For the Price of a Rack Pack...

...I got all this out of bargain bins at a card show last month. It's like I made my own vintage 1960 card rack pack!

Let's start the post with a Post. A '60 Topps Post. Now I want to find a 1962 Post Wally Post so I can write a post about a Post Post.

Pete Runnels with the Boston Sock Monster logo. Pete is also useful for your '60s ballcard fantasy team since he has multi-positional eligibility and you don't need to write in 2B in pencil because you ran out of second basemen.

Old Barve alert! I already had this card but I needed another one because I am a team set collector which is daft but the card was cheap so leave me alone. One can never have too many Felixes.

Ede Ihr of the dang rotten stupid Posey was out stinkin lousy Giants. Back in the '60s the Giants were sad sacks who always got their hearts broken and how I long for those days to come again. Oh well, go ahead and print up those Giants 2016 World Champion shirts and beat the rush.

Dick pic! Look at the colors on this card. Look at that portrait of Dick staring off into space while his black & white doppelganger watches intently. Look at how the letters in his name are just all over the place like a 7 year old pasted them in like stickers. Look at that stoned-ass Cubs logo. That bear is blazed, I tell you.

Tito! With a cheek full of North Carolina's entire tobacco crop from 1959. Throw in Virginia's crop with the black & white pic. Notice Chief Wahoo is still wearing his American League crown from 1954.

Red and yella, black and white. This card doesn't need any more colors than that, thank you very much. And as far as my '60s card fantasy team is concerned Sammy and Pete Runnels got the whole infield covered.

Jim O'Toole won 81 games for the Reds from 1960-1964 and you don't even know who the heck he is you cretins. "That's because wins is a bullshit stat" you say. Fine then. 21.5 WAR during that time period if you like newfangled stats. I'm not even discussing Vada Pinson with you because someone will throw out the term "Hall of Very Good" and I'll have to punch that someone in the face.

ANOTHER SOCK MONSTER ZOMG. Here's Jerry Casale and I don't know who he is because I'm a cretin too. I'm sure AdamE will tell me because he wants me to trade Jerry to him but Jerry's going in my set so sorry Adam.

Not the Hall of Fame Earl Averill, but his kid which is close enough. With the Super Rare Catcher-Third Base position eligibility. Also that catcher's mitt may in fact be a black hole.

Barry Latman. If his name was Larry Batman he wouldn't be a pitcher. He'd be a CRIMEFIGHTER. Also of note is the fact that the Chicago White Sox used the Pegasus Boots from the Legend of Zelda games as their team logo, decades before the first game came out in 1986. Which didn't even have the Pegasus Boots as an item. Makes you think.

SERIOUSLY THE GIANTS WERE FAR LESS OBNOXIOUS A TEAM (no offense, Night Owl) BEFORE THEY BECAME A FRIGGIN DYNASTY AND SHIT. Here's Hobie the Catcher.
Hobie Hobie Hobie.
It's fun to say Hobie.

Gus is offended by all the Giants I picked up at the card show. I couldn't help it, I needed them for my set. Yeah, I'm building a set of 1960 Topps, you wanna fight about it? Also, cartoon Orioles are adorable.

Jose Pagan plays the Infield! All of it! ALL OF IT

Is it just me or does that uniform look shady. That B on the cap is off. The Sox didn't have stripes on their sleeves. Holy cow that's a '60 photoshooped Cubs uniform. Airbrushed, even. Buzzing Bear replaced by Menacing Sock Monster. Oh, the deception we card collectors have to endure.

Howcome Ted didn't get the airbrush treatment?? "Ah, it's just the Phillies, no one cares about them", says the Topps Airbrush artist as he kicks off work early to get a beer. A single tear rolls down the cheek of an  executive at Fleer headquarters in Philadelphia as he examines his competitor's product. "I shall have my revenge" he mutters through gritted teeth. REVEEEEEENGE

Dangit another stinking Giant. Wait... another fluffy cute Oriole? I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING ANYMORE. This is more confusing than the numbering on 2014 Topps Update.

But wait... Every rack pack always has some inserts!

Rookie Stars! 26 years of Major League experience between these guys when it was all said and done. Not bad for a highish series floaty head rookie combo card.

MVPs! Yogi and Campy. Back when catchers were The Man. Also of note is Campanella with the imaginary card created 20 years later because Topps was in a death battle with Bowman at the time and couldn't make a card for him. It's good to have a monopoly.

Yaz had a rookie card in 1960 Topps and here he is on a '70s card with bitchin' sideburns. Eat yer heart out Milhaus.

Waddya think? Should I have just picked up a rack pack of Topps from Wally World? I didn't get a single parallel in this pack and everyone loves those after all.

Joy of a Completed Page - 1960 Edition

Page #1 filled out when I got an upgrade for my Joe Adcock in my team binder. I would have flipped this one to the side, but I couldn't do that to Willie.

Traveling box loot

White Sox Cards' post on what he picked up from the Traveling Card Box of Awesomeness reminded me that I haven't done my post on that yet. And I was the first one to get the box! I am a bad blogger. What is the Traveling Box? It's a little project Bad Wax put together. A group of collectors all donate some good cards that they don't need and/or want. All the cards get put in a box and shipped around the country to various collectors who take out cards they want and replace them with cards of equal value. There was a ton of great stuff in the box but I limited myself to 5 cards and I let my son pick out one for himself. Here's my loot:

This is actually my son's loot. I allowed him to choose one for himself and he went with the Orioles' hat logo card of Jim Palmer. He almost snagged Steve's Frank Thomas/Jeff Bagwell/Carlos Delgado triple relic but opted for the Manu-Patch instead. I was relieved because I wasn't entirely sure what I could replace that one with.

