Last purchase of the year

 

The sad news of Nate Colbert passing away broke last night. As you might have read in the comments yesterday, I did a little Twitter tribute that was picked up by some national web site (sorry, I had never heard of it before).

 

My mind immediately went to his 1969 Topps card, because that smile surpasses everything. The first Colbert card I actually saw was the 1977 Topps Record Breaker when I was buying packs in '77. I had never heard of Colbert before that (didn't pull his card in either '75 or '76 Topps) and his feat seemed like ancient history to me even though it was only 5 years old at the time.

 

So you've really got to make an impact to overshadow that kind of "first-card" history but that smile does it.

It also is one of my favorite cards in the 1969 Topps set, which I've been pursuing lately.

The last card purchase that I made for 2022 involved a small selection of 1969 cards from Twitter seller @Tec872. Trevor is also who sold me my 1954 Topps Lasorda card.

Each of these 1969 cards were in very nice shape, which I'm not exactly used to seeing. The '69 set isn't like 1970, in which almost all the cards that I come across look like someone got VERY ANGRY at them. But I've seen my share of off-condition '69s, particularly creased cards. So it's nice to find some carefully preserved cards from the year.

If you want to know the very last card I acquired from that lot, making it the very last card I acquired of 2022, it was this checklist card.

There was actually a Twitter CardChat question this week asking for the last card you landed for 2022. I proudly announced it was this checklist. It received no likes. That's Twitter for ya.

The back of the checklist advertises the Deckle Edge set, which at the time I guess were being promoted as "autographed photos." Our idea of autographed photos is a lot different from 1969s', apparently. Those things have facsimile signatures, but they definitely weren't autographs.

Those are the rest of them. Sharp.

I really like the A's Stars card, just because there are relatively few combo cards in the 1969 set compared with the earlier '60s Topps sets, making these ones stand out.

So nothing particularly exciting there, but when set-collecting, every card is equally important. Still, I should really do something about getting Jackson, Ryan or Bench in 2023.

But if I don't, I still have Smiling Nate.

(P.S.: There's a new 1969 Topps blog! Apparently Set Blogs are making a comeback!)