Buying repeats

 

It's February, which means January is over, and that's worth celebrating for a variety of reasons.

This past month I may have added fewer cards to my collection than any other month since I started blogging. I'm not fanatical about budgets so who knows if that's true, but it sure felt like I wasn't accumulating.

 

In fact, I can count the number of cards I picked up online last month on two hands plus a couple digits from someone else. And seven of those 12 cards were repeats -- meaning I had them already.

 

You saw the '76 Kellogg's Reggie Jackson, that was purchased to replace the one that cracked under my watch. The rest of them are 1975 Topps buybacks! Weeeeeeeeeee!

 

I am trying to stay positive in this hunt, which is difficult with my "prepare for the worst/hope for the best" tendencies. I can't help but think the buyback pursuit window is starting to close. But then something like this happens.

 

I found a seller on ebay who had a bunch of '75 buybacks, including a few I had never seen before!

 

We'll start with the Don Carrithers at the top of the post. That was one of the cards that mystified me because I was pretty sure just about all of the common cards are stamped. It turns out I just didn't come across it yet!

Here is another common mystifier that's been obtained! 

I always rejoice when I land a team card buyback. Out of all the non-player cards in the set -- the league leaders, MVP subset, World Series cards, Highlights cards and regular checklists -- the team and WS cards are not that difficult to find, but they're still a little elusive.

The last three are more notable players, which means I automatically assume they weren't stamped. But that theory has been disproved over and over again.

The stamp over Bryant's head is just bizarre and just shows the disregard for the original card that these buybacks have. But I got to try to collect them all!

I also had a shot at a '75 Topps Ron Santo buyback, which would be a great one to land, but I didn't want to pay 20 bucks for that. It's weird how much buybacks of some of the stars go for, I mean the card is ruined already.

Anyway, these cards bring me up to 469 buybacks for the set, which is 71.1%.

I hope February will bring "new-to-me" cards to my collection. But I won't turn away any more '75 stamped repeats that I need.