See, Ed is one of the folks over at OBC. What? You've never heard of OBC? Well, long before blogging about baseball cards came around (in fact when the world wide web was in its infancy), the OBC (Old Baseball Cards) was formed as a way for collectors of vintage cards to trade with each other. It's an 'invitation only' club, but put a few trades under your belt and get a current member to sponsor you, and you may find yourself on the OBC membership roll. I am not a member, as this is the first trade I have done with anyone associated with the OBC, but I found the OBC many, many moons ago while poking around the 'net. As I told Ed, I had long forgotten about OBC.
Not one to be dismayed or put off by the fact that I hadn't pointed my browser in that direction in some time, he sent me some classic Tribers of old:
Dick Raditz, Sonny Siebert, and Sam McDowell. These are all on 1967 Topps cards, and have stains, frayed corners, bends, bubbles, and more defects! They're AWESOME!! :-)
Next up, we have Vic Davalillo, Chuck Hinton, and Jim Landis. Vic and Chuck are also 1967 Topps, while Jim comes in the year ahead of them. Vic looks like he is ready to bust some kneecaps, Chuck is not only NOT choking up on the bat, I'm not even sure his left hand is actually holding anything, and Jim's smile reminds me more of Jack Nicholson than a happy ballplayer!
The final three are a 1959 Topps Russ Heman, 1964 Jerry Walker, and 1966 George Banks. All of the cards except Walker's feature cartoons with tidbits about the player. The only thing the writers at Topps could say about Heman was that he "is troubled with wildness at times." I would love to know who got to sit in on the writer's meeting that day...
The cards were sent in a chopped 9-page pocket page. By chopped, I mean it was three of the nine pockets. I've never received cards (that I can remember) nor have I sent cards in this manner, but it works amazingly well. The three-across configuration fits perfectly in a #10 envelope!
Ed collects Orioles and vintage (obviously, since he is on OBC), so he will be getting a nice selection of vintage cards in return! THANK YOU very much for these great vintage Indians cards!!
Sidenote: I know what *I* consider 'vintage,' but what do you consider vintage? For me, anything before 1980 is vintage. I know a lot of people who use the '20-year' rule - if it's older than 20 years, it's vintage. I just have a hard time looking at Topps cards with little baseball hats in the bottom corner and thinking, "Man, this is vintage stuff!" Maybe because I grew up in the 70's and 80's. It's like music... The stuff I grew up listening to is now on K-Tel... Well, actually, now it's considered 'classic rock...' As the song says, "..when did Motley Crue become classic rock?" Alas, I digress.
The real question I am posing: In which year does your "vintage" meter begin to run?
Really nice cards. I love the old vintage stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. 1980 is the cutoff that I use. Not a fan of the 20 year rule. That would mean that 1986 Topps is vintage which is, of course, ridiculous.
I use a 1980 cutoff as well. I don't really think that will ever change.
ReplyDelete1980 was the last year before Fleer and Donruss jumped in the fray so that's as good a cutoff as any.
ReplyDeleteThe 1967 Topps in particular look kind of stunning.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of cutoffs. 1980 is one level followed by 1974. 74 is my first year of collecting. 1980 seems to be a cutoff set by other collectors. 1973 is the last year that Topps issued cards in series, so it is the last year with a "high series"
ReplyDelete