The Dime Sucking 20¢ Bin
June 13th, 2011 by slangon
This is the last dollars worth of cards from the Lincoln I dropped at the card shop a couple of weeks ago. Breaking it up into $1 chunks and a very lazy posting schedule have provided me with a weeks worth of blog fodder. Not bad for 5 bucks.
Anyway, this is another batch of 1970 cards.
#40 Richie Allen
Methinks Mr. Allen is having an identity crisis. Is he “Richie”? Is he “Dick”? Is he just plain “Rich”? I’m pretty sure this 1970 card claims he’s “Rich” but because of the semi-script font they used for the players name, he could just as easily be “Rick”, which I think would be a new one. I wonder if he has a card somewhere that lists him as “Richard”.
#285 Paul Blair
Three things I didn’t know about Paul Blair: 1) He was nicknamed “Motormouth”, B) He was drafted out of high school by the Mets, and III) he was the last batter to ever face Nolan Ryan in a World Series game. I guess that’s more something I didn’t know about Nolan Ryan. His 2.1 innings pitched in Game 3 of the 1969 World Series was the only World Series appearance he ever made.
#29 Sandy Alomar
I think it’s fair to say most people don’t care too much about coaches and managers. Nobody ever talks about their favorite pitching coach, or who they think is the best bench coach in the league. Unlike most people, I have the odd habit of occasionally getting attached to various members of the Mets coaching staff. Sandy Alomar was one of those guys. I think I liked him because he always seemed so laid back. I guess in 2006 being laid back was a cool thing for a third base coach on the Mets.
#324 Tony Taylor
In a recent bargain bin post, I was making the case for why the 1970 set was not as bad as people make it out to be. One aspect of the set that I didn’t mention, but one that I think makes this a cool set, is the photography. Specifically, photographs like the one on this Tony Taylor card. Sure, the 1970 set has its fair share of boring head shots and posed shots of lame pitching motions and weak fake swings. It also didn’t have action shots outside of the Post Season Highlight cards. It did however, start to introduce slightly more interesting shots of guys in the batting cage, or at the bat rack, like this one. It might not be as action packed as some of the shots in the 1971 set, for instance, but it sure is a hell of a lot more interesting to look at than a closeup of some sweaty dude with no hat that’s cropped so tight you can’t even tell what team he’s on.
#634 Buddy Harrelson
This card is by far the cream of the crop when it comes to this particular batch of cheap-o vintage. It’s also up there as far as being one of my favorite cards to be pulled out of the Quarter Bin thus far. Not only is it an interesting looking card (I don’t remember seeing too many cards showing players signing autographs from back in the day), it happens to be a card that I need for my 1970 Mets team set, and it’s a high number. All that for the low, low price of 20¢.
I’ve never seen that Harrelson card before – I wonder if it’s the first time that a player was pictured on his card signing autographs. The Tony Taylor card has a neat shot, too.
Yeah, the Harrelson is a pretty cool shot, and I love seeing those in-the-dugout shots. Like I said, the ’70 set is chock full of the standard baseball card head shots and cheesy poses, but it also started to introduce some of these more interesting photos.
Man, I am jealous as hell – you have a local shop with ’70 Topps in a $0.20 bin? My one and only local shop puts cards like that in top loaders and tries to get $7 or 8 for the nobodies, and high dollar for the semi-stars.