Dollar box diving: Part 1

One of my favorite sellers on eBay has been featuring a nice quantity of vintage cards in his store at a buck apiece.  I dove in a couple of times during the month of January and found a nice mix of 60's and 70's cards in a trio of sports (wasn't feeling frisky about the basketball portion).  I showed off just one card so far in the Air Coryell post a week or so ago, but now I've got the time, along with a bit of organization, to show off the rest.

First up will be the hockey portion, which totals just 13 cards over 3 different sets from the early 70's, all of which have a long way to go in the set building category.

The lone add from the 72-73 set features Gary Edwards of the Kings.  I've had him confused with another goalie from that era, Gary Smith of the Chicago Black Hawks.  Maybe it's because Mr. Edwards bounced from team to team similar to what Mr. Smith did.  

Edwards' most productive time came with the Kings, where he played 6 seasons with the club.  Gary shared the duties in between the pipes with Kings legend Rogie Vachon, playing 44 games and winning 13.  That club also had the rookie season of Billy Smith from the Islanders dynasty of the late 70's early 80's fame.

The first scan got cut off a bit, but I wound up with 5 cards from the 73-74 set which I have barely touched during my collecting time.  

This is one of the more colorful sets of the 70's, which makes me wonder why I haven't added more to my collection than the paltry 13 cards that I own.  

For the longest time (we're talking years), the only card I had from the 70-71 OPC set I had was Joe Szura of the California Golden Seals.  

Was I ever surprised to see these cards in the dollar "box" on eBay, so I snapped up a few to add to the group.  Names that I recognize as well, such as Pit Martin, Ted Irvine (Chris Jericho's dad if you're into wrestling), and Joe Watson.  I now own 15 cards from the set, which is the same size as the 73-74 set, just 264 cards.  

More to come, next up will be the football portion, including a few from the '69 Topps set that I have really taken a liking to.

Robert

RAK 'em up

Roughly a week ago I received a bubble mailer and looked at the name, it was somewhat familiar but I couldn't quite place him.

Knew Mike from Quakertown from somewhere, but just couldn't put my finger on from where.  Didn't think it was TCDB, didn't have anything on order from ebay or Sportlots, so I was left scratching my head until I opened it.

Mike had sent me an envelope before, and I know him from twitter as @ugxtall88.  This envelope was pretty good, as he has paid attention to my likes and sets I'm working on!  Check out the great envelope of random goodness...

A trio of '72 Topps needs!  I'm slowly pecking away at the '72 set, but it's almost to the point now where in the next year or 2 it could become a serious attempt at completion.  Especially love the Don Money photo with the pitcher throwing BP in the background.

Hockey was a big focus in the envelope, and much like the 85-86 OPC set I'm slowly chipping away at, the 82-83 set is another that's starting to take some shape.  Still a very long way to go as I'm not even 1/6th of the way in, but seeing these cards come in always elicits a smile, especially cards of coaches that played in the NHL, namely Marc Crawford on the left.  Marc played parts of 6 seasons in the NHL, but is much more noted for his 1169 games behind the bench, and being the head coach of the 95-96 Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

These two cards I scanned together to show the ends of the spectrum you get in this envelope.  The Conn Smythe Trophy on the left is from the 72-73 OPC set, something I will start to work on eventually but hasn't been really on the radar at all.   On the right is the card I tweeted to let Mike know I received the envelope, a 92-93 Joe Sakic Pro Set Puck card.  Something that's been on my want list for a very long time, and if I had a top 10 wanted card list for my player collections, this would have been on it.

These 4 photos I also wanted to scan together, as they may not look like much, but they meant a lot to me to get.  The top 3 are Topps team checklists from the 70's, when my Maple Leafs fandom started.  The middle card is the 77-78 team list, and I love how the put on the inset a photo of Mike Palmateer inside a Maple Leaf instead of just a plain old circle or box.

At the bottom is a Panini sticker from 89-90 of Maple Leaf Gardens, the locale where I watched many a game from the South Red seats over the years.   Affectionately known to Torontonians as the "Carlton St. Cashbox", I fully blame it for the ache in my knees as I got older due to the cramped seating.  Will never trade memories of watching games in there though!!

Maple Leafs and goalies, another great combination here.  Mike certainly has paid attention.  Seeing the Grant Fuhr Pinnacle Mask card in the upper left reminded me that I should be trying to get that subset for my collection, as there was some great mask art in there.

Last up?   Another copy of one of my favorite Jim Thome cards, a duplicate yes but if I ever decide to put together the '08 A&G set someday, it won't be a need.

Mike, thank you for the Random Act of Kindness envelope, it truly was appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

It isn't much, but it's a start

Well, last week was the monthly card show, and the one dealer that I've frequented lately let me know about another show that was this weekend, at a flea market that is right down the street from where I work.

Easy to get to on the weekend, only about a 25-30 minute drive.  So, off I went yesterday. 

Really wasn't much of a show, just a handful of dealers, but he was there, so I dove back in to the dime boxes he had last week.   He also mentioned that he had quarter boxes where the cards were in a little bit better shape.   I dug into those as well, and to my surprise, he had hockey!

Now, this post only contains a dozen cards, but when you're finding 70's OPC at a show in south Florida, you have to jump on it.

Don't remember if I've ever shown a Cleveland Barons card on the blog

In the top scan, the big shocker was the lone 72-73 OPC card of Noel Price.  Can't recall seeing these down here, especially for 25 cents.  The remainder of what he had were 77-78 OPC, not much as you can see but the 11 cards went quickly into the pile, as I really didn't have many of them to start that set. 

