Vintage Frankenset Page 7

Back in the desolate days of 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, filling slots is a good excuse for me to check out neat old card designs I might otherwise 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.

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 7, covering card #s 55 through 63.

The page I featured last year was heavy on hockey, and this year again lacks in sport diversity, with two-thirds of the page being baseball cards. It doesn't bother me that much, but in a perfect world, each page would consist of a robust mix. But the page before only had one baseball card, and the next page only has one baseball card, so I'll let it slide that this page has a bunch.

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

1971-72 Topps #55 Pete Maravich

Despite all the baseball, basketball steals the show thanks to this jewel of the frankenset. It's Pistol Pete Maravich's second Topps card, and the first standard-sized card, with his rookie being a pesky tall-boy. Snatching up this and a cache of other nice basketball cards out-of-place from a sub-dollar discount bin might rank as the peak highlight from my days attending the monthly card show back in the twenty-teens.

Legend.

1963 Post #56 Don Mossi

From one legend to another. When it comes to baseball commons, Don always sticks out from the herd.

This is the second Post card in the binder, following Roger Maris back on page 1. Unlike that one, there's no aftermarket artwork on the back of Mossi, just a blank canvas.

 

1951 Bowman #57 Alex Kellner

Another staple from my card show-faring days was gobbling up any old Bowman I'd come across in the ~dollar bins. 1951 Bowman is a beautiful set, though the idea of completing it is a nonstarter for most of us thanks to the rookie cards of Mantle and Mays bringing about financial complications.

The paper loss makes it tricky to follow the narrative, but it mentions Alex Kellner won 20 games in 1949, only to then lose 20 games in 1950. And his 14 loses in 1951 again lead the league, but he stuck around throughout 50s, calling it quits after his elbow crapped out in '59.

1960 Fleer #58 Charlie Gehringer

A couple Cooperstown residents in a row now, starting with Charlie Gehringer.

These vintage old-timer cards are sometimes hard to wrap my head around. Gehringer's 1949 HOF election was only 11 years prior. He lived until '93, so he likely autographed many copies of this card in his later years.

1971 Fleer Laughlin World Series #59 - 1961: Yankees vs. Reds

Cartoon version of Whitey Ford gets the prime center pocket. I'm jealous of you guys who have all or most of these great Laughlin cards. I'll reluctantly settle for having a smattering of them in my vintage frankenset.

I can't always remember World Series winners off the top of my head, but 1961 is easy to recall as a Yankee victory, capping off the 61 in '61 season for Roger Maris. This card back has some extra personality thanks to a focus-grabbing circle (printing flaw) between the first and second line.

1939 Play Ball #60 Schoolboy Rowe

This beauty was a surprise from Mark Hoyle, a great friend to the blog during the early years. It's a bummer he doesn't frequent the blogs much anymore. That reminds me I should probably try getting another "Where Are They Now?" post in the works soon.

Schoolboy Rowe was a 3-time All Star and a World Series champ with the '35 Tigers.

1979-80 O-Pee-Chee #61 Danny Gare

This is one of the most iconic designs in all of hockey cardom, largely in part to the Wayne Gretzky rookie in the set. I don't have The Great One, but I've got This One and a couple more later in the frankenset.

Searching YouTube, I couldn't find any 70s bank commercials featuring Danny Gare, but here's an Easter Seals commercial from '84:

(watch till the end)

1971 Topps #62 Altie Taylor

Altie Taylor brings some serious bad-assery to the page on its lone football card.

"A demon with the football"? Yep, bad-ass. Taylor was Detroit's career rushing yardage leader for a while before his mark was bested by Dexter Bussey, Billy Sims, and then decisively by Barry Sanders.

1940 Play Ball #63 Pete Coscarart

It's crazy that I've only got two Play Ball cards in my entire collection, and they're coincidentally both on page 7 of my vintage frankenset. Unlike the earlier Schoolboy that fell in my lap (Thanks again, Mark, wherever you are), this Pete Coscarart is a card that I specifically targeted and acquired years back. 

Coscarart was the first guy from SDSU to play in the majors. I don't collect guys who went to my college nearly as strongly as I collect guys who went to my high school, but I still wanted to get a playing-days card of the O.G.

And that wraps up page 7.

Another look at the cards together.