First pickup out of the box was a 1969 Joe Niekro card I needed for my 'set'. I'm not really working on the 1969 Topps set and I probably never will, but I attacked the vintage in this box with great ferocity. If I didn't have it before, I had it now.

Next up is a 1971 Topps card of Barry's pop. 1971 Topps I will most likely end up collecting in full force as soon as my 1972 set is complete through at least series 4. I'm actually pretty close to completing Series 1.

1960 Topps is another of my favorite sets so I had to pick up the Ashburn. Richie Ashburn on the Cubs is a tad odd. Also odd is that I picked up more Cubs cards out of the box than Braves cards. Yes, I even left Braves in the box. I tried to replace relic with relic, vintage with vintage, etc. but this one I couldn't find a good match so I snuck in a nice Cub card as a replacement.

Ah, now we're in serious card territory. All cards were ranked in tiers, $5-10, $10-15, $15-20 and so on. I don't remember the exact tier of this card but it was in the next to highest tier worth of cards in the box. I have an accidentally good collection of Al Kaline cards as my mother brought me back a 9-pocket page full of vintage Kalines from a business trip when I was a kid. I did not have the '59 already, so this was good luck.

Ok now the doozy:

Amidst the vintage a 2012 card appears! So. I love Yogi Berra. He's right up there with Kurt Vonnegut, Bill Hicks and Pinkie Pie as far as personal spiritual gurus go for me. I also like old coins, especially silver ones. I saw this and thought I MUST HAZ. So I did. I had to pony up a fairly serious card to get it but I think I left the box in better shape than I found it.

I also snagged this custom card of a 1976 Topps Dale Murphy card. There were three custom cards in there but they weren't on the main card list for the box. I left two sketch cards in the box in exchange for this one. One silly, one mostly not silly.

We were instructed not to give away what cards were added to the box so the suspense would be greater. I scanned all of 'em anyway and I'm going to cheat a bit by showing off a little teaser of the stuff I put in the box. I hope I'm not kicked out of the rotation! Two cards I put in the box were picked up in this haul so at least the peeps like my stuff.

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #20 Wantlist Fail Part 1

And the countdown begins...

It's my firm belief that if you're going to a card show, you have to have a plan of attack. If you run in there willy nilly you'll get overwhelmed by the cardness and lose your grip. You could end up leaving with a pile of bad relics and a 1990 Fleer factory set. Even if you have a plan, strange things can happen, but it's best to be prepared. My plan for this show was predicated upon my wantlist. Or rather, the lack of one.

I have a bright red folder with about 50 pages worth of printed wantlists. All my Heritage up to 2009, all of my A&G up to 2010, 2002-2003 Topps206, Topps 1951-1956, about 8 other Topps vintage sets, All my Braves Team sets and about a half a dozen other odds and ends. All in one place, sorted, cards crossed out as I acquire them. I haven't seen the bloody thing in months. Luckily, I have my wantlists backed up here on the blog. Ok, some of them haven't been updated in three years, but they're there. And I can print them out whenever I like! Well, at least when my printer is working, that is.

So here's what happened. I was procrastinatory as usual and didn't take a half bloody hour to write out my wantlists or put them in a text document so I could print them elsewhere. It's the morning of the card show.  Due to an enormous cock-up on my part I thought the Jason Heyward signing was at BP Sports in Marietta on the same day as the card show. Was an honest mistake, the e-mail BP sent me had "Jan. 14" and "Jason Heyward signing" on it and that's all my mind registered. It didn't occur to actually read the thing and see that the Jan. 14th referred to the card show I was already going to. So that morning I got up bright and early (9:57am) and watched My Little Pony.

WHAT.


WAS PINKIE PIE EPISODE!


WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!

So after I watched the episode (twice) I got to scribbling down my wantlists on scratch paper real quick like. It was 11:00 and I wanted to be out the door by 11:30 to get to the signing. I was forced by time restraints to narrow down the stuff I was going to look for immensely. Like the Carlin routine A Place For My Stuff, I was forced to create a smaller version of my wantlist, just the stuff that was really important.The things that made the cut:

1953 Topps. I wrote out the whole thing and reality checked it against my binder. Out of EVERYTHING I collect, this is the main really really main for reals main focus.

1979 Topps. I only need two bloody cards for this damn set. Don Sutton and the Pedro Guerrero rookie. Can't find the gorram things anywhere.

1972 Topps Series 3 and 4. At the last card show, I completed my 1972 series 2 set but due to poor planning I left several cards I needed from series 3 on the table. I wrote out both series 3 and 4 this time! Series 5 would take a half hour to write out. Series 6 isn't even worth writing out. If you find a cheap '72 high number, just buy the damn thing.

Braves team sets 1933-1967. I should really just print out 100 copies of this and leave a pile by the door so I can pick up one on the way out every time I leave the house. This is when time really started to crunch and the writing got scribbly.

1956 Topps cards 1-107. I started writing this out and decided "screw this" If I find something epic or dirt cheap I'll think about it.

I then jotted down a half a dozen cards I vowed to buy instantly if I found them in my price range:
1940 Play Ball Casey Stengel
1958 Mantle/Aaron
1962 Topps Bob Uecker
1964 Topps Phil Niekro
and a couple others I forget.

