Vintage Frankenset Page 6

Back in 2020, I got the idea for a frankenset to give purpose to many of the random old cards that didn't really have a solid "home" in my collection. Plus it's a good excuse for me to check out neat old card designs that I otherwise might miss. The priority of the project eventually slid to the backburner, but I still occasionally fill empty slots and try to keep my streak alive of featuring one completed page on the blog each year. With just 4 weeks left in 2025, figured I better get to my annual post now.

My Vintage Frankenset has 3 rules for entry:
- Cards must have been released prior to 1981.
- Must fit in a standard top-loader.
- No flagship Topps baseball allowed. (I have a different project for that.)

We're up to page 6.

This page probably features a bit too much hockey, but I'm not too finicky about it. (I filled holes on this page with a Canadian seller on Sportlots last year, picking up a few cheap OPC hockey cards.)

Now let's take a closer look at each card.

1978-79 O-Pee-Chee #46 Bob Stewart

Stumbling out of the gate a little with the page's first card. Featuring a crease and a boring photo (and from a set repeated later on the page), gotta say Bob Stewart here is likely to get the boot if I ever find myself with another viable old card #46.

And there's the back.

1938 Wills Air Raid Precautions #47 Anti-Aircraft Searchlight

Next, a pair of non-sport minis to spice things up. Before radar, I guess they just shined giant flashlights in the sky to look for enemy planes.

This is the 3rd tobacco card from Wills in the frankenset, with the cigarette manufacturer also occupying a slot in each of the first couple pages, not to mention that "Wonders of the World" partial set I'm trying to complete. They must've been prolific at churning out cool cards with their packs of smokes back in the day.

1968 Brooke Bond History of the Motor Car #48 -1967 Ferrari P4, 4 Litres

Check out my Ferrari, guys. 😎 Ha, nah I'm not really the automobile aficionado type, but you gotta appreciate a curvy sportscar. I could try to upgrade this top-loader, but I think some yellowed beaters in the mix add to the charm of the frankenset.

Crap, I forgot to take a back photo of this one and might be too lazy to rectify that, sorry.
No, wait-- searching my archives for the term" Ferrari" to refresh my memory of acquiring this card, turns out the back has already been featured here, so I'll reprise that photo. (You can ignore the coincidental bonus Wills content included.)

Note the motor car cards came with tea, not smokes, but yeah, makes sense seeing this from 1968, with tobacco cards mostly being a pre-war thing.

1973-74 Topps #49 Nick Libett

Hockey's back with a very red card. (Hell, it's a very "wings" card, for that matter!)

What would a vintage frankenset be without some stained backs in there? (A sham, that's what!)

1977 Hostess #50 Ron LeFlore

Fine example of a Hostess card getting the honorable center square spot of the page, though nobody's gonna submit this one for grading.

Ron LeFlore is a player from before my time with a unique backstory, but the short version is he first started playing baseball on a prison team in the early 70s and went on to become a MLB All-Star on the strength of that 1976 season.

1977-78 O-Pee-Chee #51 Ron Schock

My knowledge of hockey is weak enough that honestly I would have assumed he's wearing a Sabres jersey here were it not for the informative text suggesting this is an outdated photo. Taking a closer look, my guess would be Penguins and, yep, that's confirmed on the back....

The top name in that font calls to mind the old Radio Shack logo, right?

1976-77 O-Pee-Chee #52 Greg Joly

This is a nice looking card, with the photo fitting the design well.

The back makes me want to make a Jolly Green Giant reference, or Joly green, as the case may be.

1975 Mike Mandel Photographers #53 Richard Link

Here's another example of Nick Vossbrink influencing my collection by blogging about neat, under-the-radar cards. In fact, I think this might be thee card that inspired the creation this Vintage Frankenset. Nick posted about this set of photographer cards in 2017 on the SABR card blog though I don't think I followed the blog at the time and didn't see it until he referenced the post on his own blog in 2020. When I went searching to see if I might score one, there were a few options on eBay at $10 each, and I was pulled toward clicking Dick Link here for the photo. I believe it was the other Nick (dimeboxes) who once did a post looking for cards that featured a photo of a crouched catcher giving a sign-- a common sight in baseball (before PitchCom®) that turns out is very rare to find pictured on a card*. So that's some bonus mojo this card has going for it.

*Seriously-- try to find one! 