Page 8 is already completed, so 2027's post is all-systems-go. But then things get dicey after that. We're talkin' swiss cheese, buddy-boy. So I'll have to get active filling empty slots once 2028 rolls around, God willing, of course. Like, I know I'll never finish the frankenset (330+ cards?), but I guess the goal going forward is to at least keep up with a page every year I'm still around and blogging. So here's to many more completed pages!

Rod to the Rescue

Rod from Padrographs, who's also my NE Portland neighbor, kindly swung by last weekend with another box of miscellaneous cards for me. Instead of tucking into them right away, I set the box aside to have something to look forward to after a procedure I had scheduled the coming week (yesterday).

Yep, I finally got that colonoscopy I've been dragging my feet about. It's a big weight off my back and tiny polyp off my colon. I'll do the public service thing and recommend any of you guys over 45 who haven't gotten one yet to talk to your doctor about it and go ahead and do it if recommended.

On to the cards that were waiting for me on the other side. It's like a "the card show comes to me" situation when I get a box from Rod... mostly recent product, but plenty of variety. Typical "commons" mixed in there with other good cards that didn't stick in his collection, and occasionally special cards targeted for me.

 
I hope to eventually get around to the current Blog Bat-Around talking about our proudest hobby achievements, but these guys are in the conversation for me. A year ago, I was pretty stoked to complete the full run of Dan Walters cards on the market. Even a "completed" PC has room for additions when you're talking about aftermarket autos and buybacks (and sure, even customs and CardArt). This is only my second autograph of his, with the minor league card I got signed in-person as a kid being the other. This one features a bolder signature/pen, so that's a nice way to button the PC for now. And I continue to be damn near giddy over being the #1 ranked Dick Allen collector on TCDb, a streak that's been going since well before his tardy Hall of Fame induction. Thrilled to add to my total with this lime green Optic parallel from 2026 Donruss.

Since I don't rip new stuff these days, an influx like this from Rod really helps me keep up with the current wave of intriguing young players coming up. I kinda hate hearing about hot new rookies of whom I have no cards.. but when I have a card or two of the guy, boom, then I'm a stakeholder and I root for him. LOL. I've been like that since Kevin Maas.

Of course any box Rod gives me is likely to be heavy with our mutual favorite team, as was this one, with some highlights visible here.

And a nice stack of PC guys for me. Looks like I'm due for another big sort.

Lots more cards I could show, but I'll keep the post tight and close with this grand finale:

Christmas Card! Of a hot young player! I'm sure this would fetch a decent return on eBay, but Rod knows my affinity for cards numbered 12/25 and graciously let me have this one. Love it! Konnor Griffin is signed to be the Pirates shortstop through 2034. Injuries have blemished his rookie campaign, but the future looks bright for the 20-year old.

Again, huge thanks to Rod for being so incredibly generous with me over the years. And during a rough time like when I'm in the midst of a colonoscopy prep, it means even more. I help him out with occasional Photoshop requests when he needs a hand, and try to come up with fun Tim Flannery cardart so he doesn't leave empty-handed when I see him. But yeah, don't think I'll ever be able to really balance the scales there.

Thanks for reading, guys. 

[BTW, if you're having trouble finding new blog posts thanks to Blogger crapping out on their blogroll stuff, Bo mentioned a good alternative is the TCDb blog list, so you might want to bookmark that.]

Joe Namath commemorative refractor run

Are you ready for some football? Yep, it's pigskin season again. I pretty much checked out of football fandom when my Chargers ditched San Diego, but still have a soft spot for the old days of the sport. As a refractor enthusiast, a hobby focus of mine in recent years has been refractor reprints, where "old days" and "modern times" collide.

Refractor reprints are usually found in an insert set of rookie reprints, or occasionally "best year" type reprints, and every once in a while Topps would "commemorate" a retired great's career by reprinting all the main Topps cards from that player. By my count, they've bestowed the honor of a refractor reprint run just a dozen times across sports:

1996 + 1997 - Mickey Mantle
1996 - Joe Namath
1997 - Willie Mays
1998 - Roberto Clemente
1999 - Nolan Ryan
2000 - Hank Aaron
2000 - Johnny Unitas
2000-01 - Magic Johnson
2000-01 + 2001-02 - Mario Lemieux
2001 - Walter Payton
2001-02 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
2002-03 - Patrick Roy

I've been working on completing all of those, which is kinda nuts. I'm doing ok/well/done with most, except the hockey (I just have one representative from each) and the Mantles (there are a lot because they also reprinted most of his subset cards and Bowman cards).

