June Card Show Haul - 1971

I can't believe it is almost the weekend and I haven't posted anything about the card show yet.  I have been busy at work now that it is my 4th week on the new job. Plus, we had a couple of new additions to the family keeping me hopping.

Here we have Mittens, who we found hiding in the tack room of our barn. He is pretty young and there is no indication how he got here.  We are guessing he was born into the colony of feral cats that lives nearby and was dumped at our place by his momma.

Beamer, my wife's new horse.  He is a 12 year old Thoroughbred that didn't amount to anything on the track (8 starts, no places, and $843 in winnings) and was repurposed as a jumper.  Story has it he was shown at some pretty high levels, but for whatever reason we were able to get him at a fairly cheap price.  Cheap for the horse world, anyways.  But, you aren't here to tour the zoo.  You are here to see cards, so let's get to it.

I wasn't expecting much from last weekends card show with regard to making progress on my 1971 set since the same sellers are at the show each time and I had bought quite a few from them in April. I figured if I could pick up a couple of high numbers and a few star cards, it would be a successful show. I did end up getting 24 total cards. I still have a way to go, but I am making some progress.

This was one of my upgrades.  The 1970 Baltimore Orioles. I am trying to decide if I should add one to my Paul Blair PC.  He is on the card, but it just doesn't seem the same to me.  It isn't his card.  What do other player collectors do?

Does anyone else subscribe to MLB.TV?  I watch at least a few innings of most of the Yankees games on my computer and there has been a commercial for a MLB Fan Appreciation experience. One of the ex-players featured in the commercial is Johnny Bench.  He is shown paying subtle insults to two different fans. What is up with that?  I suppose it could just be good natured joshing, but as a people manager at work, I have become attuned to (over) analyzing what people say and how they say it.  And red flags go up whenever I see that commercial.

Ahh, the Steve Garvey rookie card. Back when everyone still though he was Mr. All American Straight Arrow.  Little did we know. Such an innocent time back then.

What? Cesar Geronimo wasn't always a Cincinnati Red?  Whodathunkit?

But bad trades are part of baseball - now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake?

So, how close am I to finishing 1971?  For the first 5 series (cards 1 through 523), I need only 3 more cards, although there is another 9 that are in rough condition that I'd like to upgrade. For the sixth series of 119 cards (cards 524 through 643), I need 43 to complete the series and only 1 to upgrade.  For the seventh and final series of 109 cards (644 through 752), I need 43 cards and 5 to upgrade. So, overall, I need 81 cards to complete the set and have 15 I want to upgrade.

That is still a ways to go, but luckily, I have most of the stars in the set. Indeed, the only stars I have yet to add are Harmon Killebrew, Sparky Anderson, Boog Powell, and Denny McClain.  I would like to upgrade card 5, the Thurman Munson rookie card, but as I look at the condition of what I have (and the prices of better versions) I am thinking I am going to stand pat with what I've got.

So, I made some progress, which was my goal, but am not quite in sight of the finish line yet.  At this point I am guessing, with some concerted effort, it will probably be sometime in September or October before I finish. I started this set last August, so it will be over a year to complete it. I guess that will be the new standard, since I only have one more vintage set that I want to collect that was not issued in series (1975) and those late series seem to be a bear to find.