This is the latest addition to my Paul Blair player collection. It is the 175th such item. My last post for this collection said that card was teh 171st. No idea how or where I made that mistake, but I have confirmed 175 is the right number. Anyways, this is a 1973-74 Charles Linnett print. It is 8x10 and is printed on nice thick bond. I haven't researched the set yet. TCDB says it has a 208 player checklist, with each player having two variations: Print Name on Front and No Print Name on Front. This one is (obviously) the former. I have known of this print since I started collecting almost 16 years ago, but this one was the first I had the opportunity to acquire. Random periodic searches never turned it up. I was lucky to find this as it was in a sealed three pack with Steve Busby (on top) and Ferguson Jenkin.
If anyone wants the Busby and/or Jenkins, hit me up.
What I am listening to: Me and the Devil by Gil Scott-Heron
The last card I needed to finish my 1967 Topps set. It is the 18th Topps vintage set (pre-1980) that I have completed. Next up is 1966, if which I sit at 85% completion. But I am going to take a bit of a hiatus as I just got back from vacation and have lots of things to deal with at home and at work. I haven't looked at the schedule, but I am guessing it will be at least November before I go to another show. I am going to try and get back on track with my autographed Fleer posts.
This card completes my 1974 Topps football set. I am not sure when exactly I started this, but I believe it was about a year and a half ago. So, a fairly quick build for me.
This one was a different story. I started the 1993 Upper Deck Baseball Assistance Team set, which is based on the T202 Hassan Triple Folds, in 2017. I had pretty much forgotten about it, but when I was adding 1974 Topps Football to my Want List widget I noticed it there and decided to just finish it. There are a couple other sets over there that I am in striking distance of finishing and I will probably try to knock them off next month.
What I am listening to: Finish What Ya Started by Van Halen
I have been working diligently on my 1967 Topps set recently. When I last checked in with y'all two months ago, I had 26 cards to go for completion and figured that Norm Cash would be the last one I needed to complete the set. I managed to find a not outrageously priced Cash card and have been picking up a few cards here and there over the ensuing weeks. As of a few days ago, I was down to 8 cards to finish the set off. Over the last several days, I found 3 reasonably priced cards online and 2 more at the large card show in OKC that is held every other month, including high number Don Demeter.
So, I am down to 3 cards to complete my set . Two of the three (526 and 592) are rookie star cards which collect a premium even though neither features noteworthy players. 526 features Pat Dobson and George Korince and 592 features Jim Shellenback and Ron Willis. And both of them will likely set me back in excess of $50 each. I never have been fond of 1967 Topps. I find the design boring and I have dubbed it the Cloudy Day set as that is the vibe I get from it. I know that others love the set and that is fine. Viva la difference.
I only built it because back in 2023 I bought a 700 count box of 1966 and 1967 cards. My intent was to build 1966, but I found that I had only 1/5 of the 1966 set and 1/3 of 1967. A few months later I found a cache of '67s at a show and guess what set I was building? Yup, 1967. My ambivalence for the design and the outrageous prices that the 6th and 7th series commands made this a hard slog. I am pleased to be close to the end. But having to pay up for two otherwise nondescript cards to finish it is the final insult that '67 has sent my way.
What am I listening to: Experience by Ludovico Einaudi
I am still struggling with the Bob Feller post, though it is no fault of the commenters on my previous post. There were good suggestions there. I am more put off by the amount of research it would take to bring a fresh look to a post about Feller. Time is at a premium at the moment, so it is hard to set aside the time. In the background I have also been struggling with the direction of my collection. As a vintage set builder, I am finding myself caught between Scylla and Charybdis*.
On the one hand, my baseball set journey is down to sets with expensive high numbers. On the other hand, there are vintage sets for basketball, football and hockey I am interested in and, while they are more affordable, they seem less available. As set builder, I just couldn't bring myself to build a low number only set. I have to build it all. So, I am faced with a future where I only get a few cards at a time with significant dry spells in between. So, I wondered, what can I do to have a regular collecting fix without breaking the bank? And it finally occurred to me.
As a young man, I loved the annual Street and Smith Baseball Yearbook. I had planned to buy the editions I had as a teen. The prices seemed reasonable, so why not try to collect the entire series? Normally, these types of questions are a fool's errand and end with me deciding the price tag was too high to take it on. This time it actually looks achievable.
Street and Smith was published annually from 1941 through 2005, when the brand was absorbed into The Sporting News. For example, here is the 1943 edition.
