No, not these hosers!
The deal was with Trevor of Supporting The Minnow, who’s something of an O-Pee-Chee supercollector. I had some lower grade ’71-’72 hockey, and some late ’70s baseball he was interested in, and he had some stuff I could use, so we bit the bullet on the shipping (not as insane as I was expecting, but still not cheap), and got a deal done.
Here are some of the fun things I got…
‘sup, Frank?
First, Trevor put a hurting (heh) into my ’90 Score Rookie & Traded wants.
Then, he chipped away at the remainder of my ’92 Stadium Club wants. Down to 5 cards needed out of 900, which, when I get those last 5, would make it the biggest set I’ve built, unless you count Topps flagship and Traded/Update as one set.
…and here’s why I went through all that trouble. Great photography, especially for the time. My favorite of the ’90s Stadium Club sets.
Then, some Islanders showed up! Man, I miss Frans Nielsen. A lot of the Isles he sent over have already flown the coop, even though they were pretty recent cards. I’m trying to figure out if it was ownership, management, the arena, money, some mix of it all, or something else entirely. Anyway, this is a cool retro parallel from one of the recent OPC sets.
Here’s an Isle that’s still around, though! This is actually a Tim Hortons card! It’s also very shiny, though the scanner made it look cooler than it already did.
Speaking of food issues, here’s some Canadian Post from ’91! He sent along most of this set (and a nice scattering of food issue stuff, including some other Canadian Posts and some ’87 Coke Tigers), so it’s in my wants now. For being cards with no logos, they look pretty great, though the NL design with the red is definitely better than the AL design with the blue borders.
Always fun to get bilingual Expos cards!
Another fun oddball and a great picture. Somehow, I’ve ended up with none of the Boardwalk & Baseball box set before this deal (I got Lance Parrish along with Rickey). I should work on that some more.
Hey, Ichiro! With the 5 Biography cards I got from Trevor, I’m officially a third of the way through this insert set I’ll never finish from 2010 Upper Deck. 200 days of cleverly sorta avoiding team logos in the pictures!
Ali!
Trevor finished off the AW Sports boxing set for me! I’d gotten a bunch from Stubby a while back, and it’s a fun set. Nice mix of guys who were current in ’91, who I used to watch on MSG boxing cards, and the old-timers.
Here’s Jake, swell picture…
Here’s Abe Attell, who was my first Topps Ringside card, and who was also accused of being the messenger in the Black Sox Scandal, though he was acquitted.
Boom Boom, just to show that they had the more recent fighters in the set. Nice mullet, Ray!
…and then you come across one of those pictures that makes you question why you have an interest in something. Amazing photograph, but, to put it mildly, being hit like that by Rocky Marciano could not have been good for Jersey Joe Walcott. I mean, I grew up watching fights, so it’s one of those things that I didn’t really have a choice about being familiar with, and, being a human (inherently flawed as we are), I have marvelled at the athleticism and the drama of boxing on and off for most of my life, but when it comes down to it, it’s still two people beating the holy hell out of one another, sometimes just one person beating the holy hell out of the other, and it does lasting damage, particularly to the brains of the competitors, which, as someone who’s had a number of brain injuries himself, is kind of a sensitive subject. Boxing, like a bunch of sports I’ve got cards of, is a bloodsport, and it wrecks people. It’s a part of our shared history, of course, and a fascinating one (which makes me grateful for the cards, certainly), but I spend some time these days wondering if we’re really doing ourselves many favors by following and financially supporting bloodsports. Yeah, I know, a bit of a tangent in the middle of a fun trade post, but that’s what y’all pay me for. I believe in looking at the things I enjoy, and have enjoyed, with a critical eye, and with a goal of eliminating cognitive dissonance when and where I can. I think it’s important to do. Helps us understand stuff, or try to understand it, anyway.
To switch subjects, though, since I went on about this a bit, let’s move onto “the main event” of this post…
Hey, it’s an Eddie Murray rookie! But, wait! Didn’t I finish the ’78 Topps set a few years ago, back when I was on my old site? Yeah, I did. So, why would I trade for another one of…oh, wait…
Yup, it’s an O-Pee-Chee Murray rookie! Super cool.
Yup, it stands to reason that an O-Pee-Chee collector would have some decent doubles laying around, and I got a few fun ’78s along with the Murray, including this very “classic OPC miscut” Hawk here!
Yay, more bilingual Expos cards!
Pete’s hangin’ to the right here, too, but he got a hero number in OPC, so it’s all good!
Last card coming up…
Look, you guys!
It’s an O-Pee-Cey!
Thanks again for the deal, Trevor! Lotsa fun stuff in it!
You don’t see a lot of boxing cards on the blogosphere – very interesting. I do think enjoying boxing, football and other sports that tear up the competitors’ bodies requires a certain cognitive dissonance – I know it’s the only way I can enjoy the gridiron. Such is life, I suppose.
I do collect a few boxing sets. I’m about halfway through 1951 Topps Ringside (boxing and pro wrestling there, technically), I’ve knocked the set in this post off now, I’ve got a ’48 Leaf John L. Sullivan, and when I come across other noteworthy boxing cards (The ’84 Olympics Ali card, etc.), I pick them up.
As for the cognitive dissonance on the two sports you named, I’ve basically stopped watching football and collecting new football cards for at least the time being (On top of the concussion issue, the fact that the commissioner, the owners and some of the players are garbage helped there, as did that really fixed-lookin’ ending a few Super Bowls ago where the Seahawks had Lynch on the 1 and didn’t run it in…), and don’t keep up with modern boxing too much. Head injuries can happen anywhere (read up on the late Ryan Freel if you’re not familiar), but I try not to contribute too heavily to the bottom line of the head injury-industrial complex.