Wednesday, September 26, 2018

1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken! (Joy of a Completed Set: 1982 Topps Traded)


Here's a nice add for my collection: Cal Ripken Jr.'s top rookie (year) card! As a kid, my all-time best pull from a pack (circa 1991) was an '82 Topps Ripken RC that he shared with Bob Bonner and Jeff Schneider, and now many years later I've complemented that with his Traded counterpart.


If I hypothetically had several copies of this card, I'd have one for the Iron Man PC, plus I'd throw copies into the Niekro and Stargell PCs for the heck of it (seeing as they're name-checked in the cartoon/trivia area). But since I've only got the one, it goes to the setbuild.


I completed 1982 Topps through trading last month. And not long after, picked up a 1982 Topps Traded "complete set; No Ripken" for less than a blaster at the last card show. So #98T here completes the mainstream '82 Topps run for me. Feels good!

9 comments:

  1. Congrats on grabbing an iconic card!

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  2. Sweet card! Are you keeping it encased or will there be a jailbreak?

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  3. Nice! That's one of the elusive cards from my childhood.

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  4. That one still eludes me, and I need 2 of them. Huge Congrats!

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  5. The joys of growing up in the '70s and '80s. As I've mentioned many times, I got this card in 1982 when I sent away for the 1982 Traded set. I believe the set cost me $12.99 or something.

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  6. Thanks, guys!

    Brian- Nah, I went through a jailbreaking phase, but these days I tend to not bother.

    N.O.- Factoring in inflation, our costs probably weren't too far apart, lol.

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  7. Congrats on the pickup! My first thought was why they made a Traded card of Ripken and if Topps did this to any other players.

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    1. Yeah, Topps often did this in '81 and '82 with players who had multiplayer rookie cards in flagship and then had a breakout year. Fernando in '81 Traded comes to mind. '82 also had Kent Hrbek and Chili Davis with multiplayer cards who then got solo cards in Traded.

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