Vintage Frankenset Page 2

Y'all ready for this? Vintage Frankenset Page 2!

To refresh your memory, this is a collecting project of mine with the following parameters:

• pre-1981 triopoly
• no flagship Topps baseball allowed
• must fit in a standard top-loader

Attempting to put together a frankenset of 333 cards using these guidelines. And while this isn't actually a bindered project, I'm parsing them out in 9-card increments as if they were paged as a standard set. More background on this can be found at the Page 1 post.

I like it! Well-rounded "page" with all 4 major North American sports represented, plus 3 wide-ranging non-sport subjects.

Let's take a closer look at each of these.

10 1974-75 Topps #10 Pete Maravich

Basketball great Pistol Pete Maravich leads off the group. This card was among an incredible little cache of vintage basketball stars I stumbled upon in the sub-dollar bins at a card show a couple years ago (like the Bill Bradley at #2). Another such Maravich pops up later at card #55.

11 1977 Topps Patches Cloth Stickers #11 Steve Carlton

At first glance, this might violate my "no flagship Topps baseball" rule, but nope, it's an oddball sticker printed on cloth. Lefty adds some additional star power to this group.

12 1975-76 O-Pee-Chee #12 Ivan Boldirev

Gotta admit I'm not familiar with Ivan Boldirev, but snagged this on Sportlots recently because I had an opening at card #12 and wanted a vintage hockey card for the page.

13 1934 Gallaher Champions of Screen & Stage #13 Claudette Colbert

Lucky #13 in the frankenset goes to actress Claudette Colbert. She might not be well remembered today, but she's the only actress to ever star in three films nominated for the Best Motion Picture Oscar in the same year. Respect!

14 1933 Dwight's Soda Useful Birds of America Series 6 #14 Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Full disclosure, I'm not certain this card is actually from 1933. Looks like a version of the card originally came out in 1918 and was later redone in 1933, though my copy-- another random card show pickup-- doesn't exactly match any I've found on COMC (it's close to the '33 pressing but with slightly different back). But whatever, it's No. 14 and was surely printed before 1981, so it works. "For the good of all, do not destroy the birds."

15 1948 Leaf #15 Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice

Here's another card I recently bought specifically for the frankenset. Slot #15 was open and I wanted a football card for this page, plus I wanted to work a 1948 Leaf card into my collection without breaking the bank. Love Choo Choo here with the colorful front. Justice was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and played in the NFL for few years.

16 1954 Bowman #16 Jim Wilson

Here's the first of several Bowman baseball cards in the frankenset. Probably picked it up at a card show years back. Hard for me to pass up old Bowman cards when I come across them for a buck or less. Love the industrial background. I'm not very familiar with Jim Wilson, but he was an All-Star 3 times, '54-'56. Oh, and a fellow San Diego State alum!

17 1911 Wills Celebrated Ships #17 The "Britannia"

This dickensian RMS Britannia tobacco mini from 1911 is the second-oldest card currently in the frankenset (There's a card from 1910 at #107). Not sure where I got it, but likely another card show discount bin score.

18 1960 Fleer #18 Heinie Manush

Check out my Heinie, guys. Not a lot of Fleer in the frankenset yet (I've got a few '63 Fleer cards, but those numbers were all bested by other cards.. an inherent frustration with any frankenset.)

That wraps up page 2. I feel good about this group of cards and don't see a need to swap out any of these, though I suppose none are iron-clad locked-in were a challenger to really knock my socks off. I know the low numbers of any frankenset can get competitive.

I've also completed page 3 recently, so expect a post on that one of these days. But after that, I've got plenty of holes. If anyone can help out with vintage cards for this project, the lowest numbers currently open are 29, 30, 34, and 45.

I've also swapped out a couple cards from page 1 since that post, so let's quickly revisit that group.

6 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA #6 Bryan Campbell

I had an unnumbered baseball card as a placeholder for the sixth slot, but wanted a true #6 to swap in and add some variety. Bryan Campbell here completes the quadfecta of major North American sports for the page. Grabbed this from Sportlots recently. I didn't realize there was a different Blazers sports team besides those of the Trail variety. Looks like the team only lasted a couple seasons.

8 1979 Topps Burger King - New York Yankees #8

Might look like a standard '79 Topps card to the untrained eye, but nope, it's a Burger King oddball. El Tiante's corresponding flagship issue features him on the Red Sox, so this functions as a traded/update card. Got this one in a recent trade with Bo (I already had one in my Tiant PC). It bumps out the author playing card I couldn't find much info on. I could see further upgrading #8 to an older, less-Toppsy card in the future, but this works fine for now.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.