And so I ended up with a neat random card to be sorted away with my few other odd cards that don't really go with any of the other cards in my collection. "Hey, maybe I should make like a vintage frankenset...?" And there you have the origin story of this project!

1978-79 O-Pee-Chee #54 Doug Favell

Page 6 goes out the same way it came in, with a '78 OPC hockey card of a guy looking off to the card's right.

Facsimile autographs on cards hasn't really aged that well. Typically feels like the card manufacturer is trying to trick young, naive kids into thinking the players really sat around signing all their cards before they got packed out. Kinda interesting to check out the penmanship, I suppose.

Another look at these 9 cards together...

That's it for page 6. Thanks for reading. I'll catch you back here for (baseball-heavy) page 7 sometime in 2026, God willing.

Randy Jones PC

 

Bummed this morning to hear Randy Jones passed away. His glory days were before my time, but growing up in San Diego, I'd heard his name often brought up as a Padres legend of yore. I discovered after first tracking down one of his cards, sure enough, San Diego actually had a two-time 20-game winner at one point! I saw him hanging out at a spring training game in the early 90s and he seemed like a friendly dude. I didn't interact with him then, but years later had a nice TTM success. I figured I'd pay my humble tribute to the man by checking out my Randy Jones PC in a post.

I've got 3 San Diego rookies, plus one Washington variation. Honestly I'm not sure how I acquired so many. And this is just the PC, not even pulling the pair from my '74 Topps set.

Top pic of the post shows his '75 Topps along with a similar trio of his 2004 All-Time Fan Favorites redo. Then continuing into the late 70s... 

Turns out I'm missing his '83 Topps sunset card in the PC, though I've got it in the complete set. Plenty of oddballs and other OPC I'm missing too.

But hey, above is a complete run of his Fleer and Donruss cards, as he was left out of '82 and '83 Donruss.

Some post-career releases. 

Topps 2016 Archives included Randy as an SP and autograph subject. Randy was generous with his signature over the years, so no collector should have to stoop to a butchered cut like that slabbed red thing, but hey, gives some unique flavor to the PC.

Finally, here's that TTM request I alluded to. One of my favorite customs to get back with fresh ink. As I say, Randy was happy to sign for fans, but not many Pirates autos of his out there. He had tried to make the club in spring training '83, but got cut prior to opening day. I found a couple Topps Vault photos, threw together a custom, and was fortunate enough to have him sign and return it for me. Thanks again, Randy. Rest in peace.

Topps Retired Triad: Refractorless Edition

Time now for another trio of Topps Retired pickups. Often when I do one of these "Triad" posts, it consists of 3 refractor autographs. But no rainbow shine this time-- heck, this first one isn't even an autograph, if you can believe that! lol

I generally haven't bothered going after the non-auto parallels of my beloved Topps Retired Signature Edition, such as the black borders from 2005. But if the price is right and they catch my eye-- like this nice color-matching Bo Jackson-- I might take a run at it.

Numbered 44/54 on the back. 

Though I hope to upgrade to a refractor someday, I went ahead and snagged this base Lou Brock auto from 2003 Retired recently.

While not serial-numbered, it has a print-run of 76 ("Group B"), so it doesn't pop up too often.

And now we close out with my first backdoored Retired card.

While Andy Van Slyke has a base card in 2005 Retired, he's absent from the (Chrome) autograph checklist. Turns out Andy didn't get around to returning the signed cards to Topps in time. In fact, looks like he never returned the cards to Topps, but has just this year begun occasionally sending them out in autograph-request returns to lucky fans. At least 3 or 4 of those have made it to eBay so far and I landed one for a decent price. (Glad I didn't jump at the first over-priced example to pop up.)

"Not valid without (hologram) sticker" keys you in to something being off. Validity aside, I think this is a damn cool addition to my Retired auto hoard.

Just the fact that I own this unreleased card gives me hope that maybe someday my dream Retired "ghost whales" could surface. I'm talking about the Kirby Puckett auto from 2003 and the Dick Allen auto from 2004 (listed on early checklists, but ultimately not packed out). You gotta think they exist, maybe in storage somewhere.. waiting to possibly see the light of day again someday. 
Hey, never say never... as Andy Van Slyke here can tell you.

Cardsphere Roundup

Time to catch up with cards that my buds on the cardsphere have sent my way over the past couple weeks or so. No bulk dumps this time, just four PWEs to spotlight.