So expect me to get a victory post out of it when I complete one of these runs. First up is Joe Namath.

 There's the shiny rookie reprint. This one might be a bit scuffed, but the price was right.

 Here's the late 60s into the early 70s. Not of lot of variety in the photo selection.

Namath didn't really have a long career. Only 10 cards in total here. By comparison, Johnny Unitas has 18 cards in his reprint set, and that's with no subset cards included. But yeah, the refractor reprints look good and are affordable at a couple/few bucks a pop. Unlike most other mid 90s refractors from Topps, I haven't noticed much "hulking" blotchiness with these. (Mantle, Mays, and Clemente refractor runs are not so lucky.)

I've also got Joe Namath's refractor in the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set-- slowly working on the football ref set (~22% complete) after stalling out with baseball (still 3 elusive needs left). Not a true reprint, it reimagines his 1969 Topps card with an action photo and squeezes in some extra border.

While I'm at it, here's my modest PC for Joe Namath. It's a passive pursuit, but I'm happy to add to it when I can. Namath's days as a stud QB were before my time, but he's always been a known legend, popping up in commercials and even a quick spot on the golden age of The Simpsons. 1972 Topps is the one vintage card of his I've got, plus a (paper) rookie reprint and a few modern cards that've fallen in my lap. 

I've got another refractin' rookie reprint of his within my complete set of 2001 Topps Archives Reserve football, though my in-progress master set still needs the Namath auto. Maybe I'll pony up for that someday or maybe not.

Welp, the Blogger reading list feed has been messed up for a couple days now, so who knows if this post will get many views, but hey, I'm glad you found it and gave it a read. Until next time!

ORANGE you VLAD I didn't forget this quest?

Years ago, I decided I might like to give a shot at rainbowing Vladimir Guerrero, Sr.'s last playing-days flagship Topps card, a "highlights" checklist featuring a sweet photo thanking the crowd during his swan song in Baltimore. I picked up the parallels that were readily available at the time and saved a search for the rest. And then I waited. I specifically remember doing that at my old house, so that means I've been waiting upwards of 6 years for this orange parallel to pop up:

Great looking color match. It's serial numbered to /190, which isn't all that low-numbered for modern cards, but these were a 5-per hobby factory set exclusive, so a good percentage of them are still stored away in sealed sets.

The seller neglected to mention it (and it wasn't really visible in the listing), but it's the "jersey number" "ebay 1/1", number 27 in the print run, so that was a happy surprise.

After securing the orange parallel, I went to update my saved search and noticed I didn't do a great job with it originally. I wasn't as well-versed using TCDb at the time, I guess, and didn't have everything I needed included in the search. Plus I was apparently under the impression there was a Toys R Us purple parallel to hunt down, but upon further research, those seem to be Series 1 only that year (Vlad is in Series 2).

But I was able to clean up my search and soon land a couple more needs taking this rainbow to a probably-good-as-it'll-get place that's serendipitously 9-cards deep, making for a kickass binder page or 9-card display.

 Haves:
base
gold [/2012]
gold sparkle
red [Target]
orange [/190]
black [/61]
blue [Walmart]
mini base
mini gold [/61]

 Needs: 
wood [1/1]
gold embedded [1/1]
platinum [1/1]
printing plates [1/1 x 4]
mini platinum [/5]
mini printing plates [1/1 x 4]

With only 1/1s (and a /5 mini) remaining for this 14-year old card, I probably won't be able to add any more to this rainbow ...unless of course we're talking homebrews of the CardArt variety.. and the thought has crossed my mind. I checked, and the "platinum" parallels that year are just a fancy name for "silver border" (which is itself just a fancy name for "grey border"), so other than the low serial number, they're not all that cool and I doubt I'll ever pony up for any of the 5 such minis or 1 such full-size, should any even pop up for sale. Also not much chance I'll ever wind up with the 1/1 wood, gold embedded, or any of the eight printing plates, either. But never say never, I suppose.

Even if my rainbow here isn't very likely to grow larger, I'm happy with it standing at an "even" page-worth of 9 cards and plan to display this up on the wall for a while. Let's hope basking in Vladimir's triumphant moment influences me to live my best life and take time for feeling gratitude. Thanks for stopping by.