OK, you saw me open some 2023 Topps, almost right on time.
You'll see me open some 2023 Heritage almost right on time, too.
That's where the timeliness will end. I stopped monitoring the release calendar a long time ago, even before release times went haywire due to production issues.
I used to be a slave to the calendar, for many years. Back when I was a kid, I waited every year for the new cards to be released. Year after year. But it was just one card set then. Then there were three card sets. But they were all released at the same time, and then that's what you chased the rest of the year.
It wasn't until I stopped collecting in the '90s that card companies started forcing collectors to run a gauntlet. One release date followed another. This set released in April, but this one released in May, three release in June, five in July, the other half of that set that was released in May is releasing in August and then there are a few update sets in September. Mush, mush!
This is what greeted me when I returned to the hobby. I had no idea. Allen & Ginter? Baseball Heroes? Masterpieces? All popping up at different times? I tried, I really tried. For a few years. Then I got tired. I don't do it anymore.
Except for the new cards of the year, there is no calendar for my collecting. I collect whatever sport, whatever year, whatever I like, whenever I like.
Football ended two weeks ago and 1979 was ... oof ... 43 years ago. That's not stopping me. I'm collecting 1979 Topps football and calendar can't say nothing about it!
These are all from Bo of Baseball Cards Come To Life! He showed his side of the trade yesterday. Most of these guys I don't remember, maybe a couple. I put the Fritsches together with the hope that a kicker and a center were brothers. As far as I know they are not. One is from Green Bay, the other is from Austria.
For me, Mark Moseley was the original Kicker That Lasts One Hundred Years. But since then I've learned that there are a number of those kicker guys and that's just what some kickers do.
The star of the entire envelope from Bo. I didn't follow football too closely as a kid but I loved every Carl Eller card. Each one is magical. He's got one with a band-aid on his forehead, one where he's chatting on the phone, and then he's got the fierce cards like this one where you're afraid that him and his look are going to turn toward you.
The '79 football set is a classic, it's quite a bit understated compared with my other favorite '70s football set, 1977, but that attachment to my formative collecting years is all that matters here (speaking of not paying attention to the calendar, I was not a kid when this set came out, I was 14!)
But I'm on a run collecting this set. Right after the deal was made with Bo, I landed my second TCDB trade and my portion was 33 cards from the '79 football set that took me over halfway complete!
These are all players that I remember watching back then or in the early 1980s. Well, maybe some were just names in newspaper articles but I remember them all. I watched more football in the '80s, which is why Chuck Muncie as a New Orleans Saint looks odd to me. He was a key part of those early '80s Chargers teams, just like Charlie Joiner!
A whole bunch of others.
This transaction was with sspeegle and all I gave up was an equal number of dupes (a small amount of vintage and a whole bunch of modern baseball). While I'm mentioning TCDB transactions, I also landed 4 bucks after uploading a meaningless Pacific 49ers card that I received as a throw-in in an ebay purchase. That's the kind of thing that makes me want to add every last one of my unwanted cards.
Online I'll read about people buying a box of Topps Cosmic Chrome (yes that's actually a thing) or some other just-out new product and if that's what you want to do, OK. I can't keep up, and most of it is weird anyway, and/or the same damn 100 guys over and over.
Discovering players like Jimbo Elrod and Don Cockroft is a lot more fun and why I've tossed my calendar. But for those who are yelling, "Spring training has started, where are the baseball cards?????," Bo came through for you with a single card need.
There you are.
But it's not from 2023, or even 2022.
Comments
Several of the photos were from Detroit home stadium of Pontiac silverdome. I was at the redskins game at Detroit in 1978, which the lions found yet another way to lose late. Several of the redskins cards are in their road unis with the blue silverdome seats in the background.
This was the only set with earl campbell who must have refused to sign his deal with topps starting in 1980. The guy I thought would be a superstar was john Jefferson on the chargers. He had some moments and great catches but never put up the numbers of joiner and Wes chandler. 1979 was his rookie card.
Tony dungy never had a full topps card to my knowledge while a player but he is part of a team leader card that is listed in beckett vintage. This was also roger Staubach last card. Oddly his final pass was completed to one of his o line on 4th down in playoff loss to rams at home.
Great times indeed. Didn't have a girlfriend then but who cares. Been married to a gal for 30 years who let me keep collecting cards even after we got married and would tag along to card shows with me. Had lots of cool friends in 1979 and plenty of money to buy all 4 sports.
Btw. Notice all helmets are airbrushed. Topps had a license with nfl for players and the nflpa union has a contract, but topps refused to pay for the license for logos. That changed with the 1982 set.
Paul t
I will check your want list. The card buying frenzy left a lot of doubles but they are deep in the stacks.
He got drafted by the colts, just when the team in rapid decline after winning a super bowl. Colts had a resurgence in mid 70s and he was a starter on 3 playoff teams.
He later played for my detroit liedowns, when the team was in the cusp of playoff bids but found ways to blow a key game and miss the playoffs.
Ended up in the usfl.
Has been a Baltimore ravens color guy now for years. The old colts player like him and Johnny u pretty much shunned the indy colts and irsay family since the midnight move in 1984.
Paul t
B. I have the Chrome version of the Karros (just came across it today). Shoot me an email if you need it (since blogger never sends follow-up comments to my mailbox).
Also, Cosmic Chrome is kind of interesting to me. Topps has way too many gimmicks like that - Chrome black, A&G Chrome, etc. - but some of the Cosmic refractors look really cool.
When I was pulling them for you, I noticed the two Fritsches. The back of Toni's card says he's a distant cousin of Ted.
I've said many times this is the first card set of any kind that I ever completed. It was probably about 1981 when I did. I might know exactly when, but will have to look...