Nice.. Thanks, AJ! My collection includes a lot of Padres cards and a lot of cards of guys named Gavin, but here's the first instance of that Venn diagram intersecting. I was thrilled to see Sheets break out into the best season of his young career in San Diego and hope he keeps improving next year.

I was having a ridiculously awful day when the Lost Collector's surprise PWE arrived, and the kind gesture and fun doodle really lifted my face up out of the muck for moment and breathed some life into me. I didn't even know the card existed, adding to the nice surprise of it all. I'll have to at least half-assedly go after the rainbow (ie, I've now added the other parallels to my TCDb wantlist). If you include Logofractor and Sapphire editions, looks like there are 66 different versions of this Topps Chrome card to go after. Oof!

Anywho, thanks again for brightening my day, AJ! I'm working on a little return to send over to you soon.

 -  - --o

I scored another sweet Seinfeld custom from a recent Nine Pockets giveaway. It was a contest with multiple winners, with a rubber duck race randomizer video deciding. My little ducky got off to a slow start and I thought for sure I was out of the running, but lo and behold he had a great push down the stretch and ended up in first place! I can't remember watching a more exciting duck race ever in my life. Big thanks, Gregory!

-  - ---o

Everytime I think Zippy Zappy has run dry of expendable cards to shed, another mailing from Japan finds its way to me.

Tariff tomfoolery might make sending international packages tricky these days, but looks like you can still get away with letter-sized mail. This 6-card PWE included some 2012 Topps Star Wars Galactic Files and a couple autographs of soccer player Taylor Otto.

Always a treat.. Thanks, Zippy! 

-   - - -o

Last for today are a few cards from out of Johnny's Trading Spot. You guys know John is all about sniffing out killer bulk deals, and several of us are lucky enough to get some of his overflow set aside for us. Like AJ earlier, John often hooks me up with extra Gavins he comes across.

Gavin Cross is a 2022 1st rounder who has found himself stalling out in AA the past couple seasons.

Gavin Williams recently set the record for most strikeouts in a season for a pitcher named Gavin, with his 173 besting the mark of 163 by Gavin Floyd in 2009. A couple more clean Sheets round up the namesakes. Turns out I didn't need either of the 2011 Topps parallels for my frankenset, but I appreciate Johnny looking out. I'll try to scrape up some cards you could use soon, John. Thanks!

Thanks again to these fellas for the friendly mail and to you readers for stopping by.

Set Completion Carousel

I wanted to jog through a couple sets that I've recently completed, as well as a couple other sets I've started with help from near-complete starters.

Joy of a Completed Set: 1988 Fleer

It was way back during that innocent summer of 2019 that I got a partial set of 1988 Fleer from my buddy (Padrographs) Rod. Took me a few years piecing together the couple dozen or so missing cards, but I've now finally made that partial set into a complete set. (#188 Denny Martinez was the final card thanks to an accounting mistake on my part.) That gives me a 3-year run of Fleer, 1986 through 1988. I've also got '84, '90, and '92 complete. So I'm in the market for complete or near-complete sets of Fleer from '81, '82, '83, '85, '89, '91, and '93, working towards a goal Fleer Baseball run of '81 through '93 (when I stopped collecting as a kid). And I think the only Fleer Update set I've got is 1987, but I'd like to get more of those complementary sets, too.

I should salute '88 Fleer at least a little here, but what more can you say about '88 Fleer? I do like the set, especially for the checklist more than the design. You get some key rookie cards that some other companies missed out on, such as Edgar Martinez and Ron Gant, and the rookie duos with Mark Grace, and deeper cuts like Jeff King and John Burkett. Also endearing is the Reggie Jackson final tribute, his only real base card that year. While they printed a ton of the stuff, '88 Fleer still seems relatively scarce compared to the other mainstream baseball cards of 1988. Like, I'm not sure it's the best set from that year, but it at least feels less junky than Topps and Donruss, right?

Coincidentally, here's another set from 1988 that I've been trying to finish since I was at my old place (which is how I keep track of things these days-- And this month marks 5 years in the new house, so it's been a while)...