It cost me $25 delivered. So, pretty affordable. The one thing that will make it a challenge is that, at some point, the publisher decided to have multiple different covers for each edition. Based on the incomplete checklist I found at Beckett, this appears to have started around 1963. One problem is that the Beckett checklist is incomplete. There are covers I know exist that aren't on the list. The second problem is that the publisher got a little wild at the end and it appears that the final three editions (2003 through 2005) had 15 different covers each. At the moment, I have a list of 178 different versions over the 65 year history. 15 different covers for a year seems excessive, but given that copies of those years go for around $5 it isn't insurmountable. I am mainly going to focus on getting at least one for each year. the way these things work out, others will drop into my lap without even trying. At some point I will have to decide if I really want 15 slightly different versions of the same edition.
* Believe it or not that reference has nothing to do with the release of the Odyssey movie. I actual read the book several years ago, though I found it tedious. I do like the allusion, but it is not something that is used in normal conversation. So, you get to deal with a little bit of pretentiousness on my part.
What I am listening to: Green Manalishi by Judas Priest
I am really struggling with my next post in the series about my signed 1961 Fleer collection. The subject of that post is (supposed to be) Bob Feller. It is easy to write about players that, while they were big names in their time, are mostly forgotten now. I get the opportunity to learn about them and invariably I find interesting things to write about. But, legend like Feller? How do you write about them without regurgitating what people already know. I am trying to think of an interesting angle, but haven't figured it out yet. Thoughts?
So, I'm going write a post about a couple cards that showed up today.
2004 Upper Deck Timeless Teams was an interesting concept for a set, but poorly executed. I give my unvarnished opinion in the middle of this post. Also in that post I list out the six variations of each card. Since Paul Blair has two cards in the set, there are a total of 12 cards* to collect. The Bronze parallel above brings me up to 9. I still lack 1 of the Signature Golds (# to 5) and both Signature Platinum (1/1) This is the 170th unique item in my Blair player collection. I organized this collection at the end of 2024 but have updated the want list since and the last handful of acquisitions haven't been placed in their proper location yet. So, it is probably about time to organize again and assess where I am against known cards.
I mentioned a while back that I was building the 1970-71 Topps Hockey set. It is a weird set. But first, some context. When I build my want list, I always have the Beckett book value next to each card number. Mind you, I don't pay book value (except for 1967 high numbers. Grrrr) but usually look to be around half for high grade raw cards and a third or so for mid grade. The 1970-71 hockey set is odd in that my experience so far has been that commons sell for more than book value and stars for less. I have no idea why. Maybe my experience is wrong what with small sample sizes and all. But I am making steady progress on the stars and only occasionally picking up commons.
Anyhow, the two most valuable cards in this set are the Bobby Orr above and Gilbert Perreault's rookie card and I have the Perreault on its way. Of the ten most valuable cards in the set, I have 8 with the Gordie Howe and checklist cards to go.
Us set builders can be fussy about how we go about business. In the case of this hockey set, I have to state that I have a few OPC mixed in with the Topps. This doesn't really bother me. It probably should, but it doesn't I am considering, when I am done here, building the OPC-only part of the set (cards 133-264) When I get closer to completion (I'm 2/3 of the way there), I will start scouting out those OPC cards and see if they are reasonably affordable before making a final decision.
* Paul Blair also appears on a multiplayer relic card, but they are so dang expensive I am not interested in chasing it.
What I am listening to: All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow
Any hope that sports card will become less popular and (more importantly) less expensive was put to rest today when I looked to see the schedule of the upcoming card shows in the area. I skipped a show last weekend because the seller I buy the most from wasn't going to be there and it was being held at a casino. I don't gamble and always feel skeevy in a casino. This weekend there was three (yes, three) shows here in the Oklahoma City area. One was in the city I live in, one was in the next town north, and the third was about a 45 minute drive away. I hit the first two shows and they were both a complete bust. 99% TCG and modern sports. As luck would have it, there is a sports card shop in the same town as the second show so I went by. I went there and started pawing through boxes of commons.
I found about 15 cards for my 1966 set; all from the first five (of seven) series. Not wanting to get over my skis financially until I knew how they priced commons, I shifted to seeing what I could find for my 1974 Topps football set. I managed to find 30 cards I needed, leaving only 11 cards standing between me and completion. None are key cards, so I figured I'd throw up a want list and see if I could trade my way to completion.
Here it is:
COMPLETE
What I am listening to: Feelin' Good Again by Robert Earl Keen
