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.
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