Nobody chooses tan

I received another round of 2019 Archives '75s and Allen & Ginter minis recently -- this time from Johnny's Trading Spot. These seem like the popular elements of my collection at the moment.

I'm about halfway through in chasing down the Archives '75s, so I don't feel like I can make an overall judgment about what's in that portion of the set. But you know I'm super curious about the color combinations, so I'm going to make an evaluation anyway.

Those are the ones Johnny sent. RIP Christian Yelich's knee, and I see along with Posada, Topps is still forcing in marginal Yankee "legends" like Matsui. This is why retro sets like this will never be truly legitimate. The checklists are based on what legends Topps can land/feel will draw the most collectors.

Anyway, none of these color combos eliminated any of the remaining color combos from 1975 Topps that I haven't been able to cross off in 2019 Archives.

Again, the combos with the ones represented by '19 Archives are crossed out:

Brown-orange
Green-yellow
Pink-yellow
Tan-light blue
Yellow-green
Yellow-red
Red-yellow
Orange-yellow
Brown-tan
Red-blue
Red-orange
Green-light green
Purple-pink
Light blue-green
Blue-orange
Green-purple
Yellow-light blue
Orange-brown 

Orange-yellow is a puzzler just because it was prominent in the original 1975 set and also Topps used it regularly in its last major tribute to 1975, the 2011 Lineage minis insert set.

But I'm pretty sure Archives doesn't include the final two color combinations: tan-blue and brown-tan.

First of all, I'm willing to bet Topps doesn't know that there are both brown-tan and brown-orange combinations in '75 Topps. In 2011, Lineage lumped everything into brown-tan (or "brown-orange," depending on your take on the color).

Like so:

But for 2019 Archives, the brown-orange combo is remarkably similar to the Lineage brown-tan color, like so:

So, my guess is that there is either "brown-tan" or "brown-orange," but not both.

I have a theory on that, but first let's show the Lineage example of "tan-blue" to help back my theory:

Yeah, that is not right at all. Here is the tan-blue example from 1975:

The color for the team name isn't even right.

But I went through all of that in my nerd-out overview of 2011 Lineage's minis several years ago.

My speculation on why there's no tan-blue example in Archives or separate brown-tan and brown-orange combinations is simply that I don't think anyone understands "tan" anymore.

"Tan" is a very '70s color. It's probably not even called "tan" anymore, it probably received a more modernized color description back in the '90s but people who grew up in the '70s (me) just keep calling it tan.

"Tan" sounds unappealing now (those tans damage your skin!). Comedian Louis CK, in an amusing bit about suicide (yup), says, "nobody chooses tan, nobody picks a tan car. They give you tan." And there's your attitude about tan today.

But in the '70s, tan was everywhere. Just everywhere. You could turn in any direction at any time and tan would smack you in the face.

So, I think Topps just doesn't get it. "What, that isn't the same color?" Or can't produce it or something.

Somebody will probably prove me wrong with a link to a tan Archives card in the comments or something and that's fine because like I said, I haven't seen the whole set, but that's just the way the set is trending according to my collection.

Johnny also sent my second Archives '75 mini:

Of course, you can't tell from this that it's mini size, so:

 

There you go.

OK, enough nerding out about '75s, let's nerd out over some A&G minis.

Although not an exceptional collection, these are minis that all fit my A&G frankenset binder. I gave Johnny the numbers for empty spots in my binder and he found these for me. I already want to replace Cardinal Joe Kelly (the absolutely wrong kind of Kelly) and the Reyes goes in a slot very close to another Reyes card, but all of these are welcome and now I'm down to the following numbers to fill:

13, 18, 31, 54, 55, 70, 72, 135, 144, 151, 171, 181, 192, 241, 250, 254, 281, 300, 310, 334

Not far now.

Johnny tried to fill another spot in another frankenset binder but couldn't crack it:

For the night card binder. It's a nice one, although actually a "night falls card". But I can't unseat a card showing Roger Clemens batting.

I also received a few old-school Sabres cards:

Team card from 1973-74 Topps, a set I still say looks like it was produced seven years earlier. Check out that outfit on head coach Joe Crozier.

Sabres legend Jim Schoenfeld, if only for his mattress commercials. I didn't hardly follow hockey in the '70s so I know Schoenfeld more as a coach ("have another doughnut!"). But he was a rough-and-tumble guy.

Played eight games with a broken foot -- hey, Yelich, tape it up and LET'S GO!!

I'll round out the package rundown with some Dodgers Johnny sent me that I didn't have:

All quite appreciated.

I hope you don't mind all of the 1975-related posts lately -- and if you do, what the hell are you reading this for? I've recently received a couple more '75-themed cards and I know there's at least one other one on the way.

Speaking for myself, I'm thrilled.