This set is even older than this album

I haven't posted about the 1976 Hostess set in a hot minute, so how about another update on my progress with this 35-year-old thing 45-year-old thang.

In fact, it's even older than this album:

I think either this or "Duke" was the first Genesis album I ever bought. It was purchased after-the-fact because "And Then There Were Three ..." was released in 1978 and I wasn't buying albums in 1978. I wasn't even buying 45s.

It's a great album, even though early-Genesis snobs will always prefer Peter Gabriel Genesis to Phil Collins Genesis. I can appreciate it on its merits because, hah, I wasn't around for Pete Gabriel Genesis!

The album title always pops up in my head as a set collector when I have three cards left to go. In fact, it was the title of a blog post in the very early days when I was closing in on finishing the 1986 Topps set. Look at newbie night owl write tiny little blog posts! He didn't even have a camera on his phone!

The final three is where I am with the 1976 Hostess set.

But before I get to what's left, let's see what I have been accumulating lately.

 

I know people don't want me to cut up this panel but that's what I'm going to do: I'm collecting the individual cards, not a panel version of the set (although I don't mind the panels at all). I grabbed this because I needed the Grieve and Cosgrove cards.

 

It's been one year since Tom Seaver departed. That was a quick year.

 

 You can see that Seaver has rounded corners, which is a little uncommon among Hostess cards just because I don't think kids played with Hostess cards as much as Topps cards back in the '70s. They simply weren't as available (or as desired). But it's not a big deal for me, Hostess is not a set that needs to be completed in immaculate shape.

The Eck card was the one that got me to needing just 10 more cards to finish the set. I already have this card as part of a panel, but this is how weird I am: I refuse to cut up panels that I purchased at a card show, but slicing and dicing is fine if I buy them online. I know it doesn't make sense.

The Coleman and Hrabosky cards arrived from the same seller. They were packaged with a couple of bodyguards.

I feel ya, seller, I'd want to get rid of 1992 Donruss anyway I could, too. But did you have to send them to ME?

Naturally I have a '76 Ron Cey in my Dodgers binders already, but I had to get that extra one. It wasn't easy. Cey is a short-print in the set. A lot of the short-prints are no problem to pick up but there are a few that have been quite pesky. Cey was one of them. This card isn't the greatest specimen, it's got registration problems and some paper loss, but it passes the Hostess test (card is intact, no major stains).

Plus the Cey came with a bunch of other late 1970s Hostess needs! This was a no-brainer purchase. Most random Hostess lots always contain a bunch of cards I have already.

 

So that brings me to the final three cards that I need.

 

Two of them are short-prints and one is not. The one that is not is Willie Stargell. He's been a little elusive but mostly because I don't want to pay the price that is being offered. But I expect this card to be the next one I get.

 

The next one is likely one of the SPs, which is Rod Carew. That card has been sitting in my cart for awhile, waiting for me to not be poor again (I loathe late August).

 

But the card I expect to be the last one I find is another SP, Fritz Peterson. I've seen this card only once on ebay since I started tracking '76 Hostess cards. I wasn't even aware it was an SP at the time and I let it go because I wasn't crazy about the condition, or maybe it was the shipping price. Whatever, I shouldn't have let it go and now it's going to be laughing at me for who knows how many months.

 

So, there's my latest progress on what better be the next set I complete!

 

 Old stuff is great.