Loving The 70s

It seems that I have missed out on the grand decade of baseball card collecting in the 70s.  The 70s is my second favorite collecting decade after the 90s.  The reasons for me to like the 90s and the 70s differs.

My love for the cards of the 70s is that the Topps base set was king.  Every card collector of the 70s was ripping packs of the same product.  Each set of that decade was different.  Topps changed it up in a good way by mixing great photography and random color schemes.  The mustaches, afros and other 70s hairstyles worn by the players also makes the sets stand out.

The reason that I think the 90s is the best collecting decade is almost the complete opposite reason why I love the 70s.  The 90s had great variety.  The several card companies that came up with the sets churned out tons of  product.  Every kid had a choice of several sets to find there collecting niche.

The one thing that peaks my interest to both decades is the random colors that pop up on cards.  I picked up this 1975 Topps Rich Gossage card at my local card shop.  The colors chosen by Topps for this card is two shades of green, orange lettering on the team name and picturing Gossage in a red hat.  These colors thrown into one card works somehow.

The 90s was similar. Just look at some of the cards released by Fleer or Skybox.  Fleer just though a bunch of colors and graphic onto cardboard and called it an insert.  I dug that.

I also like the lazy Topps approach to player photography.  I can relate to lazy.  Topps captured many great action shots in its cards of the 70s.  The little league style photography of capturing of hall of fame dude like Luis Aparicio is cool to see.  It is a simple pose that everyone who played little league can relate to.

Diggin' In A Dollar Box

I spent a lot of time roaming LA on my day off.  I was doing two things that I love, eating and picking up some baseball cards.  My day started out eating a jumbo sized burrito.  The burrito that I had was the size of my plate.  It was a great lunch.

After gorging myself and nearly being put in a food coma, I made way to Valley Sports Cards in Tarzana, CA. I was in need of some cards to fill out trades and to pick up some vintage for myself.

I was sifting through the dollar box of cards.  The card shop usually has some 70s vintage of hall of fame guys.  The cards are also in pretty good shape.

It has been a while since I have added to my hall of fame collection.  George Brett was a beast.  He has led the league at least once in every major hitting category such OB%, SLUG% and triples.  I put triples in as a major hitting category because that is my favorite play in baseball.

This 1976 Topps card of Gaylord Perry is in near perfect shape.  Gaylord Perry is stuck with a name that doesn't scream athlete.  Let alone, hall of fame athlete.  That is a lot to overcome.

Perry compiled a career win total of 314 while also pitching 303 complete games.  That is a crazy stat that seems like a typo.  Maybe even baseball reference can make a mistake?

Perry also looks very old and broken down in this photo.  Playing several years in the big leagues could do that to a guy.  Perry also could have the real life inspiration for a drunk, angry father in the movie Hoosiers.

This is Billy Williams first card as an Oakland A.  He had spent the previous 16 seasons with the Chicago Cubs.  Williams looks happy in this photo and even has a mustache to fit in with all the other Oakland A's of the 70s.

Williams also must be eager to finally make it into the playoffs.  As an Athletic he got 7 at-bats in the postseason during the 1975 season.  It was the first time he got to sniff the playoffs and take some hacks.  Williams sadly didn't record a hit by going 0-7 with a walk.

You know what they say, "Once a Cub, Always a Cub."

Willie Stargell was a big time power hitter in his day.  He was also a man that wore a little batting helmet over the top of his cap.

The Pirates could have gotten uniforms that weren't so cheap looking.  These are the same quality of uniforms that beer league softball teams wear.  The Pirates still got a ton of production out of Stargell.

It was nice to add to my vintage hall of fame collection.  This is a side PC of mine that I think I will tend to more in the coming weeks.  I would like to see what I can compile through trade or purchase.  Please send me an email if you have any cards of hall of famers in the 60s or 70s.

Card Shop Pickups:Video Style

Do you guys prefer video posts as compared to a written post? I think that I am going to try and mix it up so, things stay fresh for me. I am just curious to see what the blog world thinks.

A Good Day At The Card Shop

I spent my day off today with a nice trip to the card shop and came away a very happy collector.  One of the employees from the Valley Sports Cards sent me an email mentioning that my redemption has arrived from Topps.  The shop was nice enough to take care of the whole redemption process for me.  Also, this gave me an excuse to go in even though, I wasn't planning on buying too much.

This is the redemption that I pulled from a pack of 2010 Topps 206 about a month ago.  I wasn't looking forward to receiving a Sammy Gervacio autograph.  The name sounds like someone that Joe Pesci whacked in Goodfellas.  Sadly, he is not a character from Goodfellas.  Gervacio is some dude in the Houston Astros organization.

Topps somehow ran out of Sammy Gervacio autographs so, they sent me a Chris Young autograph instead. I have heard of Chris Young!  He was an All-Star!  I watch him play against the Dodgers several times a year!

Awesome!  This was a sweet deal for me.  I am so happy that Topps hooked me up.  This Chris Young card is definitely something that I can trade and get something solid in return.  Please let me know if any of you are interested.  I also probably have some other Diamondbacks to trade because I seem to trade with a Diamondback fan about once every 9 months.

This was just the start of the good luck that I was getting at the shop today.

  The second part of the good luck was getting some of my bid board winnings.  I always walk into the shop and check out the wall of random cards that people are selling.  I usually bid on some that fit into my collection.  If you check out my set needs section, you will notice that I am trying to put together some 2011 Allen and Ginter insert sets.  I have been slowly chipping away. The Animals in Peril set is the biggest one that I am working on.  Being able to pick up a couple of these on the cheap is good news for me.

I have been seeing less and less 2011 Ginter packs at the shop and in retail stores lately.  My Wal-Mart seems to be getting rid of there card section.  The only baseball cards that they have left are the Topps Value packs and a few 2011 Topps Update Rack Packs.  Finishing the 2011 Allen and Ginter sets may take some luck and some work in the trade department.

The shop had some packs of Bowman Chrome, some high end Bowman something that I won't touch and some packs of Lineage.  I am a huge Lineage fan and love the parallels such as the '75 Minis and the Cloth Sticker cards.  The shop worker said that there were only five packs left and the hits have already been gone from the box.  He ended up selling me the five packs for ten bucks.  Sweet!

I was cool not expecting a hit because I dig the parallels and inserts so much.  In the 5th pack that I opened, out popped this super cool Bobby Shantz autograph.  I was psyched and mentioned to the shop worker that he was wrong.  I had to rub it in a little.  He gave me a good deal and I came away with an auto.

Shantz had a solid career.  He played for 16 seasons mostly with the Philadelphia/Kansas City Athletics.  Shantz won a MVP in 1952.  That season he won 24 games and had 27 complete games.  I love that stat line.  Shantz also won 8 consecutive Gold Gloves between 1957-1964.

I am totally happy with the autos that I came away with at the shop today.  I wasn't expecting either one.  The Shantz is a keeper but, the Young is available.