma Stars Tony Oliva

And the back . . . When Tony came to the U.S., he used his younger brother Pedro's passport. That way he was 18 instead of 21 in the eyes of scouts. 

These all came to me in the mail over the course of the pandemic, generally I'd fall down one rabbit hole or another to find these cards, I don't think a single one of the cards in the post was the card I was looking for when I started. 

Where do you turn for cardboard inspiration? Have you been exclusively buying online this past year, or have you been to a Card Show / Shop / retail location?

Thanks for reading!

Which 70s Set Should I Build? None of the Above Edition

I've been trying to decide which 1970s set to start building for my next vintage set build, but I can't seem to make up my mind. So, I'm going to take a little closer look at what I already have in my collection and try to narrow it down.

So maybe instead of a Topps set, maybe I should work on something off the beaten path? Kellogg's had some trippy sets in the 70s, I think this 1971 edition is my favorite design, though I don't think you can really go wrong with any of them.

If I am feeling really patriotic, maybe Hostess is the way to go? Classic red white and blue, and of course pounds of sugar and fat in every box! 

(Before you send those angry letters, I know that the top two cards are actually from 1980 and 1981, these are just illustrative!)

Maybe I can go for a minor league set? These seem to be pretty tough, they are often an all or nothing proposition, if it's not a whole team set, it could a tough task to track down the 6th outfielder...

TCMA and Renata Galasso released a bunch of sets in the 70s and 80s that take a look at some of the best and some of the forgotten players of decades past. These could be a lot of fun to build!

Can you say cognitive dissonance? The great thing about SSPC is that it can surprise you. You'll find classic players in not so classic uniforms, and just a clean design to showcase the players.

I mean these are like 70s Stadium Club! The only thing missing would be action shots, but frankly the action photography that generally made it to cards in the 70s left some things to be desired. 

The backs are pretty good too - a 70s Score-style design. No big wall of stats, but a lot of fun stuff to be found reading these backs. Surprised to see anyone go 3 for 2, especially a pitcher!  I kid, but I do think the occasional typo is endearing. 

Not bad for a checklist, right? Maybe SSPC is the set I should build?

What do you think are the Pros and Cons of these oddball sets? I'd love to hear your opinion!

Across the Pond

Kevin from The Card Papoy sent me a Killer mailer of cards all the way from France. This 1962 Topps Killebrew is in great shape and looks even better in hand.

I still have lots of early 2000s gaps in my collection and Kevin found a sweet spot with Doug Mientkiewicz, Brad Radke, Bob Wells, and Ron Coomer.

Of course it wasn't all Twins, as you can see here Kevin added a couple Kennys Lofton and two of the most prolific running backs in NFL history.

This is a neat oddball decal from a company called High 5. I was reluctant to mess with it, but apparently when removed from the backing there is an image on the reverse as well. These were packaged in team sets with a 5x7 "poster" included in the pack. I'll be hunting for the Puckett that I am sure must be out there somewhere...

This is from Baseball Card Magazine, released just before Viola was dealt to the Mets in a trade you'd probably never see today -- in exchange for the 1988 AL Cy Young Winner, the Twins got Kevin Tapani, Rick Aguilera, David West, and Tim Drummond. Aggie became the team's closer for a decade, and Tapani and West were solid rotation pieces for the 1991 championship run.

And Kevin dropped a big hit on me as well! A Rookie Auto of Byron Buxton, who I still hold out hope for a big breakout season. a rash of unfortunate injuries have robbed him of his early years, but he's still got a good number of prime years left in the tank.

Thanks so much Kevin! Always a treat to trade with you. 

Highly Subjective Definition of "Vintage" with Completely Arbitrary Collation

Ok, what do you consider to be "vintage" baseball cards? Pre-war/pre-Topps? 1960s/70s? 1995? I was curious about Rollie Fingers' definition of vintage when he put his name on this box in 2004, promising "7 Vintage Cards Per Pack."

A Brief Video Interlude of the first 2 packs...

This was an impulse purchase - I wanted to bust open some packs and I was looking at a wall of uninspiring 80's and early 90's offerings when I spotted this box all alone for $10. 

This is a typical pack - there's no vintage there, at least based on most accepted definitions. I would say "vintage" should be 15 - 20 years old, at least. Technically 2003 to 1983 works, but to me that should be the most recent card. The definition of vintage today is generally 1979 or older-- the offerings from the 1980's and 1990's are rarely placed in vintage bins or boxes at card shows.

The "vintage" definition aside, after opening a few packs, patterns began to emerge.

It was borderline comical! P.S. there were no Rollie Fingers cards in the box, though he was still in the league in the early 80's.

Ha, joke's on you, Rollie! Technically those two shades of red on the '91 Topps logo represent variations! So you didn't give me 6 identical Tom Glavines, instead there were 3 each of the two variations. Don't know if it counts, but half of the Kent Hrbeks had printing smears on the front, the other half did not...

The oldest card in the whole box? 1980 Topps Hosken Powell. The newest? 1995 Pacific Omar Olivares. 1995?!?! Less than 10 years old when it was placed in the box. C'mon, man!

The best thing in the box was in the very first pack (I'm thinking this is by design?) - a 1983 Starline Sticker of Mickey Mantle. You can find a copy on COMC for around $5, so I can say that I spent $5 to get this sticker, and I paid another $5 for some very elaborate packing material.

Putting Your Best Stamp Forward

Nick of the World Famous Dime Boxes Blog reached out last week to confirm my address, then sent over this stuffed plain white envelop overflowing with Twins.

Most impressively, all of these cards were sent with just one stamp! Let's Get It On. What's Going On in this PWE?

Max signed a contract extension during spring training with the Twins, and he's been tearing the cover off the ball all season long. He's on the bench tonight after taking a fastball off his elbow, but he'll be back soon.

As always, Nick combines new cards, vintage cards, junk wax, stars, legends, etc in every trade.

Some great finds from 2019 Big League, including the fan favorite Willians Astudillo, who recently returned from a temporary stay in AAA. He's primarily a catcher, but tonight he's playing in left field. Jake Cave will be his opposite number in Right Field, with Buxton still recovering on the IL. Cave was tearing up AAA himself, and is getting another chance to stick with the big league club for the moment.

Shifting gears was this oddball of should-be Hall of Fame hurler, the 16X Gold Glove winner, Jim Kaat. This is a 1969 Milton Bradley card from their baseball themed board game. Johnny's Trading Spot recently found the game itself, if you're curious what the board and some more of the cards looked like.

Continuing on the vintage theme, Nick added these three Twins (triplets?) to my collection. The note in the envelope asked me to be sure to check the backs:

sacré bleu ! O-pee-chee!

Here's 4 more Unusual Twins, taken from the 1990 and 1991 Baseball Card Price Guides / Magazines.

I didn't know that Harper was a converted pitcher! Learn something every time you trade with Nick. If you're counting, that's 17 cards in one envelope! One Stamp! Thanks very much Nick, these were a blast to go through.