So due to my lack of planning, this became the plan:

1. If there's a high dollar card like that '53 Yogi Berra I passed up last time that I can afford get it. 
2. If not, attack the cheap '53 high numbers.
3. Then, attack the '72 want list.
4. Then cross your fingers for '79 completers. 
5. If money left, then browse bargain box for Braves.
6. Get at least one cool non-sport card just because.
7. After that, if money left, free for all. 

I'll go ahead and spoil it for you, here are the results of that hastily cobbled together plan.

1. EPIC SATCHEL FAIL
2. Win
3. Win
4. Fail
5. Win
6. Win
7. Epic Win

Pretty goot success ratio, even if I shall see C-Note Satchel looking at me sadly on my deathbed, a tear in his eye lamenting the life we could have had together. Oh well. I got 26 cards instead and left with over 30 bucks in my pocket. But this post is about Fail! Wantlist Fail! Here is my fail, coming in at #20 on the countdown.

1960 Topps Frank Torre. In dreadful condition. Normally I like Tiptons, but there's a feel to this one that depresses me. I love 1960 Topps for the bright, shiny colors (is it any wonder I'm obsessed with poniez?) and this one is kind of scuffed and faded. It looks like Frank is sadly looking out his front window, bat in hand, ready to play some ball, but it's pouring down raining. Raindrops streak the window, obscuring Torre's sad face, disappointed that there will be no ball played today. This would make a hell of a 1957 Topps card. Half that set looks like Silent Hill anyway, this would just add to the ambiance. Too sad for '60 Topps though.

Add to the sadness the fact that this card was pricey. Five bucks! For a 1960 Topps common in rainy condition! Oh, but it's a high number, you say. No, no it isn't. High numbers don't kick in until card 507. My guess it was priced so high due to the name Torre. Torre is a popular name among Yankee fans and Damn Yankees drive up the price of everything. That's my theory anyway. A better one than it was in the wrong sleeve at least. I didn't really want to buy the card. I almost put it back twice. At the end of the day, I looked at that card, and back at my wantlist, and said to myself, "Self, this overpriced crummy looking card is on your wantlist and even though it is too bloody expensive, you need to get this damn card for your team set instead of a bunch of dollar cards out of the bargain box you big dummy."

So I bought the Torre.

I got home that evening. Scanned all the cards. Updated the wantlists on the blog. Opened up the Braves binder to put things in their proper place... and there's Frank staring at me in my binder. 1960 Topps. #478.  Frank Torre. In friggin great condition too! Good corners, bright colors, a few print streaks on the bottom, but who cares. I had the bloody thing already! So what happened?

My Braves wantlist on the blog was out of date. Badly. I did a reality check after I discovered the Frank error and found about 20 cards I never knocked off the list. Since I pulled the list I took to the show from the blog list, there were problems. The really really dumb thing is I tried to do a reality check when writing it down, but rushed due to time constraints. So I could leave at 11:30 (ended up being 11:45 anyway) and be two weeks early for a Jason Heyward signing. Derp.

So, because I was lazy and unorganized, I ended up buying a 1960 Topps common for my main set for a fiver. LESSON LEARNED. Organize yo stuff! I'm going to get my wantlists together in a new folder. One I won't lose because I chucked it in the trunk of my car after a show. I'll do this right now! Well, it's late, maybe tomorrow. Actually tomorrow is bad. Later this week. Next card show isn't 'till April anyway. I got time. I wonder if the new pony episode is on YouTube yet?

Here's the complete list of upcoming posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

Joy of an Incomplete Page

You guys voted in the poll over to the right and managed to pick out some pretty good sets to work on. I'm guessing there's a lot of 1971 Topps fans out there, or at least a bunch of people collecting it with a bunch of doubles.The '63 set is also nice, I'm looking forward to 2012 Heritage. The series binder is maxed out at five sets now, here's a mostly completed page from each:

This page is technically complete since I have Joe Adcock in my Braves team set binder. I would have posted a different page had I realized that sooner.

The '63 set ain't gonna be easy. This page is missing Pedro Ramos and the Buc Blasters combo card - featuring some guy named Clemente.

Tony Gonzalez is the last card for this page. This series shouldn't be too hard to knock out if I put some effort into it. The only stars left besides the league leaders cards are Robin Roberts, Jim Kaat and Frank Howard.

The dreaded Thurman Munson Series... 132 cards and stars out the buttocks. This page is easily completeable with Ron Klimkowski however.

Ok, this is only one of two sheets in my 1972 Topps series 1 set that is actually missing a card. It's a doozy though. I just checked online and I can complete this series for under ten bucks. Why the hell am I buying new wax again!?!?

So what do you think? I've got one completed series under my belt, how many more can I do by the end of the year?

June Vintage Show Top Ten #8

Two of my favorite things in one card: 1960 Topps and the Ol' Perfessor.

1960 Topps #227 Casey Stengel

Look at this wonderfully beat up old mess. The card is looking rough too. Yankees are always at a premium when buying vintage cards, but thankfully the rich card snobs who love snapping up Yanks don't like the crummy grades. You know, the ones where PSA sends the card back to you ungraded  along with a restraining order. This is one of those cards. Big ol' crease right across the NY logo, another going right through his schnozz and grimy scuff marks everywhere. Looks like a Red Sox fan got a hold of this one. There was actually two of these in the bargain box. This scuffed up hot mess and one that was so worn that it had corners rounder than playing cards. I chose this one for some reason.

1960 Topps manager cards have completely cartoonized backs. Some of the other manager's cartoons have fairly generic faces drawn but not Stengel's. The artist made sure that Casey's cartoon looked as much as the Old Man of the Mountain as possible. Even the cartoon of his World Series exploits makes him look like a craggy Dick Tracy villain. The artist's tour de force in this set has to be Casey explaining exactly how he won all those pennants to a nonplussed Oscar Madison. "It's a habit I developed... George Weiss keeps sending me Hall of Famers, and I keep winning pennants..."  Note carefully that Casey was once the manager of my beloved Braves! Remember when Joe Torre was hired as manager of the Yankees and everyone was like " Torre? THAT bum? How the hell did he get the job? Got some incriminating pictures of George or something?" Yeah, it was pretty much the same thing for Casey after managing the hapless Braves (and Bees). I still claim Casey as a bona-fide Brave. Now I gotta track down his 1940 Play Ball card.

Card Show Top 20 - #9 '60 Spahnnie

After spending several hours trying to figure out what the heck that Charles Dickens card was, it's nice to show off a card that I know exactly what it is. BEHOLD:

1960 Topps Warren Spahn

This was the priciest card I bought at the show. Ten whole smackers for Spahn. An entire Hamilton for the lefty. This was in the bargain box too. The vintage seller had apparently picked up a pile of Hall of Famers in crummy grade condition and was blowing them out. I had a my eye on a couple in a case full of of the scratch & dent sale cards before I found Warren hiding among a bunch of 1960 Topps cards. You can see it's in perfect shape. Corners round enough to have been made by a compass. All the gloss perfectly buffed and scrubbed off. A nice little crease going perfectly through the face of the black and white Warren photo.  Perfectly awful, but perfect nonetheless.

1960 Topps is one of my favorite sets ever. One of the reasons for this is due to a bunch of '60s I bought when I was a kid. The card shop I used to go to in the '80s had bricks of older cards for sale and I'd usually pick a few up. There were usually a bunch from the '70s and a few from the '60s. Remember, in the mid-'80s cards from 1969 weren't even 20 years old yet. It would be like buying a brick of cards from 1997 today. I built a good chunk of my vintage collection through these bricks of commons. Generally, the cutoff for bricks was about 1964. I got a ton of '64 cards in that brick box. Not so many from '63 and earlier, if any. One time though I found a brick of 1960 Topps in there. There were about 50 cards, Wally Moon was probably the biggest star in the lot and they were all in terrible condition. I friggin loved those cards.

Think of any kind of horrible thing that could happen to a card and it happened to one of those cards in that brick. Here's a partial list:

• Massive crease right in the middle of the card - Wes Covington
• Creases everywhere - Faye Throneberry
• Tear in the card - Dick Hyde
• Hole punched through the card - Ray Sadecki
• Paper loss - Larry Sherry
• Paper stuck to the back - Walt Dropo
• Miscut - Del Rice
• Corner nibbled by mouse - Gary Peters
• Written on, then erased his face - Tony Taylor
• Wax Stain - Chuck Tanner
• Water/Mildew stain - Jim Gilliam
• Unidentified gunk - Glen Hobbie
• Tape stains all over the front - Gene Green
• Run over by a truck - Bob Nieman 
• Dissolved in acid - Jim Coker

The best thing about destroyed cards is there is no disincentive to playing with them. What the hell could I do to these cards that hasn't already been done? I couldn't just play around with my hallowed 1956 cards or the 1972 cards that actually had corners on them, but these things I could fling across the room and actually improve their appearance. Combine this lack of fear with the awesomely colorful design, goofy closeup pictures and sweet team logos and this was the most fantastic set ever. So now, if I see a 1960 Topps card is in crummy condition it brings back great memories. How could I pass up the Spannie?

Here's the back, complete with bonus scuffs. Oh, it's 1986 all over again... I do regret one thing about this card. I didn't realize the comic would be so utterly fantastic.

@\/\/\/\!! 

DEM

BUMS

!

Does anyone have a better scan of this? This might have to be my new title image.

The Top 20 List:

#20 Reds' Heavy Artillery

#19 Blue MadDog

#18 Lil' Jimmy

#17 Real Fake '52

#16 First Topps

#15 Bogus Boog

#14 V103 Tree

#13 Sertoma Rico

#12 '55 Finishers

#11 Hey Shiny

#10 What the Dickens

#9 '60 Spahnnie

#8 Lonely '53

#7 Super Chief

#6 Original Frank

#5 Hoops Inspiration

#4 Rocket Robin

#3 Wizard Off Kilter

#2 Shenanigans Were Called

#1 The Holy Grail of Commons

1960 Topps Wantlist

Best set of the '60s. So good they discontinued horizontal sets forever.

Series 1 -- 61/88
3 Joe Adcock -- Milwaukee Braves
16 Ernie Broglio -- St. Louis Cardinals
17 Johnny Callison -- Philadelphia Phillies
20 Roy Face -- Pittsburgh Pirates
22 Rocky Bridges -- Detroit Tigers
24 Dick Gray -- St. Louis Cardinals
26 Wayne Terwilliger -- Kansas City Athletics
28 Brooks Robinson -- Baltimore Orioles
29 Clem Labine -- Los Angeles Dodgers
34 Sparky Anderson -- Philadelphia Phillies
36 Russ Nixon -- Cleveland Indians
37 Bill Bruton -- Milwaukee Braves
40 Joe Cunningham -- St. Louis Cardinals
46 Jack Fisher -- Baltimore Orioles
51 Jim Coates -- New York Yankees
53 Jackie Brandt -- Baltimore Orioles
54 Mike Fornieles -- Boston Red Sox
59 Juan Pizarro -- Milwaukee Braves
62 Roger Craig -- Los Angeles Dodgers
63 George Strickland -- Cleveland Indians
69 Billy Goodman -- Chicago White Sox
74 Walt Moryn -- Chicago Cubs
75 Vic Power -- Cleveland Indians
82 Ruben Gomez -- Philadelphia Phillies
84 Hal Smith -- St. Louis Cardinals

Series 2 -- 45/88
92 Whitey Herzog -- Kansas City Athletics
95 Frank Thomas -- Chicago Cubs
100 Nellie Fox -- Chicago White Sox101 Bob Miller -- St. Louis Cardinals
102 Kent Hadley -- New York Yankees
106 Billy Gardner -- Baltimore Orioles
107 Carl Willey -- Milwaukee Braves
113 Bob Skinner -- Pittsburgh Pirates
115 Fork and Knuckler -- Face, Wilhelm
116 Jim Rivera -- Chicago White Sox
120 Duke Carmel -- St. Louis Cardinals
122 Don Dillard -- Cleveland Indians
123 Dan Dobbek -- Washington Senators
124 Jim Donohue -- St. Louis Cardinals
125 Dick Ellsworth -- Chicago Cubs
126 Chuck Estrada -- Baltimore Orioles
127 Ronnie Hansen -- Baltimore Orioles
128 Bill Harris -- Los Angeles Dodgers
130 Frank Herrera -- Philadelphia Phillies
131 Ed Hobaugh -- Chicago White Sox
133 Manuel Javier -- Pittsburgh Pirates
134 Deron Johnson -- New York Yankees
136 Jim Kaat -- Washington Senators
139 Carl Mathias -- Cleveland Indians
140 Julio Navarro -- San Francisco Giants
144 Al Stieglitz -- San Francisco Giants
147 Bob Will -- Chicago Cubs
148 Carl Yastrzemski -- Boston Red Sox
151 Giants Team -- Checklist 177-264 -- San Francisco Giants
155 Charlie Neal -- Los Angeles Dodgers
159 Jim Piersall -- Cleveland Indians
160 Rival All-Stars -- Boyer, Mantle
163 Hector Lopez -- New York Yankees
164 Reds Team -- Checklist 89-176 -- Cincinnati Reds
165 Jack Sanford -- San Francisco Giants
169 Jack Striker -- Chicago White Sox
172 Willie Kirkland -- San Francisco Giants
174 Indians Team -- Checklist 89-176 -- Cleveland Indians
176 Vada Pinson -- Cincinnati Reds

Series 3 -- 37/88
177 Johnny Kucks -- Kansas City Athletics
178 Woody Held -- Cleveland Indians
179 Rip Coleman -- Baltimore Orioles
180 Harry Simpson -- Chicago White Sox
181 Billy Loes -- San Francisco Giants
183 Eli Grba -- New York Yankees
187 Jay Hook -- Cincinnati Reds
190 Gene Woodling -- Baltimore Orioles
191 Johnny Klippstein -- Los Angeles Dodgers
195 Lindy McDaniel -- St. Louis Cardinals
196 Andy Carey -- New York Yankees
197 Ron Kline -- St. Louis Cardinals
199 Dick Donovan -- Chicago White Sox
200 Willie Mays -- San Francisco Giants
202 Fred Kipp -- Los Angeles Dodgers
204 Ryne Duren -- New York Yankees
207 Bob Boyd -- Baltimore Orioles
208 White Sox Team -- Checklist 177-264 -- Chicago White Sox
209 Ron Blackburn -- Pittsburgh Pirates
210 Harmon Killebrew -- Washington Senators
212 Walt Alston -- Los Angeles Dodgers
213 Chuck Dressen -- Milwaukee Braves
216 Joe Gordon -- Cleveland Indians
218 Solly Hemus -- St. Louis Cardinals
220 Billy Jurges -- Boston Red Sox
224 Paul Richards -- Baltimore Orioles
225 Bill Rigney -- San Francisco Giants
226 Eddie Sawyer -- Philadelphia Phillies
228 Ernie Johnson -- Cleveland Indians
230 Mound Magicians -- Buhl, Burdette, Spahn
232 Jim Busby -- Boston Red Sox
234 Don Demeter -- Los Angeles Dodgers
236 Dick Ricketts -- St. Louis Cardinals
237 Elmer Valo -- New York Yankees
239 Joe Shipley -- San Francisco Giants
240 Luis Aparicio -- Chicago White Sox
242 Cards Team -- Checklist 265-352 -- St. Louis Cardinals
243 Bubba Phillips -- Cleveland Indians
246 Lee Maye -- Milwaukee Braves
247 Gil McDougald -- New York Yankees
250 Stan Musial -- St. Louis Cardinals
254 Arnie Portocarrero -- Baltimore Orioles
256 Dick Brown -- Chicago White Sox
259 George Altman -- Chicago Cubs
260 Power Plus -- Colavito, Francona
264 Robin Roberts -- Philadelphia Phillies

