The (possible) end of me collecting football cards

 

How about this? I'm posting about completing a fairly large set for the second time this week!

 

It just happened this way. Don't expect another one of these for months, unless cards start falling from the sky.

 

The final card to finish the 1979 Topps football set arrived this week. This set is one of two Topps football sets from my childhood that I collected and now hold an incredible amount of nostalgia, despite only casually following football back then. I finished the 1977 football set at the end of 2020 and, now, more than four years later, the other beloved football set is done.

 

I received a big boost on this set in April of 2023 when I came across a binder of '79 Topps football at a show and the dealer offered it to me for 30 bucks. That's when I began to really chase it. Although it's loaded with stars, there aren't many pricey cards in the set and I wasn't faced with trying to land a bunch of superstars at the end. In fact, this was the last card:

 

 Woo, excitement.

 

 Actually the final three cards were all team checklists.

 

And all three were upgrades from the checked checklists that were in the $30 binder that I bought.

 

So I guess the real final card I needed to finish the set was a superstar card indeed:

 

I somehow overlooked adding Walter Payton's card while I was pinning down the final star cards with less than 50 cards to go. This was the biggest -- uh,oh -- moment in finishing the set ... there's always one or two as you set-builders know.

 

But it didn't cost much. This is not Payton's rookie card, it's a fourth-year card.

 

And that brings me to what's in the future for me and football cards.

 

I don't think I will attempt to build another football set. The two big ones from my childhood are done. The other big one is from 1976, but because Payton's rookie is in there, I plan to hold off on that one -- though I can't help to pick up '76 cards here and there on the cheap.

 

1978 football is right between my two favorites, but in a reflection of how much my football collecting is dependent on card design and kid nostalgia, even though just about everyone in '77 and '79 football is also in '78 football, I don't care about that set. Didn't collect it, the design is mid and the lure of the players is not strong enough.

 

Other football sets that I like -- '80, '83, '85 -- I'm sure I won't build, and like '76 will just add cards that appeal to me once in awhile. My complete-set football days are probably over. And that's OK with me, because I have enough other projects.

 

Both '77 and '79 football share the same binder in a reflection of how much those sets meant to me when I was collecting them. Here's the first page from both.

 

1977 football is much more colorful but you can see how similar they are. I had a lot of fun hunting these down and since much of this happened when I had already finished most of the '70s baseball sets from my youth, it was a nice excuse to continue to collect the '70s.

 

But that's it. Any other '70s card stuff I collect will be oddballs of the baseball variety. I'm definitely not diving into basketball or hockey, as much as I like some of those designs. Gonna stick with baseball. ...

 

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Still, a year from now, there's no guarantee I won't be saying, "hey guys, guess what? I'm going to give '76 football a shot!