April Card Show Haul - 1971

My big disappointment with this show was the almost complete lack of progress I made on my 1971 set. I managed to pick up a grand total of 57 cards, but only 19 of those were new-to-me. The other 38 were just upgrades of the worst of the cards (GD and lower) in the starter set I bought. There was a fair number of semi-high numbers in my purchase, but almost no high numbers.

The Reggie in my starter set looked like it had been used as a dog toy or teething ring. This is a pretty clean copy and, best of all, it only cost me $20. Not bad considering that my main vintage go-to guy usually charges between 50% to 80% of book ($50 for this card) for cards in the Near Mint to Mint range.

I normally think of Hall 0f Famer Steve Carlton as a Phillie and it is always a bit of a shock when I am reminded he had spent all or part of 7 different season with the Cardinals before being traded to Philadelphia straight up for Rick Wise. That has to rank up there as one of the worst trades of all time. Fun Fact: Carlton was a decent hitter as pitchers go, sporting a .201 career BA with 13 home runs to his credit.

I think this card cost me another $20. Again, not too bad considering it books at $80. Although, I have to admit that I have a visceral reaction to having to buy Pete Rose cards. But, if I am going to put together sets from the 1970s I am going to have to get over that.

I'm not sure what tickles me more about this card: that they tinted the picture Red or that they used a picture showing the back of Angel Bravo's uniform.

I have to admit it, Jim Palmer is one of my favorite contemporary game announcers who isn't named Ken Singleton. That is all.

Rookie Cup and semi-high number!

This will probably be the nicest condition Roberto Clemente card I will ever own.

Not sure why I chose this one, other than he was one of the better players in my 71 haul. Speaking of lopsided trades, the Royals got Otis, along with Bob Johnson from the Mets in 1969 in exchange for Joe Foy. Amos went on to be a Royals stalwart for years, Foy only had two more lackluster years in the Bigs and only one of those was with the Mets.

One of the great power hitters of his time, Frank Howard. Known as "The Capital Punisher" during his time with the Washington Senators.

So, those were the highlights. Generally, slim pickings. Roger Neufeldt offered to let me come out to his warehouse this week, where he has boxes of 1971 commons. I haven't decided what to do quite yet. I've got a number of real life things that need to be taken care of before I start my new job and I am not sure I want to spare the time and money at the moment. Especially given the cost of the cards I need to work on.

Since there wasn't much to chose from with regard to 71s, I shifted my focus at the show to knocking off as much of 1976 as I could and I largely succeeded in doing so.  But, we'll talk about that in a day or so.