No really big names, but some recognizable names including Pit Martin of the BlackHawks who wound up playing the final 2 years of his career with the Canucks after spending a decade in the windy city.  Butch Goring wound up getting traded to the Islanders a couple of years later and was a big part of their dynasty in the early 80's.  Butch is still in hockey, working for the MSG network.

1977-78 would be the end of Gerry Desjardins career in hockey, as he took a stick in the eye and would never play after that.  His injury is long believed to be the start of the change away from the solid fiberglass mask to the helmet/cage, then the hybrid fiberglass/cage masks that are common today.

Like I said, it isn't much to show off today, but it's a start for both of these sets. 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Some 70's and 80's hockey if you like

Most of these sets I'm about to show have a long way to go until they're complete, but the fun I'm going to have in chasing them all down is going to be endless.

I showed the 14 baseball cards from my recent COMC order yesterday, and that total is small in comparison to the 25 vintage cards from the 71-72 through 86-87 OPC sets that are pictured below.

All but one of the scans have 3 cards pictured.   It just worked out that way after going thru the pile.  The Jacques Lemaire card has a couple of creases which you can see if you look close (1 just above his head to the left, the other by his left glove), but for me they don't ruin the aesthetic of the card.  The Tony McKegney card was cheap and I wanted to get the 80-81 set going, and the Flames team card drops the want list for 76-77 OPC down to 12.  Bobby Orr and Ken Dryden are the two big "obstacles" left before that set is done.

The different colored borders that the 73-74 OPC set contains has me intrigued.  It'll be a while before I start seriously working on this set, but these trio of cards were a good start for me.  The Larry Robinson and Billy Smith RC's are pricey, and there are several other cards that go for $20 or more in really good condition, so this is another set that while not big, will take some time as I'll be picky in what I pick up for the set.

These three 83-84 OPC cards bring that want list even further down, as I now only need 11 to complete the set.  This will be done before too long (hopefully) even though I still need the Scott Stevens RC and the base card of Wayne Gretzky.

Biggest scan of the post, as these 6 84-85 OPC's were a nice cost-effective purchase.  I mailed an envelope to Norway on Saturday as part of a trade that will net me 22 of these.  When they come in, I'll be over 100 cards towards the set.

Both the 85-86 and 86-87 OPC sets are among my favorites, and I look forward to putting them together.   Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy RCs will be the major hurdles in finishing both of these, as they are tough to find for less than $150 in decent condition.

Love the airbrush on the Gamble, totally wiped out the Maple Leaf

The 71-72 OPC set I've been picking at for over a year now and I'm almost a quarter of the way through (just 2 more to get me there).   This is the one set that I've seen more cards than any other with paper loss on the back.  I'm sure many of these cards back in the day were taped into binders or onto some kind of paper, and when pulled off the backs were torn up.   It's a shame because this might be one of the best sets ever, and finding cards without that paper loss is essential for me.
I've pretty much given up finding any commons less than $1, but that's OK because I'm really only buying 2 or 3 at a time, thus not spending a whole lot of $$.

This isn't even the whole of the hockey portion, tomorrow I'll post the more modern cards.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Ice Breakers

I decided during my last COMC purchase to pick up a single card from a few 70's OPC sets from which I hadn't owned one.  Naturally, I went on the cheap route and grabbed a few cards for $1.50 or less.  No stars, just commons to get the sets started.

This was the most expensive card of the 5 at $1.53.  I had no idea who Joe Szura was when I bought the card, but I figured what better way to start the set than grabbing a player from the California Seals franchise.  A quick look at the Hockey Reference website shows that the 69-70 season was the last of 2 NHL seasons that Joe would play, totaling 90 games and 10 NHL goals.  Joe would be claimed by the Los Angeles Sharks of the WHA a couple of years later, and play for them in the 72-73 season.  The next year Joe would be a member of the WHA championship Houston Aeros team (the same one that had Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe) before finishing his career in the 74-75 season in the minors.

I knew of Dunc Wilson before I picked up this card, as he spent some time during his career with the Maple Leafs.  The only image I could find of Dunc's mask during his time in Vancouver was the old style pretzel mask.   Dunc's mask in Toronto was much better...

Dunc's career spanned the entire 1970's between 4 NHL clubs, with one game in the 69-70 season in Philly.   My copy of his 72-73 OPC card cost 60 cents.

I could probably count on one hand the number of 73-74 OPC cards I've seen with smooth borders and no chipping.  Putting this set together in anything better than VG-EX could be a time consuming and costly process.   I knew that Ed had finished his career with the Islanders, but what I did not know is that he was claimed by the Islanders in their expansion draft from the Bruins. 

Rey Comeau was a name I recognized quickly when I started looking through the 74-75 list on COMC.  He only played a handful of games during the 71-72 season for the Canadiens before being traded to the Flames for cash considerations.  He had a decent career for the Flames, playing there 6 seasons before moving to Colorado to finish out the decade with the Rockies. 

The 78-79 set is one that I remember buying a lot of as a youngster, but unfortunately those cards got thrown out by my mom, a fate I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with.  Nick Fotiu was a name I also recognized quickly, mostly from his days as a Ranger.   I didn't remember while looking up his stats that he played a couple of years in the WHA as a member of the Whalers, before signing as a free agent with the Broadway Blueshirts.  He would spend 3 years there before going back to the Whale for a season and a half.  He would be traded back to the Rangers and play 3 seasons there before moving on to Calgary, Philly and Edmonton to finish out his career.  Nick was a tough player to play against, having 150+ penalty minutes in 4 seasons and he scored 10 goals in a season just once during his 15 year career.

I still have a few OPC sets for my 20 year run that I don't own a card of yet, such as the famous blue border 79-80 set, and 75-76 which was the first set that I remember buying cards of.   Next COMC order I'll probably break the ice on those.

Thanks for reading, Robert