At least the five-year golden era is done

 

I returned from a couple days away (more on that later) to find in the mailbox the last two cards that I needed to complete my 1979 Kellogg's set.

 

In terms of other Kellogg's sets from 1970-83, the '79 version is not that difficult, but I had the misfortune of attempting to finish it when a whole new crowd of collectors discovered Kellogg's cards -- or, more probably, rediscovered them. Prices rose, and I started to get sniped, and all those things that shouldn't happen when pursuing Kellogg's cards!

 

It took longer for me to complete it than the '77 and '78 Kellogg's pursuits, which ain't the way it's supposed to go.

 

But that's all in the past now, I've finished the set and with '79 done, I now have complete sets for Kellogg's 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980.

 

For me that's the golden era of Kellogg's. That's the period when I knew about those cards intimately, chased them frantically and waited impatiently for 4-to-6 weeks to arrive. Anything before that time I didn't know or barely knew. Anything after that time, I plain didn't care.

 

 Those were the final two cards to arrive. In keeping with this set chase, I once owned the Vida Blue before but got rid of it for a since forgotten reason.

There was a lot of that going on as I was pursuing the set over the last year or so. Lots of upgrading, lots of reacquiring and even a case or two of buying the same card twice, either due to me being picky about the quality of the card or just confusing the numbers on my want list. Lots of chaos.

I get finicky over the state of Kellogg's cards because they were the most high-tech cards that I knew of at that time. I want them shiny, without cracks or yellowing or that weird thickening that some of them do over time. All three above were upgrades. The Driessen card I ordered twice because the first one looked too faded for my taste.

Here are some other cards that I upgraded over the ones I owned already. Still not crazy about that Buddy Bell but I'm going to have to let that go.

 

All of these were brand new to my collection and among the final ones needed. This is the first version of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry that I knew and the very best one, too.

 

The '79 Kellogg's set is known for being narrower in size than the previous versions the cereal brand issued. It bothered me as a youngster but I appreciate it now as they don't crack as easily as those earlier cards.

Though trimmer, '79 Kellogg's does continue the brand's hell-bent mission to include players from every team no matter how obscure. Some of the players are young, up-and-comers and some you can tell Kellogg's just forced in because the A's didn't have anyone else. Then there are guys like Bill Bonham in the '79 set, a veteran who appeared in 23 games for the Reds in '78 and was hardly star material and also one of five Reds in the set.

But the unpredictable checklist is part of what's fun about those Kellogg's sets. It's more than just the '70s version of 3-D images!

As I accumulated '79 Kellogg's cards over the last few months, I told myself I would not show any until I had finished the set. I put them in a corner of my rolltop desk to wait until the last one came through.

This 1974 Kellogg's card of Willie Horton that I obtained almost two months ago got trapped at the bottom so I'm showing it here with the '79s.

Since I have 1976-80 finished, that means I need to take on sets like '74 and '75 now, and those are gonna be difficult. Or I could try finishing 1983, which is already two-thirds done but not nearly as exciting.

But that's the future talking. Right now I'm all about the present ... er, all about 1979. And here it is:

That is a lot of cereal that I didn't eat.