I've been back in the hobby for 15 years now, ever since I started attempting to complete my favorite childhood set, the 1975 Topps set, in 2004.
That exercise jump-started my return and slowly led to me collecting modern cards again (2006), starting a blog (2008), writing magazine articles about cards (2018) and, well, here we are.
Without a year-by-year examination, I think I have spent every year of those 15 years dealing with 1975 Topps in some way, shape or form.
For the first couple of years, I was completing the actual set. For the next few years I was working on completing the '75 mini set. In between, there were the 2011 Lineage '75 minis, and then I discovered 1975 Topps buybacks, and now this year there are '75 tributes in 2019 Archives.
So, yeah, it's always 1975 in these parts. I have never moved on from "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You".
I think everybody knows this, too. Because ever since I decided to try to land all of the 2019 Archives cards in the '75 design, they've been arriving at my door in semi-droves.
Three specific packages, in fact, all showed up at about the same time, containing lots of those cards. They arrived so swiftly and at such a volume that I'm not quite sure which ones are duplicates and which ones I need. But I'm taking this post to find out.
The first envelope that arrived came from Max of Starting Nine. I especially liked his Archives '75s because he sent one that I figured would be a bit of pest to get:
Topps seems a little fascinated with this shot of Buehler and I wish they'd quit it. It's not the most appealing way to show his delivery.
But I appreciate the focus on his blue glove. I am so about a player color-coordinating his glove. As any fan of the 1975 set would be.
Here are the other '75s from Max:
As I've addressed in a couple of previous 2019 Archives posts, I'm looking to see if Topps used every one of the original 1975 Topps color combinations in the Archives set. Prior to these packages arriving, I saw all but three color combos in Archives.
The only ones remaining were Tan-Light Blue, Orange-Yellow and Brown-Tan.
I've already guessed that we're not going to see Tan-Light Blue or Brown-Tan because Topps thinks tan is orange and probably doesn't even know that it once considered those entirely separate colors back in '75. And after seeing the above cards, we're still at the same three color combinations missing.
Max sent other non '75 Archives, but I'll save those for the end of the post.
Moving on to the next group of 2019 Archives '75s. These are from Chris from Twitter, who has been very active in sending me cards lately.
Look at the fantastic Archives '75s he sent:
There were a few repeats in there, but most of them are new.
You can see with the Ichiro card what collectors are talking about with the faded backgrounds in Archives this year. It's quite annoying and basically ruins any nostalgia factor with the cards. Archives does this a lot -- it wants to be all about nostalgia but then throws some sort of jarring modern twist on it that kills the whole mood.
Meanwhile, there are no new color combos with this lot either.
There were more cards from Chris, too, but again, at the end.
All right, last group of Archives 1975s came from Kerry at Cards On Cards. Let's cue them up!
A few new ones, a couple repeats and no tan borders and, much more puzzling, no orange-yellow color combo, one of the more popular original 1975 combinations.
He also sent a couple for the Dodger collection. I think I need the extra Bellinger. Not sure about the Hodges.
But with all of those arrivals, I recalculated my want list for the 2019 Archives and this is what's left:
101, 110, 113, 119, 129, 134, 152, 164, 175, 176, 181, 192
That's pretty good just a couple of months after product release.
Except for Ohtani, Soto and Judge none of the remaining ones will be that tough to get. Also, I've looked at the color combos of those left and, yup, no orange-yellow or any of the tans. Disappointing.
All right, now let's see some of the other cards my Archives '75 providers sent.
First Max:
Some Super-Shinies.
Some Tribute Page-Ruiners.
A Very Notable '71 O-Pee-Chee.
A couple of Sabres cards, including one from the specifically-asked-for red-and-black era.
And a 1962 Post need -- Maury Wills from his record-breaking stolen base year! Wooooo!
I think someone alarmed the box-cutter in mid-cut.
OK, now let's see some of the other cards from Chris:
A couple of Fire needs.
My second-to-last Dodger need from Series 2. All that's left is Cody Bellinger. You can stop hanging on to him, it's not 2017 anymore.
This magnificent Stadium Club Duke Snider card.
And, even better, the one 2019 Stadium Club card that I've wanted more than any other, finally mine.
That's some great stuff, but I'm still not done. There's still Kerry to go.
Let's see:
Some weird Panini stuff. I'll tell ya, between Prizm, Optic and Chronicles, I don't know what I'm looking at half the time, but it looks like Panini found a way to get me to stop focusing so much on the lack of logos.
I think I've completed my 2019 Bowman Platinum Dodger wants without even thinking about the product. That is efficiency.
I knew what this was at one time -- probably when I saw it on Cards On Cards blog. But I don't know what it is anymore.
Now, heading back in time, these are some needs from 2003 Donruss Team Heroes.
And, finally, some needs from 2004 -- that year, 15 years ago, when I started chasing around baseball cards again, beginning with the 1975 set.
I'll probably have '75-themed cards to chase for a good few more years, especially as long as this buyback nonsense continues, and then with 2024 Heritage.
And that's good.
Because now I'm thinking maybe that's what's keeping me collecting.
But I don't want to go a year without any '75s to find out.
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