National'd again, part 2

 

All right, picking up after a work day that caused me to question life's existence, it's time to show off the second package that arrived from the National ... I think.

 

The note attached didn't mention any trip to the National, but I'm making a guess based on the timing, the card selection and the location of the sender. Or it may just be that he had these cards sitting around the home. I don't give reader Dave the "Dave sends great cards" moniker for nothing.

 

This selection of cards was across the board of my interests and then a few things thrown in that, yeah, I'm that kind of collector but I didn't really think of grabbing those.

 

Let's start with these:

 

I love seeing those all together, but almost all of my non-Dodger Fleer stickers sit in a where-do-these-go stack (yeah, I know, STICK THEM) on my card table. 

I never have a clear idea of which Fleer stickers go with what, except for some early '80s ones and the wonderful '70s versions that I can pick out from four decades away. TCDB is helpful, the info just needs to stick in my brain.

These also showed up and I don't know what year these are either, but you Fleer sticker lovers probably already know what the flags and the logos have in common.

Yeah, there are Famous Feats cards on the back and I've paid attention to these even less than the stickers. I need to stop that. I mean the Cadore card in the bottom right corner is a Dodger card and now I have to go on a fact-finding mission. (EDIT: These are from 1986, which makes sense as you will see a bit later).

 

Random vintage is always a hallmark of Dave's sends and this sums it up. About the only basketball cards I own are old Buffalo Braves cards. All of these are from the terrific early '70s NBA run and it isn't every day you receive a Kareem card.

Also, there's a bonus for me in the assists leaders. Calvin Murphy is a legend in Niagara University basketball. When I worked in Niagara Falls, I'd hear all about him.

Moving on. Outside of grabbing buybacks or periodic upgrading or maybe finding an OPC card, there's not much more to do with my 1975 Topps sets. But Dave is among a few great collectors who finds some '75-themed cards, which I always love.

These are all but one of the '75-themed Highlights cards from 2019 Archives. I didn't chase these because I don't like Archives, of all brands, short-printing base cards. And the subject matter is painfully predictable. But now all I need is the Kris Bryant, so might as well get it.

 

Here is a '75 tribute that isn't anything common! Dave's found another Sadaharu Oh card for me. Seeing the '75 theme with Japanese lettering is a lot of fun, but of course I had no idea what it said.

Fortunately, the operator of Number 5 Type Collection, Matthew, ran the pic through Google Translate over on BlueSky (yes, I'm over there now -- y'all know that the former Twitter is about two more wacked-out moves away from collapse, right?).

I guess I could have come up with the bottom part by myself. This apparently is from a Calbee set from 1975-76, which means they jumped on that '75 design right away. It's not a U.S.-regulation card size, closer to '75 mini size except a little shorter.

 

Damn, that's a Night Card that was never a thought.

The note Dave sent was all about this card, stating that in his search for the original broadcast of Haddix's legendary almost-perfect game he discovered it was a night game (I knew that). So he sent this 1961 Topps Baseball Thrills card along in hopes it makes the Night Card Binder!

I had high hopes since the card is a relatively high number (410) and so many night cards are shot down because their number is between 1-50. There was an empty slot waiting for it! My Night Card binder is pretty impressive you guys, even with lots of empty spots still.

This excellent night card from 1993 Score showed up, too. And at card No. 521, it slots right in, two spots behind the 1993 Score Kevin Gross no-hitter card at No. 519. Gee, I hope I never want to complete 1993 Score.

 

There weren't a lot of Dodgers in the box that I needed (except to bestow on that anonymous Dodger collector just waiting for my Dodger dupes) but there were a few super-key ones.

This is a "gold-minted" parallel of the chrome parallel from 2022 Stadium Club but not the Stadium Club Chrome card. Got that? (F'n Topps). These cards ... aren't great ... but, yeah, I'm happy with any Mookie cards.

 

Another Dodgers Post card to read with my morning cereal! There are a bunch of Dodgers in this '62 set (and all the early '60s Post sets). It's crazy that Topps expected little kids to eat enough cereal to cut 200 different cards off of boxes.

I like that Post updated Hodges' team situation at the bottom in fine print.

 

My goodness. This is now officially the fanciest-conditioned 1952 Topps card in my collection. Most of my '52 Dodgers have seen Some Stuff, which is fine by me. I own a Schmitz '52 already but it's not close to this graceful item. A comparison:

 

Schmitz on the right has some stories about the boy who stuffed him in a box and did other harrowing things. 

 

I know I usually save the best card in the package for the end but this is a Dodger card and I'm trying not to skip around. This is easily the greatest card I received thouugh. Let's lookie:

That is my first 1953 Bowman Black and White card. I had never, ever seen a Bowman B&W in person before, except maybe under glass in some off-limits collection at a card show. This is the first time I've held one.

The B&W's are rarer than the lauded color set from the same year and they get almost zero respect. I understand it, but I've always liked the Black & White cards and it'd be cool to collect them if they weren't so frighteningly priced. Plus, there are just three Dodgers and I've already got one-third of them.

 

Here is more random vintage of the baseball kind. I will always appreciate stuff like this. That Donn Clendenon card is iconic.

 

 

All right, let's get to the serious stuff -- set-collecting. These are more 2023 Heritage needs! So happy. 

 

All the postseason cards are high numbers, so you'd think they'd work on the captions a little more, maybe put the score of the series on the bottom instead of vague play references. But then some of the backs of these cards are identical so, yeah, you'll pay $3.75 for a half-assed card if you want that set completed (thanks Dave for sending these so I don't have to buy them!)

More Heritage needs and more high numbers! Also, there's that guy who probably will be lucky to play in MLB again. Super-glad I sold that 2022 Heritage Franco refractor long ago and didn't sit on it like I normally do.

 

Woooo! Look at all those 1986 Fleer needs WIPED. OUT! Notice the star power (plus Glenn Hubbard). That's what I was looking at to finish this set. It's super-weird to me that even in '80s sets, the last cards often needed are the stars, even though most of those cards are worth, what, like 2 bucks? Why are we hanging on to those?

Thanks to this lot I'm down to needing six cards to finish the '86 set. These are them:

108 - Rickey Henderson, 282 - Eddie Murray, 284 - Cal Ripken Jr., 358 - Jim Rice, 444 - Charles Hudson, 449 - Juan Samuel. To Sportlots I go!!

Dave continued the 1986 Fleer theme with one of those rack pack inserts (I never bought any '86 Fleer in '86 so these were completely new to me. Heck I didn't even know '86 Fleer came in rack packs).

This Future Hall of Famers set is six cards, I'm just missing the Tom Seaver now. And Fleer's predicting game was almost perfect. ... Hey, they took a gamble.

Wonderful.

There are so many '70s Hostess cards to obtain -- I want them all. I feel like I'm making progress when stuff like this shows up. I've been working harder on finding these -- but this is a bad time for spending on cards.

Dave's attention to condition on these is great, heck, it's great on everything he sent. 

The final example:

1970 Topps High Number needs!!! 😵😵😵😵. In wonderful shape! 😲😲😲

This is quite the boost as I try to pick off the final needs in this set. Obviously most of them are high numbers now and getting some of the more common cards out of the way will help as I still need HN's Banks, Santo and Kaline (not to mention some guy named Ryan).

This is the third-to-last card in the set (No. 718) and that's special, too.

So with these last two posts, that was my haul from the National -- if it actually was. But regardless, not bad for not spending anything on gas, lodging and parking.

I'll have some money left to go to the show much closer to me next month.