Gaming the system

 

About three weeks ago, Johnny's Trading Spot held a giveaway for his readers, randomizing off 350-plus cards from one of his many, many, many finds.

 

Most of the cards were of the magazine variety from Baseball Cards Magazine and the like from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I'm very familiar with those, having come across them back in the day and also through adding the Dodgers to my collection.

 

They are pretty cool though nothing I look to collect (except the ones modeled on the 1975 Topps design). When Johnny displayed what was up for the giveaway, my eyes instead gravitated toward a nine-pocket page that contained a certain oddball from the 1960s.

 

I didn't think more of it, the chances of getting that page wasn't great, there were 30 different pages offered up! 

 

Well, lo and behold, I ended up landing page #18, the majority of which were 1968 Game cards.

 

 

I don't know how but I gamed the system!

 

Outside of the one Dodger in this set, I have never owned any of these. I have a blind spot when it comes to 1960s oddballs. While I fall at the feet of 1970s oddballs, the '60s ones don't get much of a glance -- I can barely muster interest in several of the flagship sets from that decade, including the one that featured these Game cards in third-series packs.

 

But that means I've missed out I stuff like the 1964 Topps Giants and 1967 Topps posters. And, yeah, the 1968 Game cards, which is the most generic name for a card set ever. Maybe that's why I never sought these out. This is one step away from creating a card set called "Card".

 

 In retrospect though, I like these. They're full color. The rounded corners ease any worries about vintage dings. They look a lot better than the deckle edge cards Topps would feature the following year.

 

I like the crop of players I received from Johnny though they're not big stars and you wouldn't win anything with these guys playing the game. "Out" is the most frequent word among these six and "Do not advance" the most frequent phrase.

 

But I always like getting a new card of George Scott, Rick Monday or Tim McCarver, all players I collected in the '70s. Mike McCormick, too, was one of the first 1968 Topps cards I owned way back as an early teen.

 

 

The other two cards in the lot will probably eventually be trade bait. I already own the 1975 Hostess Mike Lum.

 

So I made out pretty well with this contest. There aren't a lot of contests on the blogs anymore, so I get a nostalgic hit when one pops up. It's appreciated, and not just because of the free cards.

 

Will I now try to collect the whole 1968 Game set? Probably not. But it could be something to do down the line. Who knows, if my aging self loses a few more brain cells, I could go burlap batty and end up collecting the whole 1968 Topps set.  

 

(Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers).