APRIL 2024 CARD SHOW PREVIEW

 THIS PAST WEEKEND I SOMEHOW HAD BOTH TIME AND A LITTLE MONEY AT THE SAME TIME AS THE MONTHLY CARD SHOW SO I TOOK A LITTLE TRIP AND HAD A LITTLE FUN. I HAD TO BE SUPER EXTRA CHEAP (THAT MURPH THERE WAS THE MOST EXPENSIVE THING I BOUGHT) BUT I HIT ALL MY FAVORITE TABLES AND WAS SUCCESSFUL AT THE ONE GOAL I SET FOR MYSELF. I AM EVENTUALLY GOING TO DO A SERIES OF POSTS ON THE SHOW BUT I HAVE OVER A HUNDRED CARDS THAT NEED PICTURED TAKEN, CROPPED AND UPLOADED SO HERE'S A SORT OF TOP TEN LIST OF MY PICKUPS IN THE MEANTIME. I WILL LIKELY SHOW THEM ALL OFF AGAIN IN THE SUBSEQUENT POSTS, PLACE YOUR BETS NOW ON HOW MANY JOKES I RECYCLE

HERE'S A FULL PHOTO OF ALL THE PICKUPS. THE PILES AT THE BOTTOM ARE LEFT TO RIGHT:  QUARTER BOX, DIME BOX, FIVE DOLLARS WORTH OF VINTAGE AND THREE FOR A DOLLAR BOX. THAT'S NINE OR TEN POSTS RIGHT THERE DEPENDING ON HOW I DEAL WITH THAT FIVE DOLLAR PILE. THE FIRST CARD IN THE TOP TEN LIST IS WHICHEVER OF THE TWO 1987 FLEER BOX BOTTOM PANALS YOU PREFER. DO YOU LIKE THE BASE PANEL WITH DALE MURPHY? OR PERHAPS THE TOUGH STICKER BOX BOTTOM WITH BOB HORNER? IF YOU CAN'T CHOOSE, THEN CHOOSE BOTH. I WON'T STOP YOU. THIS IS THE ONLY PICTURE YOU'RE GETTING THOUGH BECAUSE I TOOK MULTIPLE SHOTS OF THEM AND THEY ALL TURNED OUT BLURRY FOR SOME REASON AND I'M NOT DOING IT AGAIN

DALE HERE IS THE LAST CARD I NEEDED FOR MY 1981 FLEER SET. THIS IS SOMEWHAT AWKWARD BECAUSE I HAVE A POST LINED UP FOR THE PENULTIMATE AND NEXT-TO-NEXT-TO-LAST CARDS I NEEDED FOR THE SET SCHEDULED IN A COUPLE MONTHS IN MY COMC BLACK FRIDAY POSTS. THEY'RE GOOD CARDS AND YOU'LL FIND OUT WHY THIS WASN'T IN THAT COMC PACKAGE THEN. BUT RIGHT NOW AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THE 81 FLEER BINDER IS COMPLETELY COMPLETE. EXCEPT FOR THIRTY-SEVEN ERROR CARDS. AND ABOUT A HUNDRED AND THIRTY STICKER CARDS. BUT THE SET! IS! COMPLEEEEETEEEE!!!

I LOVE FINDING EXTRA-ODD ODDBALL CARDS IN CHEAPO BOXES I'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE AND THIS ONE COUNTS. AT LEAST I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SEEN ONE OF THESE BEFORE BUT IT TURNS OUT IT'S FROM THE 1993-95 SPORTS STARS USA BOOTLEG SERIES THAT I AM VERY FAMILIAR WITH. I KNEW I RECOGNIZED THAT CRACKED ICE-STYLE FOIL FROM OTHER CARDS. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THEY GOT AWAY WITH USING LOGOS ON THEIR UNLICENSED SET BUT THE EARLY 90S WERE WILD. THERE'S A SURPRISE ON THE BACK BUT I'LL SAVE THAT FOR THE ACTUAL QUARTER BOX POST

I THINK I AM OFFICIALLY COLLECTING ANY MINOR LEAGUE TRAINER CARDS I FIND FROM NOW ON. NORMALLY WHEN I COME ACROSS AN ABANDONED MINOR LEAGUE TEAM SET IN A DIME BOX I LOOK FOR ANY PLAYERS WHO MADE THE BIGS. THIS TIME I WAS ALL "I HOPE THERE'S A TRAINER, I HOPE THERE'S A TRAINER, I HOPE THERE'S A TRAINER... YES!!" I HOPE BARNEY'S HAVING A GOOD TIME OUT THERE WHEREVER HE IS

THERE WERE A BUNCH OF TOPPS BUNT CARDS IN THE DIME BOX BUT UNFORTUNATELY THEY WERE 2017 BUNT WHICH DON'T CARE FOR.THIS MCCUTCHEN INSERT WAS TOO PRETTY TO LEAVE BEHIND THOUGH. I'M NOT SURE HOW 'IMAGE USED IN AN OBITUARY' ENDED UP BEING THE THEME OF AN INSERT SET BUT I'M GLAD I FOUND THIS ONE

YOU ALWAYS LEARN SOMETHING NEW AT EVERY CARD SHOW. AT THIS SHOW I LEARNED THAT PRESS PASS RELEASED AN ELVIS SET THE YEAR HE WOULD HAVE TURNED 75, AND THAT ELVIS WAS IN A MOVIE WITH MARY TYLER MOORE. I TOOK ONE LOOK AT ELVIS LEERING AT NUN ASS AND KNEW THIS CARD WAS COMING HOME WITH ME. THIS IS THE WILDEST CARD I'VE SEEN ALL YEAR AND I'VE SEEON SOME SHIT

THE AFOREMENTIONED GOAL FOR THIS CARD SHOW WAS TO FINALLY PICK UP SOME 1977 TOPPS CARDS SINCE I'M OSTENSIBLY FOCUSING ON COMPLETING THAT SET THIS YEAR. NEWS FLASH: I AM NOT FINISHING THIS SET THIS YEAR. I WILL BE CHIPPING AWAY AT THE WANTLIST AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY. A HALL OF FAME CARD IS ONE OF THE BIGGER CHIPS OFF THE LIST. OF COURSE I BOUGHT THIS BEAT UP MESS FOR CHEAP INSTEAD OF GETTING A NICE ONE IN EX CONDITION FOR A BUCK OR TWO. THEY BOTH FIT IN THE BINDER POCKET

THIS ONE WAS FROM THE THREE FOR A DOLLAR BOX. THERE WAS A NICE MIX OF OLD BASEBALL BASKETBALL AND HOCKEY IN THERE AND I HAD TO MAKE A LOT OF TOUGH CHOICES AS IT WAS THE LAST BOX I SCROUNGED THROUGH AS I WAS EXITING THE SHOW. THIS WAS NOT A TOUGH CHOICE AS I LOWKEY COLLECT KENTUCKY COLONELS CARDS AS MY FAVORITE ABA TEAM. MY ABA FAVE ARTIS GILMORE IS NOT ON THIS CARD BUT YOU KNOW WHO IS? HALL OF FAMERS JULIUS ERVING AND GEORGE MCGINNIS. JUST PUT DOCTOR J IN YOUR EBAY TITLE AND YOU'LL TRIPLE THE BIDS

ANOTHER DUMB THING I'VE BEEN BUYING A LOT MORE OF LATELY ARE EXCESSIVELY MARKED CHECKLISTS. I DON'T WANT THE ONES WITH HALF THE BOXES NEATLY MARKED, I WANT THE RUINED ONES WITH THREE DIFFERENT COLORS OF PEN INK, PENCIL SCRIBBLES AND DIFFERENT MARKINGS POSSIBLY TO INDICATE DOUBLES OR A SECOND SET. THOSE ARE THE CHECKLISTS I WANT. IT HELPS WHEN THERE'S A HEADSHOT OF A RECENTLY MINTED MVP ON THE CARD AS WELL

1977 TOPPS IS MY OFFICIAL SET BUILDING FOCUS RIGHT NOW BUT 1975 TOPPS IS WAY MORE FUN TO BUY SO I HAVE BEEN DOING JUST THAT. I'M NOT COMPLETING THAT SET THIS YEAR EITHER AS I HAVE SOME DAUNTING ROOKIES AND SOME BIG STARS STILL STARING ME DOWN. NOT THE BIG ROOKIES THANKFULLY BUT THERE'S ABOUT TEN CARDS I WILL HAVE TO ACTUALLY SPEND REAL MONEY ON. THIS WAS THE MOST ICONIC I HAD LEFT THOUGH AND I ALMOST MADE ASCENE WHEN I FOUND IT HIDING AMONGST SOME '75 COMMONS. I HAVE ABOUT FORTY CARDS LEFT FOR THE SET BUT WITH THIS ONE IN THE BINDER WE CAN DEFINITELY SAY I'M ON THE HOME STRETCH NOW

ONLINE MEGA BOX - PART 3

ON TODAY'S BATCH WE START OFF SENSIBLE, GO OFF THE RAILS A BIT AND THEN GET IT TOGETHER RIGHT AT THE END

1986 TOPPS CHRIS BAHR, DENNIS HARRAH, WAYNE WILSON

CATEGORY - WANTLIST

I MIGHT BE FORGETTING SOMETHING BUT I THINK 1986 TOPPS FOOTBALL WAS THE FIRST FULL UNOPENED BOX I EVER BOUGHT. THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT WAS A SET I COMPLETED, OH NO. THE COLLATION MONSTER BIT ME HARD. LUCKILY A LOT OF THE DOUBLES I PULLED WERE OF JERRY RICE AND STEVE YOUNG. THESE THREE CARDS GET ME DOWN TO NEEDING JUST TWENTY MORE FOR THE SET. THE ONLY BIGGIE LEFT IS THE REFRIGERATOR PERRY ROOKIE CARD. THEN I NEED TO FINISH THE 1000-YARD CLUB INSERTS. AND THE BOX BOTTOM CARDS. FIRST THINGS FIRST THOUGH

2001 UPPER DECK EVOLUTION E-CARD BRIAN GILES

CATEGORY - INSERT

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF ME PICKING UP ANY OLD INSERT I COULD FIND. UPPER DECK EVOLUTION WAS ONE OF A MILLION 2000'S ODDBALL SETS WITH A 90 CARD CHECKLIST AND AN ADDITIONAL 30 SHORT PRINTED ROOKIES. ESPECIALLY INSIDIOUS SINCE IT WAS THE YEAR OF PUJOLS AND ICHIRO. THESE EVOLUTION INSERTS HAD A SCRATCH OFF CODE ON THE BACK THAT YOU COULD ENTER INTO A WEBSITE AND 'EVOLVE' THE CARD INTO A RELIC CARD. IT WAS STUPID HARD TO EVOLVE ANYTHING IN THIS SET BUT I REMEMBER REDEEMING SOME HOCKEY AND BASKETBALL CODES FOR SOMETHING. WHAT IT WAS I'LL NEVER REMEMBER

2004 IN THE GAME HEROES AND PROSPECTS PAUL COFFEY

CATEGORY - PLAYER COLLECTION

WHEN I WAS DIGGING THROUGH MY HOCKEY CARDS LOOKING FOR CHELIOS CARDS I FOUND A GINORMOUS PILE OF PAUL COFFEY CARDS I HAD COLLECTED. CHELIOS AND COFFEY WERE MY DUDES BACK IN THE 90S AND SINCE I HAD ALREADY DECIDED TO ADD BELFOUR TO MY HOCKEY PLAYER COLLECTION IT WAS EASY ENOUGH TO ADD COFFEY AS WELL. THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF POSTS RECENTLY ABOUT PLAYER COLLECTING WHERE YOU GET A CARD FOR EACH TEAM THE PLAYER WAS ON AND THIS HERE CHECKS OFF THE KITCHENER RANGERS FOR PAUL. THIS IS A NIFTY SET, ARMED WITH A PLAYER'S ASSOCIATION LICENSE AND A COUPLE MINOR LEAGUE LICENSES, IN THE GAME PUT TOGETHER A LARGE MINOR LEAGUE SET TOGETHER WITH A BUNCH OF CURRENT STARS AND LEGENDS WITH MINOR LEAGUE PHOTOS. BABY COFFEY HERE IS ABOUT TO ENTER A 21-YEAR CAREER AND COLLECT A FEW CUPS

1988-89 ESSO NHL ALL-STAR COLLECTION MIKE BOSSY

CATEGORY - ODDBALL

AFTER PICKING UP THE PAUL COFFEY ESSO STICKER IN THE PRECIOUS ORDER I COULDN'T PASS UP ON THIS MIKE BOSSY STICKER. 80'S ODDBALLS ARE JUST SO GOOD NO MATTER THE SPORT. I HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR THE ISLANDERS. THEY ENTERED THE LEAGUE THE SAME TIME MY ATLANTA FLAMES DID AND HAD THEMSELVES A DYNASTY AS SOON AS THE FLAMES LEFT. THEY'VE BEEN KINDA DISMAL EVER SINCE THOUGH AND EVEN LEFT NASSAU FOR BROOKLYN. YOU MAY SEE MORE OF THESE IN THE FUTURE. A LOT MORE

2021 CHRONICLES LIMITED KYLE LEWIS

CATEGORY - CHRONICLES

WHAT HAPPENED TO KYLE LEWIS. FROM A ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD TO INJURIES TO ARIZONA'S TRIPLE-A TEAM. HE LOOKED SO GOOD AT MERCER AND NOW HE'S A NON-TENDER CANDIDATE. HMMM. BRAVES DO NEED SOMEONE IN LEFT FIELD...

1986 TCMA ALL-TIME BREWERS HARVEY KUENN

CATEGORY - ODDBALL

THESE TCMA CARDS ARE VERY NOSTALIC FOR ME. I REMEMBER GETTING A FEW IN COLLECTOR'S KITS AND THOUGHT IT WAS HILARIOUS THAT OLD-SCHOOL TEAMS GOT PLAYERS LIKE ROBERTO CLEMENTE AND CARL YASTRZEMSKI IN THEIR CHECKLISTS WHILE EXPANSION TEAMS THAT HAD BARELY EXISTED WHEN THIS SET CAME OUT GOT SCHLABOTNIKS LIKE DAN MEYER AND PAUL SCHALL. HARVEY KUENN IS NO SCHLABOTNIK. A SOLID FIFTEEN  YEAR MAJOR LEAGUE CAREER AND THE ONLY GUY TO MANAGER THE BREWERS TO THE WORLD SERIES. DEFINITELY AN ALL-TIME BREWER

1990-91 O-PEE-CHEE ART ROSS TROPHY WINNER

CATEGORY - SUPERSTAR

IT'S REALLY HARD TO PASS UP A WAYNE GRETZKY O-PEE-CHEE CARD ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS POSING WITH A GIGANTIC TROPHY THAT LOOKS LIKE A DALEK ARISTOCRAT

1983 O-PEE-CHEE BRUCE BENEDICT, GLENN HUBBARD, CLAUDELL WASHINGTON

CATEGORY - BRAVES

A TON OF 1983 O-PEE-CHEE CARDS GOT POSTED TO THE SITE AND WHILE I REALLY WANT ALL OF THEM A MORE REASONABLE GOAL IS A TEAM SET. MY O-PEE-CHEE COLLECTION IS KIND OF NEGLECTED SINCE THEY ARE NOT SUPER COMMON IN GEORGIA. I HAVE NO IDEA WHICH BRAVES I NEED SO I PRETTY MUCH GRABBED ANY I COULD GET. THESE ARE THREE GOOD ONES FROM THE 1982 DIVISION WINNING TEAM. FOREVER CATCHER BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE BENEDICT WAS BEHIND THE PLATE A DOZEN YEARS FOR THE BRAVES. GLENN HUBBARD IS BEST KNOWN FOR A CARD WITH A SNAKE BUT WAS A SECOND BASE IN ATLANTA FOR A DECADE AND WAS ALSO A DIAMOND KING. CLAUDELL WON A WORLD SERIES WITH OAKLAND BUT SPENT THE MOST TIME IN ATLANTA. I STILL REMEMBER AMAZED BY THE CRUDE 'IN CLAUDELL WE TRUST' ANIMATION ON THE OLD ATLANTA-FULTON COUNTY SCOREBOARD. ALL THREE OF THESE DUDES WERE ALL-STARS FOR THE BRAVES! THIS ISN'T THE LAST OF THE 0-PEE-CHEE CARDS, I PICKED UP SOME MORE YOU'LL SEE LATER

UP NEXT: IT'S PRETTY UNHINGED. A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Marketing Mets

In honor of the Sport and Gaming Collectible Industry Summit that all the cool kids are discussing on Twitter, I dug up some old school cards from way back when the industry gave a crap about marketing to kids. Here's some cards given away with...

chocolate

breakfast cereal

granola bars

fake cheese squares

All junk food items that kids tend to like. Here's some more giveaways in products geared towards kids:

ice cream

cheese sticks

snack cakes

slurpees

fast food

pizza

meat snacks

more snack cakes

bland yellow mustard

even more snack cakes

Man, that's a lotta junk food. Might be a good thing cards aren't being included in that anymore. The last time I remember seeing cards in any product was when Sunkist included a card in a bag of oranges that promptly bent the thing all to hell. So now that the Industry is trying to figure out how to get the kids who got hooked on cards through some of these giveaways to spend more money on cards as an adult, I wonder what they have in mind to hook those guys' kids? Maybe they can sneak baseball cards into packs of Pokemon and Squinkies...

Top 20 Intermission - What the hell was I thinking

All dedicated dime box scroungers has this happen to them. After spending hours putting together wantlists and vowing to focus only on the cards they actually need, the box diggers frenzy strikes and a whole bunch of weirdness ends up in the shopping cart. Here's some oddball crap that I got from the card show that I really did not need at this point in my life. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

I know what I was thinking here, I like Carlton Fisk, and I had just put an Eddie Mathews and Tom Glavine from the same insert set in my stack. Makes sense. The card is damn ugly though.

Well., I am a fan of the WBC. And it is fairly shiny. Why I picked out a card with a Yankee and a Met, I don't rightly know. Maybe I meant to give this Jeter to Sooz but forgot. Man, I really bungled the scans on this lot didn't I. I'm not going to take the time to rescan my dime box Fails, so you'll have to deal.

Ok, I know why on this one. Alex Gonzalez is the Braves' shortstop. So I grabbed a Bowman's best die cut insert of a Florida Marlin with Mark Grudzielanik on the back. There's a dime I'll never see again.

You gotta admit, a card of Bo Jackson and George Brett is pretty kickass, even with the hideous Donruss Design. They're about to beat the crap out of each other with baseball bats!

This card tests the theory that any Ichiro card is a good Ichiro card. This is from a set called Topps Pack Wars. Basically, you and a friend go to a card shop, plop down $20 a throw for a pack of this junk, choose a statistic and whoever has the highest total wins the relic card inserted into the pack. You know, just like if you were playing pack wars with some 50 cent packs of 1988 Topps, except it costs $40, and one of you leaves with nothing and the other gets a relic of Eric Chavez and an auto of Johnny Estrada.

Q: Why did Dayf buy this card?

a) he hates Griffey and wants to voodoo it
b) the busyness of the card hypnotized him
c) he likes old-timey looking cards to have newfangled players on them
d) everyone and their brother collects Reds and Dayf is clean out of Cincinnatians.

If you chose D, congrats! You passed the quiz!

Teddy's my favorite President, sure. This was in the dollar box though, not the dime box. In my defense, it was the 6th card in a 6 for 5 dollar deal. However, the prosecution notes that I went back and bought another dollar card from the box after this one and that I am an inveterate box scrounging collector. The defense agrees wholeheartedly and rests their case. I need a new lawyer.

Another Jeter card! That I don't even want! The hell is wrong with me.

Here's half of a Griffey insert card. Not sure who's on the other half. Probably A-Fraud. Did I mention I don't like Griffey anymore? Maybe I bought this for trading purposes.

I like oddball mini cards, that is not in question. I still am not sure why I got this card of the Father of Texas from a football retro set that I don't have the time or energy to seriously collect anymore. I guess the combination of mini and history grabbed me. Austin is apparently a happenin' little town though. Wasn't Slacker filmed there? That's a good enough reason as any to buy this card.

I DON'T LIKE A-FRAUD EVEN A LITTLE BIT! IT UGLY TOO! Y I BUY THIS CARD??? WHY???

Card Show Top 20 - #13 Sertoma Rico

Back to the Top 20 countdown. This one is a real oddball in every sense of the word. I got it in the Mystical Insane Dollar Box From Dimension X. Finding this card resulted in one of the half dozen or so "What the sweet merciful Christ is this???" moments I had going through that box. If I could go through that box every day, I would buy something from it every day. I only had one day though so I bought this:

Hrm. A very plain sepia toned card of Rico Carty. Printed in black & white. On somewhat thin textured stock, not unlike a cheap business card. What on Earth is this thing? It's a Brave at least, let's flip it over.

Sertoma Stars! And - well, I'll be - and actual business card. Of a real business! Watson Construction, Rex Watson (owner). A construction company in Franklin Indiana is sponsoring a baseball card set. I've heard of regional oddball items used for advertising, but this is ridiculous. Let's break it down. What is Sertoma?

Sertoma is a charity organization (SERvice TO MAnkind) that focuses on hearing health issues. The collection of service clubs was founded in 1912 and apparently the Indiana Chapter released a trading card sets ometime in the late '60s. There are team logos on the card, but who knows if the thing was ever licensed. Who even knows what year, the thing was issued? No fear! The SCD Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards is here! Lemme just take a look and........ Nothing. The hell? There's a 1977 Sertoma Stars set in there but they look nothing like this. The Catalog failed me, but my Google-fu is strong. Off to the internet I went.

The more I dug around online for Sertoma Stars, the murkier things got. I quickly found my exact card on the eBay. Normally that is a perfect place to go to find out about obscure issues, but the seller lists it only as a '60s era card. An eBay search for Sertoma Stars shows most of the items listed as being from 1977. This makes absolutely no sense as Rico played for Cleveland in 1977. Let's get away from eBay. This auction says they are from the '60s. This site says 1977. Argh!

My initial thought on the set was late '60s. Rico Carty was with the Braves then and the picture looks like a young Rico. This guy here with a lot of obscure oddball stuff on the page lists it as a set from 1967. Perfect! That's just what I thought. Hey look, this guy has a checklist! And lists them as being from 1978... Gaaaah! What the hell is this damn set??!?!!?

Wait I know... Graded cards. Some fool had to have graded one of these things. Grading companies know what they're doing, right? Right?? I found a couple of graded examples scrounging online. All subsequent photos have been brazenly ganked off the interwebs without permission for educational purposes only. No, not to educate you, to educate ME! I gotta know what the hell this card is!

Check out this old as dirt graded card from SCG! A screw down with an Avery label, now that's class. Whoever typed SCG-10 GEM MINT seems to think this card is from 1967. I always liked SCG! Let's see what that other grading joint says.

1977 Sertoma Stars! NOOOOOOOOOOOO

I finally found an archived baseball card forum thread from 2006. The guy who runs TwinsCards.com (which appears to be dead right now or else I'd link it) didn't know what these things were either and tried to get some info. A user named flyingdutchdude asserts that it is in fact a second set offered by Sertoma in 1977 for the Indiana Sports Collectors Convention. He quotes the 2007 edition of the SCD Catalog. Basically I spent probably an hour and a half scrounging for information on a set that I could have found in two minutes had I gotten around to upgrading my SCD. Oops. This still does not explain why the hell a set from 1977 contains players and photos from a decade earlier. With construction advertisements on the back.

UPDATE: FleerFan knows where these old pictures come from!

Here's the checklist. I spent a half hour deducing this from eBay auctions before I found the checklist link above.

Joe Morgan - Astros
Jim Wynn - Astros
Rusty Staub - Astros

Hank Aaron - Braves
Rico Carty - Braves
Joe Torre - Braves
Clete Boyer - Braves
Phil Niekro - Braves

Jim Ray Hart - Giants
Juan Marichal - Giants
Gaylord Perry - Giants

Frank Robinson - Orioles
Brooks Robinson - Orioles
Boog Powell - Orioles
Don Buford  - Orioles
Davey Johnson - Orioles

Roberto Clemente - Pirates
Bill Mazeroski - Pirates

Harmon Killebrew - Twins
Tony Oliva - Twins
Rod Carew - Twins
Bob Allison - Twins
John Rosboro - Twins

Mickey Mantle - Yankees

Another mystery: Who the heck decided on this checklist?? Twenty-five cards featuring only seven different teams. No Indians or Reds or Cubs or White Sox in the set even though Indiana is surrounded by Illinois and Ohio. Not even a Tiger in the set! Plenty of Braves, Orioles and Twins though. PLENTY of Braves. I got four more to chase now.

Another oddity: The set was not sponsored only by Watson Construction. There are a bunch of other ads on the back. Perhaps a different one for each card, but I'm not sure. Here are all the ad backs I could find online.  Why? WHY NOT. Behold! Ad backs! FOR SCIENCE

Allen's Electric Service, Inc. Bob M. Allen, President - Gaylord Perry

D.A. Jones Plumbing - Roberto Clemente

dm Sales & Engineering, Inc.  - Don Buford

Carl Ernsting Construction Company, Inc. - Cletis Leroy Boyer

Federal Sign, Division Federal Signal Corporation - Harmon Killebrew

Eddie Hurm, Painting Snow Removal, Residential Commercial Industrial - Rusty Staub

The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Len Johnson, Ben W Roush & Associates, Inc. - Joe Torre

Ray-Mac Foods, South Meridian IGA Foodliner - Phil Niekro

Schuster's Block, Inc. Eugene Brown, Commercial-Residential Sales - James Ray Hart

"A Square Block Makes A Square Building"

Thomas Williamson Construction - Jim Wynn

and finally....

Contract Hardware & Specialties, Inc. Yale Locks, Ceco Doors & Frames - Bob Allison

What is a picture of Rico Carty from the late '60s doing in a 1977 set? Why did a hearing disabilities charity create a card set for a baseball card show back when baseball cards weren't cool? How the heck did this post go so out of control? So many questions................