Parallels are mostly considered a card phenomenon of the last 35 years, but they existed in the '80s, '70s and earlier.
I've written about one of the most noted parallel sets a whole bunch. It's my favorite set of all-time, the 1975 Topps minis test-issue set.
But the '70s had other cards that could be considered parallels even if that wasn't the intent. I'm thinking of the MSA discs mostly, but also O-Pee-Chee cards and cards in the 1977 Topps cloth stickers set. TCMA is also a good place to spot '70s parallels sometimes, too.
One of them involves the first set I ever bought.
I mentioned this set two months into starting this blog. It's the 1975 TCMA All-Time Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team set. It's just 12 cards, featuring nothing but Dodger greats through history. I ordered it through the mail, most likely from the TCMA Advertiser, which came to my home. It's the first card set I ordered through the mail -- it may be the first card thing I ever ordered through the mail. I was around 14.
That's the full set. No need to show the backs, they're all the same -- a list of each card in the set. You'll notice that they are a bit worn. I definitely played with my cards, even in my early teenage years when I was also trying to keep them nice.
The coloring reminds me of the 1970s mimeograph pages we would receive in class, the blue tint on them, although I considered these purple. But they're known as the blue versions -- and, yes, there is another version.
I wish I could convey how stunned I was when I found out that this wasn't the only version of this set. It happened just a few years ago. I discovered there was a black-and-white edition of this set that I had known only as blue/purple for almost 40 years.
Just recently I tracked down that parallel set and now it's mine.
I'm still processing that there's another one. The only version that was sold in that mail-order issue was the blue, I believe (I don't remember if there was a color image advertised so maybe that's just misremembering on my part. Perhaps TCMA was mailing out blue ones to some customers and black ones to others!)
So I don't know how the black version was issued, or even which came first, the blue or black one.
Even for an oddball set like this, it's strange to see a parallel set from the '70s. This set was also issued in 1975, just like the Topps mini set! I cannot tell you how excited I am to own this version. I'm thrilled. Makes me wonder what other card things from the '70s -- a decade in cards I thought I had down -- are out there.
Comments