Series 4 -- 40/88
266 Joe Jay -- Milwaukee Braves
267 Jim Marshall -- Boston Red Sox
270 Bob Turley -- New York Yankees
274 Tom Acker -- Kansas City Athletics
276 Ken McBride -- Chicago White Sox
277 Harry Bright -- Chicago Cubs
278 Stan Williams -- Los Angeles Dodgers
281 Ray Boone -- Milwaukee Braves
283 John Blanchard -- New York Yankees
284 Don Gross -- Pittsburgh Pirates
287 Felipe Alou -- San Francisco Giants
288 Bob Mabe -- Baltimore Orioles
289 Willie Jones -- Cincinnati Reds
290 Jerry Lumpe -- Kansas City Athletics
291 Bob Keegan -- St. Louis Cardinals
292 Dodger Backstops -- Pignatano, Roseboro
295 Gil Hodges -- Los Angeles Dodgers
299 Earl Torgeson -- Chicago White Sox
300 Hank Aaron -- Milwaukee Braves
303 Billy O'Dell -- San Francisco Giants
306 Frank Baumann -- Chicago White Sox
309 Bob Hale -- Cleveland Indians
315 Bobby Shantz -- New York Yankees
316 Willie McCovey -- San Francisco Giants
321 Ron Fairly -- Los Angeles Dodgers
325 Jim O'Toole -- Cincinnati Reds
326 Bob Clemente -- Pittsburgh Pirates
328 Earl Battey -- Chicago White Sox
329 Zack Monroe -- New York Yankees
331 Henry Mason -- Philadelphia Phillies
332 Yankees Team -- Checklist -- 265-352 -- New York Yankees
333 Danny McDevitt -- Los Angeles Dodgers
334 Ted Abernathy -- Washington Senators
335 Red Schoendienst -- Milwaukee Braves
336 Ike Delock -- Boston Red Sox
339 Harry Chiti -- Kansas City Athletics
340 Harvey Haddix -- Pittsburgh Pirates
342 Casey Wise -- Detroit Tigers
343 Sandy Koufax -- Los Angeles Dodgers
344 Clint Courtney -- Washington Senators
346 J.C. Martin (photo actually Gary Peters) -- Chicago White Sox
347 Ed Bouchee -- Philadelphia Phillies
348 Barry Shetrone -- Baltimore Orioles
350 Mickey Mantle -- New York Yankees
352 Cincy Clouters -- Bell, Lynch, Robinson

Series 5 -- 34/77
353 Don Larsen -- Kansas City Athletics
354 Bob Lillis -- Los Angeles Dodgers
355 Bill White -- St. Louis Cardinals
356 Joe Amalfitano -- San Francisco Giants
358 Joe DeMaestri -- New York Yankees
360 Herb Score -- Cleveland Indians
363 Gene Stephens -- Boston Red Sox
366 Dallas Green -- Philadelphia Phillies
367 Bill Tuttle -- Kansas City Athletics
368 Daryl Spencer -- St. Louis Cardinals
369 Billy Hoeft -- Baltimore Orioles
370 Bill Skowron -- New York Yankees
371 Bud Byerly -- San Francisco Giants
373 Don Hoak -- Pittsburgh Pirates
375 Dale Long -- Chicago Cubs
377 Roger Maris -- New York Yankees
380 Bob Shaw -- Chicago White Sox
381 Braves Team -- Checklist 353-429 -- Milwaukee Braves
383 Leon Wagner -- St. Louis Cardinals
385 World Series Game 1 -- Neal Steals 2nd
386 World Series Game 2 -- Neal Belts 2nd Homer
388 World Series Game 4 -- Hodges' Winning Homer
389 World Series Game 5 -- Luis Swipes Base
390 World Series Game 6 -- Scrambling After Ball
391 World Series Summary -- The Champs Celebrate
394 Norm Larker -- Los Angeles Dodgers
395 Hoyt Wilhelm -- Baltimore Orioles
399 Young Hill Stars -- Fisher, Pappas, Walker
401 Bob Duliba -- St. Louis Cardinals
402 Dick Stuart -- Pittsburgh Pirates
404 Bob Rush -- Milwaukee Braves
406 Billy Klaus -- Baltimore Orioles
410 Sam Jones -- San Francisco Giants
414 Don Williams -- Pittsburgh Pirates
416 Humberto Robinson -- Philadelphia Phillies
417 Chuck Cottier -- Milwaukee Braves
419 George Crowe -- St. Louis Cardinals
420 Ed Mathews -- Milwaukee Braves
421 Duke Maas -- New York Yankees
423 Ed Fitzgerald -- Cleveland Indians
424 Pete Whisenant -- Cincinnati Reds
425 Johnny Podres -- Los Angeles Dodgers
429 American League Kings -- Fox, Kuenn
Series 6 --  21/66
430 Art Ditmar -- New York Yankees
431 Andre Rodgers -- San Francisco Giants
433 Irv Noren -- Chicago Cubs
435 Gene Freese -- Chicago White Sox
437 Bob Friend -- Pittsburgh Pirates
441 Gary Bell -- Cleveland Indians
442 Joe Pignatano -- Los Angeles Dodgers
443 Charlie Maxwell -- Detroit Tigers
444 Jerry Kindall -- Chicago Cubs
445 Warren Spahn -- Milwaukee Braves
446 Ellis Burton -- St. Louis Cardinals
448 Jim Gentile -- Baltimore Orioles
450 Orlando Cepeda -- San Francisco Giants
452 Ray Webster -- Boston Red Sox
453 Vern law -- Pittsburgh Pirates
455 Orioles Coaches -- Brecheen, Harris, Robinson -- Baltimore Orioles
456 Red Sox Coaches -- Baker, Herman, Maglie, York -- Boston Red Sox
457 Cubs Coaches -- Klein, Root, Tappe -- Chicago Cubs
458 White Sox Coaches -- Berres, Cooney, Cuccinello, Gutteridge -- Chicago White Sox
460 Indians Coaches -- Harder, Kress, Lemon, White -- Cleveland Indians
463 Dodgers Coaches -- Becker, Bragan, Mulleavy, Reiser -- Los Angeles Dodgers
464 Braves Coaches -- Myatt, Pafko, Scheffing, Wyatt -- Milwaukee Braves
465 Yankees Coaches -- Crosetti, Dickey, Houk, Lopat -- New York Yankees
467 Pirates Coaches -- Burwell, Narron, Oceak, Vernon -- Pittsburgh Pirates
469 Giants Coaches -- Parker, Posedel, Westrum -- San Francisco Giants
472 Al Dark -- Philadelphia Phillies
474 Haywood Sullivan -- Boston Red Sox
475 Don Drysdale -- Los Angeles Dodgers
476 Lou Johnson -- Chicago Cubs
477 Don Ferrarese -- Chicago White Sox
479 Georges Maranda -- San Francisco Giants
480 Yogi Berra -- New York Yankees
481 Wes Stock -- Baltimore Orioles
484 Pirates Team -- Checklist 430-495 -- Pittsburgh Pirates
485 Ken Boyer -- St. Louis Cardinals
486 Bobby Del Greco -- Philadelphia Phillies
488 Norm Cash -- Detroit Tigers
489 Steve Ridzik -- Chicago Cubs
490 Frank Robinson -- Cincinnati Reds
491 Mel Roach -- Milwaukee Braves
492 Larry Jackson -- St. Louis Cardinals
493 Duke Snider -- Los Angeles Dodgers
494 Orioles Team -- Checklist 496-572 -- Baltimore Orioles
495 Sherm Lollar -- Chicago White Sox

