One of the (many) baseball card projects that I'm working on is my Forever Topps Binder Project. The basic idea of the project is to collect one Topps card for every year of Topps' existence (from 1951 until today). The project is going to play out in a few phases:
Phase 1: Acquire one Topps card from each year and fill up the binder pages.
Phase 2: Attempt to upgrade as many of the cards in the binder as possible. Upgrades will consist of better players, better card condition, and/or simply more interesting cards to look at.
Phase 3: Keep the project going each year, moving forward.
I've completed much of Phase 1 already, at least through 1986. If you missed any of my posts, here they are:
Today, I'm excited to (finally) show off a surprise mail package that I received over the summer from David over at CardBoredom. This post has been sitting in my drafts folder since June (the package arrived right before the first of my two family vacations).
Before I get to the cards that David sent, I must first compliment him on his blog. I love the look of it, and I'm a bit jealous that I'm not capable of making my blog look equally professional! With that noted, let's dig into the package.
Not only does David's blog look professional, but so do his mailings! He mailed his cards in a custom cardboard mailer, and upon opening the package, I was greeted with a custom wax pack!
I love the concept of the homemade wax pack - and it even came with a stick of gum (though I did not chew said stick of gum).
Inside the pack, David sent me six awesome vintage cards that all have a very good shot of eventually making it into my Forever Topps Binder Project!
Here's what the wax pack contained (and I defy you to open your own pack of cards with better contents inside)!
1958 Topps:
#424 Larry Doby
We start off with a winner right away! My current binder representative for 1958 Topps is a card of Marv Grissom of the Giants. It's an easy choice to replace the rather beat-up card of Grissom with this awesome Doby card.
1960 Topps:
#7 Master and Mentor (Mays/Rigney)
How awesome to get a Willie Mays card in the mail! Obviously, this is a much cooler card than my current representative (Russ Snyder). However, there is one problem that I'm wrestling with when it comes to my Forever Topps Binder Project. Should I go for the best card I can get from each set, or should I go for the best card I can get that has the "standard" layout for that particular year's design? You see, this Mays/Rigney is a subset card; it doesn't have the same design (or even layout) as the majority of the 1960 Topps set. I don't have an answer for this question yet, so perhaps some of you can offer some guidance!
1962 Topps
#59 AL Strikeout Leaders
Another card, another dilemma. On the surface, this Pascual/Ford/Bunning/Pizzaro quartet is clearly better than my current binder selection (Gene Conley). However, I'm back to the idea of whether or not to include subsets as part of my binder project. I will say that at least this card does have some of the key components to the '62 design (namely, the wood background).
1965 Topps:
#193 Gaylord Perry
The hits keep coming thanks to David's generosity! My current representative for the '65 Topps set is a very beat-up George Brunet, a guy I've never heard of. Not only is Gaylord Perry a "bigger name" for my set, but this is also a huge upgrade in terms of card condition! This is an easy include for my set the next time I go through and update the binder pages (that'll be for a future post).
1971 Topps:
#26 Bert Blyleven
#26 Bert Blyleven
My current '71 Topps card is of Gary Wagner, another guy I know nothing about. Blyleven was one of the three "goal cards" I had picked out for the '71 set, so not only is this an auto include, but I can probably say it's the final change I'll make for the 1971 Topps slot in the binder (the only exception might be if I end up upgrading the condition of this card down the line)!
1974 Topps:
#55 Frank Robinson
You know I love me some Frank Robinson! This was another goal card that I originally listed on my blog post, so much like the Blyleven, it's an auto include in my binder and it'll be there for the rest of time (and this card is in great condition, so I don't even have to worry about that, not that I am really worrying about card condition anyway).
Once again, a HUGE thank you goes out to David! This was an amazing package, put together both professionally and thoughtfully! I apologize for the delay in publishing the post, but better late than never! I also need to get back to working on my Forever Topps Binder Project, I think finishing this post will be the catalyst I need to get back to the binder.
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