Saturday, February 26, 2022

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!

12 comments:

  1. Congrats on getting over the hump! Very impressive with such a crazy tough set.

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  2. Indeed, getting half that set is a major accomplishment!

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  3. Very nice cards. Would like to own one of the Venezuelans someday.

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  4. What an ambitious set build! Best of luck tracing down some affordable Mantles!

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  5. I really love the black backs on these. I'd be happy to own just one - much less have over half the set!

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  6. The Venezuelan cards look so interesting. I don't have any myself. I wouldn't mind picking up a few of each set at some point, just for the variety. I know there was a '67 set, for example.

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  7. That is a seriously well-loved Marichal, but looks super cool!

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  8. Congratulations! Crossing the 50% mark is quite the accomplishment for this set. I only own one card from this set (Wayne Causey) and it came from you. Pretty sure I hadn't even heard of these cards until your blog.

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  9. Very impressive! I don't have a single Venezualan, though someday I hope to.

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  10. It's amazing that someone could even be that far along with this set in 2022!

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  11. Congrats on the additions and good luck with the collection attempt!

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