Keep on tryin'

 

What I like about the bloggers who still swap cards with other bloggers -- what are we down to like a dozen now? -- is that they're persistent.

Most of us have been collecting publicly for awhile now and have accumulated a lot of cards because of that. It's a little bit tough to crack each other's collections -- I know, because I keep on trying. But if you stay persistent, you'll find something that another collector needs and you'll find something that I need.

 

Yes, even 15 years in, there's still plenty on my want lists.

 

Nick of Dime Boxes is one of those good collecting eggs that still tries and I'm happy he does because he's still finding cards off my want lists, sometimes cards that I needed that I didn't even know existed. No-Neck Williams has a minor league manager card? OK, no idea, but, yeah, I needed that!

 

 Nick remembers what I collect and keeps trying -- to find some cards that crack my Allen & Ginter frankenset binder. The binder slots are all filled but there are still opportunities as these three cards will attest -- they're each now in the binder!

Of course Dodgers minis have the best chance of cracking the collection, even a couple of dudes from the maligned bottom half of the team's batting order.

 

Nick knows that I like legends cards, new and old, TCMA and Renata Galasso and even wildly confusing Topps versions like the Greatest Players/Greatest Moments/Greatest Greatests inserts from five years ago.

The Oliva card is my favorite of this group as it comes from the Galasso Glossy Greats series and is one of the last cards in the set, which means the typeface is so much different from what the set started with. The MCI Catfish card is from a set from 1993 that I didn't know existed.

Here is a Legends need from Panini, which means it's ticking me off. I cannot find a corresponding card on the TCDB checklist. It's a foil type card (which means it's impossible to photograph) but there is nothing similar listed from the set. It also doesn't make it easy that Panini insists on creating retail and hobby versions of these cards.

Here we go, these are happier, Dodgers cards that I needed and that I know. Yeah, there are a couple of pointless parallels in this group, but I know what they are! (OK, the Pee Wee Reese took a little searching, MLB Showdown also doesn't make it easy).

 

Nick found four cards off my 2024 Heritage want list, too, which is very cool. I'm down to 18 wants from the non-SP portion of this set and there are more cards on the way. I'll be down to nothing but SPs very soon, and that's about five months sooner than where I was with 2023 Heritage.

 

Nick has a lot of Dick Allen cards and I'm happy to add any of his extras, especially if it's an O-Pee-Chee card! I don't have a lot of 1972 OPCs that aren't Dodgers. This might be my second or third. Topps was fortunate (or took advantage of) that the White Sox were wearing red at this time!

 

AND NOW THE TOP THREE OF CARDS SENT BY NICK!

 

 

There were three '70s Kellogg's cards in the package but this 1971 Tony Taylor card is the only one I needed. I'm not quite at the point where I'm back to actively searching for '70s Kellogg's cards yet but I have started looking around again. One unprovoked cracking though just might put me off them forever though.

 

Nick couldn't have possibly have known this but this is the last Dodger card I needed from the 1979 Fritsch One-Year Winners set. There are three Dodgers in that set and here they are:

Gleason comes up a lot on Veterans Day (but not Memorial Day because he's still living!) because of him serving in the Vietnam War and receiving the Purple Heart.

I've known about the One-Year Winners sets since the late 1970s when the Fritsch catalog started coming to our house. There were three different sets, one in 1977, one in 1979 and one in 1983. They got larger each time but there are no Dodgers in the 1983 set even though that set is by far the largest. There is one Dodger in the '77 set, which I have, meaning I've got all the OYW Dodgers now!

 

Finally, this 1971 Fleer World Series Laughlin card was a need from a set that I'm currently collecting. Great stuff. Love that caption. If you look really hard, maybe there's a rare version of another Tigers World Series card that says "Ty Cobb sucked in this Series".

So that's a cool assortment of cards that I got because Nick keeps trying.

I admit I don't try as hard as I used to with sending out cards, but I still do it. I've got a couple of stacks that are waiting to be sent out the door right now. Maybe if I can convince the newspaper that it doesn't need to print every single day, I can get to mailing those packages.