Joy of a (2nd) Completed Set: 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse

I overpaid a bit for this oversized card the other day, but it was the final card I needed to complete a second master set of 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse several years in the making. The story there is I ended up buying 3 boxes of the stuff (well, one was a partial box) to build my first master set and I ended up with enough dupes that it made sense to go ahead and take that second set to the finish line. Man, such a frustrating set to build! If you're thinking of going after the set, I'd warn you the boxes have horrible collation. Particular singles can be hard to find and tricky to search for. You're better off buying a completed set on eBay. Or hey, I don't intend to hang on to my second master set, so if anybody wants to trade, let me know. Master sets (159 cards including variations) seem to be going for around $150 on eBay. Along those lines, I also have a second near-master set of 1991 MusiCards available with all the variations and most of the promos that I should try to sell or trade one of these days.

New partial set to work on: Will's Cigarettes 1926 Wonders of The Past

I saw this neat tobacco mini set in a post by Nick Vossbrink back in 2020 and then set an ebay search for a cheap set. Finally a near-complete set (46/50) popped up and I scored it for just under $8 shipped. Really beautiful images on these century-old cards. I've seen at least one of these wonders in person thanks to my trip to Greece a couple years ago. Hopefully shouldn't be too hard to track down the 4 missing cards. Looking forward to paging these up.

1926 Wills Wonders of the Past needs:

14 Easter Island

42 The Colosseum

43 Trajan's Forum, Rome

44 Tombs by the Appian Way

New partial set to work on: 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

I haven't been documenting my progress on the blog much, but these past few years I've been building all 3 refractor parallel sets to the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites trilogy (just 14 needs remaining). A bulk lot on ebay included one refractor I needed plus a partial 2004 base set, and I ended up with it for a solid price. While I'm mainly interested in the refractors, hey, the base cards are cool too. Might as well work on completing that.

2004 ATFF needs:

31 Ralph Kiner

35 Willie McGee

47 Bret Saberhagen

61 Mike Scott

93 Darren Daulton

94 Harold Reynolds

96 Pete Incaviglia

105 Cal Ripken Jr.

Only the Ripken might be relatively-pricey out of those names, so that's not bad.

One bonus tale of closure to go out on. Maybe you remember back in February I got a bunch more cool stuff from Rod including a near-complete minor league teams set of 1986 ProCards Phoenix Firebirds. The trainer card (Cliff Shidawara) got pulled for Fuji's consideration, but no worries as I was able to land a replacement on COMC for a buck. So now I've got that full team set to enter as overkill for my Chris D. Jones supercollection that already included the single.

Thanks for swinging by, folks. Hope you're enjoying playoff baseball. I've got the deciding Cubs/Brewers game on as I type. With the Padres out, I'm rooting for whoever's gone the longest without winning (so, not the Dodgers). I'd love to see a first-time champ this year.

Big McGriffs

Fred McGriff is one of my favorite guys to collect. As a kid growing up in San Diego, I loved having him on the Padres for those 2+ seasons. These days I feel like my McGriff PC is "in a good place" or whatever, and don't seek out additions much anymore though am happy to add a new card here and there. Supercollecting the Crime Dog is best left to professionals such as @ICollectMcGriff. (So happy for him when Fred finally got his call to the Hall.)

But I still have a legit PC in my own right, and I figured I'd show off some big ones in a post. 

I scored the match print photo for Fred's 1991 flagship card from the Topps Vault back in 2018 on sale. Paired up with a standard card here for reference.

They even threw in the file envelope, which is a cool bonus.

Here's another match print photo from the Topps Vault, but for a more obscure card: 1990 Topps TV Glossy All-Star Set.

This was a situation where I had to grab the card off COMC to pair with the rare version of it. Same thing with this next item...

I already showed off my oversized proof 1995 Topps Stadium Club - Ring Leaders insert back in a 2022 post celebrating his HOF induction. But now I also have the normal sized card to compare and contrast.

More "junk" paired with decidedly less junky versions. The Topps Kids is a blank back proof (not just a gimmick like the later Topps Vault blank backs, but rather actually used in production) and the 1992 Leaf (another repeat from my '22 HOF post) is a buyback auto.

Let's close out with this rainbow of 1987 Topps Traded, his "Topps rookie" (FTC). The center card is a homemade mod ("birchwood edition") and the refractor ("retrofractor") is a reprint from 2001.

That'll do it for today. Wishing a Happy Birthday to @ICollectMcGriff! Thanks for stopping by.