A Nice Surprise...

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Jeff, who's a reader of this blog. While looking through my wantlist, he was surprised to find that he had 10 of the cards I needed for my 1978 Burger King Yankees and decided to ask if I'd like to trade for them.

Well, the cards arrived over the weekend and they looked great! One thing I like about BKs is the way Topps was able to go back and fix a few blatant issues. For instance, there's this card:

(Before the facial hair grew out...Burger King card on the left, Regular Topps card on the right)

Rich Gossage spent the 1977 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates before being picked up in free agency by the Yankees after the season was finished. Topps had no way to get a picture of him in pinstripes, so they just did a quick airbrush job, as you can see above. For the BK set, they were able to use a picture of him in the correct uniform.

The Yankees Jeff sent me included Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson, and they were great additions to one of my few sorely needed 1970s cards. In fact, those ten cards put me only three cards away from completing the entire Yankees team set. All I need now are Cliff Johnson, Bucky Dent and Chris Chambliss.

Well, I need to specify...I need a loose Chris Chambliss, since he's already in my collection here:

It's an unopened pack, which contains three player cards and a checklist card. As much as I'm tempted to open it up and see who's inside, I keep forcing myself to stop thinking about it.

I've already done entries here for the 1979 BK Yankees as well as the same year's Phillies set. A complete set will not only keep me from wanting to see what's inside the cellophane surrounding Chambliss, but will invariably lead to another installment in the series.

Jeff didn't stop at those BK cards, though. He added more than 50 cards from last year's Topps set (I do have modern needs, which helps me to trade with others whose collections aren't as old as most of mine) and this great card:

A 1969 Met is always a great addition to my collection. I now am only 41 cards away from completing that set as well.

Thanks a lot, Jeff!

My 50th Follower...Means a Giveaway!

Last week, this blog reached a milestone. In only nine months, it has picked up 50 followers.

While I am of the impression that this blog should be required reading for everybody, I do realize that many collectors don't always spend a lot of time looking at "old" stuff. There is also the possibility that some just don't have a lot of older material in their collections and therefore don't spend a lot of time looking around at stuff they would be tempted to pick up.

Well, let me see if I can help you out with a giveaway.

In celebration of Follower #50, it's only appropriate that the first prize have something to do with the number 50, and we'll go to the set I blog about three times each week:

This is card #50 from the '73 Topps set.

For those who read my 1973 Topps photography blog, this card was featured there last year. It was the last card Topps made for Roberto Clemente and was included in the first series of the '73 set before the news of his plane crash could get it pulled. As a result, the back of the card shows his final career statistics.

This is one of three cards I'll be giving away. The second one comes from the 1955 Bowman set, which was the subject of this article I wrote in SMR in 2007 (the link brings up a PDF file):

Sadly, George Kell passed away in 2009. However, he lives on in the memories of those who watched him play, listened to his broadcasts and collected his baseball cards.

Finally, this one is not quite what it might seem:

It looks like a 1978 Topps card, but it's actually a 1978 Burger King card of Jim "Catfish" Hunter from the final years of his Hall of Fame career.

That gives three vintage Hall of fame cards to give away. They're not "investor-grade" quality, but they're cards that would do better in a collection than in my dupes box. Just to clarify: there will be three separate giveaways (and three separate winners), not just one.

Unlike last time, there are no restrictions to who can enter. All you need to do is enter a comment below. There will be three separate drawings, all involving a time-honored method involving scissors, paper and a hat. Any bloggers who post about this contest will get an extra entry into the drawing. I'll keep this up until Sunday evening and announce the winners on Monday. Good luck!