Series 7 6/77
496 Bill Virdon -- Pittsburgh Pirates
498 Al Pilarcik -- Baltimore Orioles
499 Johnny James -- New York Yankees
500 Johnny Temple -- Cleveland Indians
501 Bob Schmidt -- San Francisco Giants
502 Jim Bunning -- Detroit Tigers
504 Seth Morehead -- Chicago Cubs
505 Ted Kluszewski -- Chicago White Sox
507 Dick Stigman -- Cleveland Indians
508 Billy Consolo -- Washington Senators
509 Tommy Davis -- Los Angeles Dodgers
510 Jerry Staley -- Chicago White Sox
511 Ken Walters -- Philadelphia Phillies
512 Joe Gibbon -- Pittsburgh Pirates
513 Cubs Team -- Checklist 496-572 -- Chicago Cubs
514 Steve Barber -- Baltimore Orioles
515 Stan Lopata -- Milwaukee Braves
516 Marty Kutyna -- Kansas City Athletics
517 Charley James -- St. Louis Cardinals
518 Tony Gonzalez -- Cincinnati Reds
519 Ed Roebuck -- Los Angeles Dodgers
520 Don Buddin -- Boston Red Sox
521 Mike Lee -- Cleveland Indians
522 Ken Hunt -- New York Yankees
523 Clay Dalrymple -- Philadelphia Phillies
524 Bill Henry -- Cincinnati Reds
525 Marv Breeding -- Baltimore Orioles
526 Paul Giel -- Pittsburgh Pirates
527 Jose Valdivielso -- Washington Senators
528 Ben Johnson -- Chicago Cubs
529 Norm Sherry -- Los Angeles Dodgers
530 Mike McCormick -- San Francisco Giants
531 Sandy Amoros -- Detroit Tigers
532 Mike Garcia -- Chicago White Sox
533 Lu Clinton -- Boston Red Sox
534 Ken MacKenzie -- Milwaukee Braves
535 Whitey Lockman -- Cincinnati Reds
536 Wynn Hawkins -- Cleveland Indians
537 Red Sox Team -- Checklist 496-572 -- Boston Red Sox
538 Frank Barnes -- Chicago White Sox
539 Gene Baker -- Pittsburgh Pirates
540 Jerry Walker -- Baltimore Orioles
541 Tony Curry -- Philadelphia Phillies
543 Elio Chacon -- Cincinnati Reds
544 Bill Monbouquette -- Boston Red Sox
545 Carl Sawatski -- St. Louis Cardinals
546 Hank Aguirre -- Detroit Tigers
547 Bob Aspromonte -- Los Angeles Dodgers
548 Don Mincher -- Washington Senators
549 John Buzhardt -- Philadelphia Phillies
550 Jim Landis -- Chicago White Sox
551 Ed Rakow -- Los Angeles Dodgers
552 Walt Bond -- Cleveland Indians
554 All Star -- Willie McCovey -- San Francisco Giants
555 All Star -- Nellie Fox -- Chicago White Sox
556 All Star -- Charlie Neal -- Los Angeles Dodgers
557 All Star -- Frank Malzone -- Boston Red Sox
559 All Star -- Luis Aparicio -- Chicago White Sox
560 All Star -- Ernie Banks -- Chicago Cubs
561 All Star -- Al Kaline -- Detroit Tigers
562 All Star -- Joe Cunningham -- St. Louis Cardinals
563 All Star -- Mickey Mantle -- New York Yankees
564 All Star -- Willie Mays -- San Francisco Giants
565 All Star -- Roger Maris -- New York Yankees
566 All Star -- Hank Aaron -- Milwaukee Braves
567 All Star -- Sherm Lollar -- Chicago White Sox
568 All Star -- Del Crandall -- Milwaukee Braves
569 All Star -- Camilo Pascual -- Washington Senators
570 All Star -- Don Drysdale -- Los Angeles Dodgers
571 All Star -- Billy Pierce -- Chicago White Sox
572 All Star -- Johnny Antonelli -- San Francisco Giants
Elect Your Favorite Rookie Insert -- paper stock, no date on back
Hot Iron Transfer Insert -- paper stock

1960 Topps Football

Set size: 132
Short 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!)

