Attack of the 25¢ Bin
March 2nd, 2011 by slangon
Another trip to the 25¢ bin, and another $3.00 in the pocket of the local card shop guy. As usual, I’m pretty satisfied with that trade off. One thing I did do differently during this particular trip is that I started in the middle of the box. Normally, when I search through the box, I start at the beginning (which usually starts about 1966 or so, with a few earlier cards sprinkled in there) and by the time I get to 1971 or so, I’m either tired of looking through it, or I realize that I’ve already grabbed too many cards. This trip, I decided to start with the 75’s and go from there, partly because I’ve searched through the years prior to that quite a bit and didn’t want to exhaust them and partly because I realized the other day that outside of Mets, I have very few 75’s.
Let’s see how I did for the price of a modern pack of cards.
1975 Topps #400 Dick Allen
Coincidentally, I had been watching Studio 42 with Bob Costas on the MLB Network the night before I bought these cards and he happened to have been interviewing Dick Allen. I don’t know if I would’ve grabbed this card if it weren’t for that. I also felt kind of stupid because before I saw that interview, I never realized that Dick Allen and Richie Allen were the same person. I’m a big dummy.
1975 Topps #360 George Scott
George Scott is one of those players that I really know very little about but for some reason always buy his cards when I see them. I’ve theorized in the past that it’s because whenever I hear his name, I envision Christopher Lloyd shouting “Great Scott!” in my head. That might be true. I also grabbed this particular George Scott card because I’ve been seeing a lot of his 1977 Topps card around the Blogopolis lately and thought it was cool to see an alternative card of him wearing his necklace made out of 2nd basemen’s teeth. And how could I turn down those mutton chops?
1975 Topps #325 Tony Oliva
I just can’t turn down a quarter card of Tony Oliva. Well, actually I did turn down the first copy of this card I saw in the box. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. By the time I saw this one 17 copies later, I got the message. Too bad it’s from the back end of his career, as you can tell from the fact that he’s listed as a designated hitter.
1975 Topps #35 Ron Santo
Take this for what it’s worth, but I always forget that Ron Santo isn’t in the Hall of Fame. I also always forget that he wasn’t always a Cub.
1975 Topps #60 Fergie Jenkins
Back to back cards of guys who look weird to me wearing a uniform that isn’t the Cubs. Fergie Jenkins is the Anti-Santo for me. I never forget that he didn’t always play for the Cubs, and I often forget that he is in the Hall of Fame. That’s no dig on Ferguson. It’s just the way it is.
1975 Topps #494 Pete LaCock
1975 Topps #513 Dick Pole
Next up we have the Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers of hilariously unfortunate baseball names. Unfortunately, the Frank Chance of hilariously unfortunate baseball names, Rusty Kuntz, was not playing in 1975. By the way, I find it pretty funny that on Pete LaCocks Baseball Reference page, it says “He is best known for his 1977 and 1978 years, when he hit .303 and .295 respectively for the Kansas City Royals.” Somehow, I don’t think that’s what he’s best known for.
1975 Topps #21 Rollie Fingers
I’ll admit it. I buy all my Rollie Fingers cards just for the mustache. I also think it’s pretty awesome that Rollie still has that mustache today. I admire people who stick to their guns, although I wonder how much he’s spent on mustache wax over the years.
1975 Topps #443 Twins Team Card
One more dent in the old team card / managers collection. Thinking about it, I think this might be my first 1975 team card that isn’t of the Mets. I also think that this is the first year that Topps combined the team cards and the manager cards. As someone who collects both team cards and manager cards, I’m not sure how I feel about them. I think I like them, but I think that might be because they were only combined for a few years. They’re a nice change of pace, especially since things were starting to get a little out of hand in the 1973 and 1974 sets. In the end, though, I think I would’ve missed the individual manager and team cards.
1975 Topps Mini #170 Bert Campaneris
Everybody loves minis, and I’m no exception. These 1975 minis just go to show, nothing is new. I really love that shot of Bert, although there is something a little incongruous about seeing that picture and seeing the A.L. All Star graphic. He looks more like a coach or a back-up infielder than an All-Star.
1976 Topps #180 Goose Gossage
Moving on to the 1976 section, here’s yet another Hall of Famer. You know, it’s funny. By no means do I claim to know what every single baseball card ever made looks like, but I do feel like with many Topps cards, especially ones of well known players like Goose, I have seen them before. This particular card I really have no recollection of seeing anywhere. Not that that means anything. Just saying.
1976 Topps Traded #120 Rusty Staub
Finally, we have a well worn copy of a ’76 Topps Traded announcing the fact that Le Grand Orange was sent to the Motor City. I like the way they did the traded set back then. Rusty’s regular ’76 card, when he was still a Met, was #120. When Topps made his Traded card of him as a Tiger, it was still #120, but this time #120T. It was basically replacing his other ’76 card. There’s something very simple and logical about that set-up that I like. I also kind of like the slightly chaotic look of the 1976 Traded checklist with it’s non-consecutive numbering.
Let’s recap. I gave the card shop guy 3 slightly crumpled dollar bills. He gave me a dozen 35 year old, slightly crumpled baseball cards featuring pictures of 3 Hall of Fame players, 6 very good players who didn’t quite make it into the Hall, 1 baseball team from the mid-west and 2 guys who were not very good but had funny names. I’d call that transaction a success on both ends.
I’m jealous of the .25 bin that you get to go through. My local card shop has the exact same thing, although instead of the .25 bin full of old goodies it’s the $2 bin full of 2010 Topps base set semi-stars. Sigh.
Pete LaCock and Rusty Kuntz career’s overlap in one card set: 1981 Donruss. It is the most amazing thing to me, and I have those cards side by side in a binder. I’ll most likely never collect the whole set, but those two cards are amazing.
a necklace out of 2nd baseman’s teeth.
love it.
Tony Oliva isn’t in the Hall of Fame. He was a great hitter, but knee injuries limited his time and probably cost him what otherwise might have been a big career.
My bad. See what happens when you rush writing posts.
Santo sure wished he was never on another team. He hated his time with the Southsiders.