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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Affordable Aarons - Check

Chris Mays' article for Talking Chop today is on affordable Hank Aaron cards that every Braves collector should have. He lists out four categories of must-have-and-can-afford cards so I raided the binder to find examples of all four. I was going to try to pick cards he didn't mention in the post, but he mentioned just about every vintage Aaron in existence so I just went with four he didn't show a scan of instead.

(1) You should own a Hank Aaron card from the 1970s.


'74 Topps cards are cheap. Even the Hank. Hell, any card from the '70s seems to be cheap nowadays. A lot cheaper than they were in the '80s and '90s at least.

(2) You should buy certain Hank Aaron All-Star Cards.


The 1961 Topps All-Star card is a real bear, but pretty much all the rest are attainable. This '59 All-Star card didn't put me back too much. I got the '58 All-Star card as a throw-in with an autographed Hank ball I won on Yahoo! Auctions.

(3) You should buy a Hank Aaron card picturing other players.


The '57 Mantle-Aaron card will probably elude me forever, but you can pick up a nice '63 Hank & Ernie card pretty cheap. Heck, let's pick up two!

(4) You should buy a Hank Aaron any Vintage Superduperstar card in lesser condition.


'56 Hank is best Hank. Even with the holes, tears and warps. If you ever see a Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Clemente, Williams, Musial, etc. from the 50's all creased up with holes punched in it and a full beard augmenting the photo for dirt cheap and you DON'T buy it, you are no collector I want to associate with. Unless we are at the same card show and you see me heading for the table. In that case put the card down and back away slowly... you may lose an arm otherwise.

Not enough Hank for ye? Here's three more cheap and easy categories to chase.

(5) League Leader Cards

No one likes League Leader cards because 99% of the time player and team collectors don't want a card with someone they don't collect on it cluttering up the joint. The only exception to this rule is NL Pitching Leaders cards from the '60s. Dodger fans eat those up. This means you can get gems like this for peanuts.


Way better than Willie, Mickey and Duke, in my opinion.

(6) Vintage Topps Inserts and Oddballs

Topps put out a bunch of oddball sets and inserts in the '60s and '70s. Most of them only include one or two players from any given team. Guess who was usually the Braves' representative?


I've had this one since I was a kid. You have no idea the amount of willpower it took not to scratch off the game inside.

(7) Oddball sets

Topps wasn't the only game in town in the '60s, there were still plenty of oddball and regional sets floating around. Post, Salada coins, Milton Bradley, Exhibit cards...


And this Scoops card among many others. They are also usually much, much cheaper than a base Topps card.

Go out and get a cheap Hank! If I can do it so can you!

Ok, it only took 30 years and a considerable amount of insanity, but I did it.

3 comments:

Ryan G said...

I love my 1971 Topps Hank Aaron. Wasn't too expensive since it was in a lower condition, but certainly good enough for me!

Word verification: fluterse. It's how people who can't spell, spell flutters.

Captain Canuck said...

that was pretty... pony pretty.

The Lost Collector said...

Totally agree on #4. I love picking up vintage stars in crappy condition. Just grabbed a wrinkly '54 Topps Rizzuto for a few bucks.

I wanted an Aaron card a while back and picked up a '72 league leaders for less than a buck. It also had Joe Torre and Willie Stargell on it.