1960 Topps Frank Torre

I am lazy.

I have here a perfectly good 1960 Topps Frank Torre.


And I don't feel like writing anything about it.

1960 Topps Primer

2009 Topps Heritage is almost here, so let's take a look at the set it is ripping off, I mean paying homage to. This is a great looking (and rather quirky) set that has a bunch of different unique designs for each of the subsets. It's the last horizontal set for Topps as well. The original set consists of 572 cards, with the high series (507-572) being significantly tougher to find than the lower numbers. Here's a base card:

Wes was the first Brave I ever had from this set, and it's been one of my favorites ever since. As you can see there's a small black and white action photo on a solid color background on the left, a full color portrait on the right, a team logo in the bottom left corner and the player's name in alternating colors and the team name and position on the bottom with a different solid background color. Depending on the color combination, the card can look really good or cause headaches. There are three different back variations:

White colored stock,

gray stock with the player's name in white letters,

and gray stock with black letters for the player name. If there is not some sort of parallel in the 2009 Heritage set with either different stock color, black lettering or both, I'll be shocked. The white and gray stock seem to alternate series with cards 375-440 being found in either color stock.

There are two rookie subsets:

Sport Magazine picks a group of promising rookie stars that are featured on cards 117 to 148. Carl Yastrzemski is the key rookie in the subset, with Jim Kaat and Frank Howard being the other two rookies of note. In place of Season's Highlights on the back (since they're rookies, duh) The editors of Sport Magazine wrote up a paragraph on the player. According to the presell checklist, (which I'm a still a little dubious of after the Mayo debacle) cards 117 to 148 are all RCs in the '09 set, so expect to see this design in Heritage.

The other Rookie subset is the Topps All-Star Rookie team at cards 316-325. This design got a lot of attention from Topps for their 50th anniversary insert set. The old style Rookie trophy is displayed on the card for the first time. The only actual rookie card in the subset is a doozie, Willie McCovey. Again the checklist indicates that cards 316-325 in '09 Heritage have all won that cup, so I'm looking forward to a Evan Longoria card with this design.

There are several combo cards sprinkled throughout the set. They have a four pointed star design with the subjects' names in a black triangle on the bottom and the card title on top in bold red type. The backs have a paragraph on the players with some cartoons on the bottom. Tim Lincecum and Bruce Bochy are featured on this combo card in Heritage.

The Team cards have the same design as the combos. They also double as checklist cards, showing the checklist for a series on the back.

Managers are found on cards 212-227. These cards and the cards featuring the coaches are all vertically oriented. There is a team pennant on top with the logo and the manager's name on the bottom with alternating colors for each letter. The back has several cartoons illustrating different facts about the manager. The checklist shows managers in the same cards 212-227. Where the other 14 managers are, I have no idea.

Coarches are found on cards 455-470. There is a card for each team with three or four coaches apiece. Floating disembodied heads on a colored background make this subset one of the stranger looking ones. The back has a line or two about each of the coaches. It looks like Topps included these as well, and there's even a Braves card so I'm happy.

Cars 385 to 391 feature the 1959 World Series between the Dodgers and the White Sox. The front shows a key play while the back desribes the play and has the game box score. The '09 preliminary checklist shows these players in the same spot: Chase Utley, Eric Bruntlett, Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Howard, Jason Werth, BJ Upton, Brad Lidge. I think it's a good bet that you'll see these if that checklist is to be trusted.

The last cards in the set (553-572) are all Sport Magazine 1960 All-Star selections. The player is shown with a shadow in front of a huge two-color 60. I'm hoping for the 2009 set they just flip the 60:

Topps included All Stars to finish up the set last year and it looks like they will again this year. Expect them to be short printed though.

There are no errors or variations in the 1960 set, however there are three proof cards that differ from the regular cards of the player. The proofs show the team logo of the player before their late 1959 trades, and Topps updated the regular cards to reflect the new teams. The three rare variations are:

56 Gino Cimoli (Cardinals logo)
102 Kent Hadley (A's logo)
436 Marv Throneberry (Yankees logo)

These cards are rare as hell. The Hadley sold for $13,500 in 1999 and the Marvelous Marv card wasn't even confirmed to exist when my price guide was printed. Now, we all know Topps will gimmick this set up somehow so don't be surprised if you see a card or two of a high profile player that changed teams over the offseason with a super short printed logo variation. Maybe a Teixeira card with an Angels logo or Captain Cheezburger with a Brewers logo (I'm hoping not, Thorzul). That would be the most authentic gimmick Topps could create for this set.

I've got the 2009 Topps Heritage auction ticker going on my home page, as soon as the American Heritage and wrestling cards start getting bumped by the casebusters' baseball hits I'll let you guys know. In the meantime, enjoy the originals.