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One-third of the cash, all of the fun

 
As I've mentioned a number of times, I devote two-thirds of the money I receive for magazine writing to savings.

Working for a newspaper doesn't generate enough funds to even match a teacher's salary, so that cash comes in handy for real-life costs.

The other third goes toward cards and those funds in the last couple of years have boosted my collecting in a significant way.

You saw probably the flashiest card that I bought with my most recent article earnings, the 1956 Harmon Killebrew. But there were other cards that I bought with those latest funds, too.


I moved closer to completing the 1978 Kellogg's set with a selection of six more cards from the set. With these latest cards I'm down to needing just four more cards to finish it.

Those last few cards are Eddie Murray, Larry Bowa, Tommy John and Dave Parker. I have both Murray and Bowa in my cart right now. And I'm sure I'll track down John and Parker in no time.

But enough about the stragglers. This post is about what I GOT.



Here are the first Blue Jays and Mariners to appear on Kellogg's 3-D cards. That's how you knew you made it as an expansion club. Forget those Topps cards, were you being retrieved out of a cereal box??
 

 
I've purchased this Gossage card before. It made the Greatest Cards of the 1970s countdown on the occasion of it being one of the very few cards to show Gossage in an actual Pittsburgh Pirates uniform.

Then the card, as it sat unwittingly in a binder, mysteriously cracked -- always a possibility with those 3-D cards. I've since housed all my '70s Kellogg's cards in toploaders only, and that seems to have erased cracking issues. And that's where the new Gossage will go.
 

 
Lastly, the late great Tom Seaver, to go with the late great Don Sutton at the top of the post. Man, losing dominant pitchers of my childhood is still heart-wrenching. I want everyone to keep an eye on Vida Blue, Frank Tanana and Steve Carlton and, of course, Nolan Ryan.

Per usual, I need to spread out my cash on the wide-variety of collection pursuits that I have. So the last card I'm showing has nothing to do with mid-1970s food issues.
 


It is the second-to-last Dodgers need for my quest to complete the 1960 Topps team set.

Wooo!

The only card left is the high-numbered Tommy Davis and I'm tracking a copy right now.

The 1960 team set is notable because Topps never issued a larger team set for the Dodgers in its history. It produced 37 Dodgers cards that year! And that's not even counting the World Series cards it issued that also featured the Dodgers.

I devoted a post three years ago toward the number of Topps Dodgers cards each year. It's time that I update that post with the sets that followed:

2018: 32 cards
2019: 24
2020: 28

The 32 cards in 2018 is tied for the fourth-most highest for the Dodgers in Topps history. The total was boosted by the individual league leader cards that year, Clayton Kershaw was on three of them alone.

Here are the revised top 10 years for total Dodgers cards:

1960: 37
1959: 35
1952: 33
1982: 32
1991: 32
2018: 32
1964: 31
1972: 31
1986: 31
1987: 31
 
I see 2021 crashing through that top 10 by this summer. There are already 20 Dodger cards in Series 1.
 
OK, that's it for this post, but that's not it for the cards I purchased with the latest magazine earnings. I'm saving those for a post next week.

Comments

Very, very cool. That Dan Meyer is the only Kellogg's card I remember actually getting out of a cereal box.
John Bateman said…
I'm 55, but why does Duke Snider look 56 (or older than me on his card). Why do Baseball (and football and Hockey Players) from the 1950s or 1960s or at least older than me - always seem to look a lot older than their stated age. I think of a 72 Topps Killebrew where Harmon looks like he is 59 years old, not 37.

Then the players who are younger than me, like Tom Brady, look even younger than there age. Brady looks like he is in his early 30s.
bbcardz said…
Love the design of '78 Kellogg's, especially the easy-to-read player autographs. Congrats on some great pickups!
Jeremya1um said…
I’m sure it will have close to 40 Dodgers this year.
I can’t believe Arozarena didn’t get a card in Series 1. Was also hoping for World Series highlight cards for every game, but I guess I will have to look for them in Heritage. Hopefully Heritage doesn’t have a ton of Dodger SPs. If you are doing the set again this year, I’ll try to help you out.
sg488 said…
Just made it up to Barnes and Noble today to read your article about 1991 Topps ,great read ,Beckett needs have you write a column every month.
Congrats again on the recent article. I know what you mean about the 1960 Topps set. The Braves had 36 cards. I completed mine, which wasn't easy with 2 Aaron's, Span's, and Mathews each because of the leaders cards. Go get that last one.
Fuji said…
Parker and Murray were two of the final cards I needed as well. I checked my extra 78's for the Tommy John, but it must have been one of the ones missing from the partial set I purchased.

I'm pretty sure I learned about Gossage playing on the Pirates after seeing someone blog about that card. Didn't realize he only has two playing days cards featuring him with the Bucs: the Kellogg's and a Hostess. Pretty sure I learned that from someone's comments on a blog out there.
Chris said…
37 Dodger cards in one set sounds like a lot in any era. I can't wait to see you track down Tommy Davis so we can see them all together.

I wonder if kids who pulled Meyer and Bailor out of cereal boxes in the late '70s were disappointed or just confused - like who are these guys?
I'm surprised that there weren't more Dodgers in the 1972 set, but I went back and saw that only a couple of teams had ginourmous 1972 team sets while most teams log in at around 30 cards.

I love early cards for the Jays and Mariners. I should make those oddballs more of a priority, and if I do this you'll get credit for spurring my 374th different collecting strategy.