Set size: 132Short printed High Series: None
Card Size: Standard 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Corrected Errors and Variations: none
Best card: Johnny Unitas
Key Rookies: Forrest Gregg
Subsets: Team cards (with set checklist on back)
Gimmick: Coin rub comic strip
Back ink colors: Green
League: NFL
Team Logos? No
Night Owl Style Nickname: The "'57 Style" set
Teams included in the set: Baltimore Colts, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins (Italics indicates first appearance for the team in a Topps set)
Why I chose this card: Bob looks pretty happy as he elbows the two people standing beside him in the face.
One man's 'boring' is another man's 'elegant'. I'll just call it 'basic'. This is one of the most straightforward sets you'll find. A large photo adorned only with an overstuffed football containing the name and team makes up the front. A one-color back dominated by a scratch-off cartoon that takes up over half the card. A set that fits on one 132-card sheet with no variations or corrected errors. A card number that is completely readable. Even the checklist is brutally efficient as all teams are grouped together in a Fleer-like fashion. A simple, no-frills, solid workhorse of a set. This is the Volkswagen Beetle of football card sets.
If you're unsure why I chose Johnny Unitas over Jim Brown for the best card in the set, you need to read your copy of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book again. This set has a special place in my heart because I managed to buy a brick of over 40 cards from the set dirt cheap when I was a kid. I had an idea that I could actually complete the set one day since the star cards were not too pricey and there were no really big name rookies in the set. That's probably true still today, knock out Johnny U and Jimmy B and the rest is just perseverance. There are a ton of errors in the set including misspelled names, mixed up positions and reverse negatives but none of them were ever corrected so there's no variations to chase. Cowboys fans get to see their team in a Topps set for the very first time in 1960. Cardinals fans get to see their team's cards debut in a city they likely don't care about anyway, St. Louis Fans are more interested in their Rams (who got smoked by Matty Ice this afternoon). Ha!
1960 Topps card Gallery at Vintage Football card Gallery
(Click on that link if you really don't know what I mean about the Johnny Unitas card. Seriously, it's a hoot!)
1 comment:
Any blog that mentions what we in the OBC group call "The Book" is a great post for me. I think of that book every single time I see the Unitas card.
I've written a review of that book several years ago for an old newsletter. Perhaps it's time I shared it on my Vintage Sportscards blog.
Post a Comment