I have lots of priority completion tasks when it comes to this hobby, sets that are right at the top of favorites I want to finish. But I don't do a heck of a lot about them sometimes.
I need you people to help me.
So it is with one of my most favorite retro sets, the 2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970s set. (I've often wondered about the odd name for the set. Did Upper Deck have plans for a "Decade 1960s set," a "Decade 1980s set"? It seems like that might have been the intent).
The Mike Schmidt night card here is part of a great selection of cards from the set from The Chronicles of Fuji. Thanks to supertrader Fuji, I'm back on track to completing the set. After receiving 32 cards toward the set, I need just 16 more base cards, and 13 insert cards.
As I've mentioned several times, I like the set not only because it features star players from when I was a kid, but also because it blatantly borrows its look from my all-time favorite set, 1975 Topps.
Like '75 Topps, the two-tone borders make the set, and like '75 Topps, there are several different border combinations, so you can take a day off of work so you can mix and match them for hours.
But I've already done it for you with these cards from Fuji. Here are the combinations:
ORANGE-PURPLE
These five, along with the Schmidt card, show off what I consider "the base combination" of the set. The orange-purple combination also makes up the back of every individual player card in the set, regardless of the border combination on the front.
GREEN-PURPLE
Just two cards in Fuji's selections of this combo. Willie Stargell is looking at Dwight Evans like he's a hamburger.
There is also a green-purple combo in the 1975 Topps set.
I called it the "Incredible Hulk" combination back on the 1975 Topps blog. You can see how over-the-line Upper Deck was with copying Topps' designs here, but it at least copying the look got UD to produce a set I would actually buy.
ORANGE-BLUE
I think these are good-looking cards ('75 Topps features a blue-orange combo, which is also one of my favorites). I particularly like the Amos Otis card. Oddly, I don't like the '81 Topps Royals orange-bordered card for a reason that we'd have to go to the psychiatrist to figure out.
GREEN-BLUE
I like this combination, too. It's an improvement on '75 Topps' blue-green combo, which doesn't work for me because of the pale blue color.
YELLOW-ORANGE
Probably the most '70s looking border colors in the entire set. These borders are two-thirds of the kitchen in my house when I was a kid. Again, UD turns a '75 Topps border combo on its head. 1975 Topps featured orange on top and yellow on the bottom.
YELLOW-GREEN
Another twist on a '75 Topps combo, which was green-yellow. Two outstanding cards here in the Eckersley and Santo.
We're into subset territory. This is the only one of the subsets from Fuji that is two-tone. You can see two other night cards here in Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith.
Probably my favorite subsets in the whole set.
Bucky @&%$#***@#**&!!!%#** Dent.
Also, Fuji padded the package with a few random Dodgers:
That's a wide swath of quality there. You might be surprised that out of that selection, I get a kick out of the Panini Cooperstown Opening Day card most, which commemorates the Dodgers' win over the Giants in Roy Campanella's debut.
And the fitting final card:
Of course they are.
But if you need reasons:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awesome night card: Mike Schmidt, 2001 Upper Deck Decade '70s, #81
Does it make the binder?: No. It's dedicated to the set quest.
Comments