Leaf Me Alone

Since sometime last year I've been rather casually gathering some cheap 1960 Leaf singles. I couldn't even explain why. Unlike with the 1961 set, for example, there wasn't one moment I can point to and say 'That's when I decided to collect the set'. It just sort of snuck up on me. No big multi-card lot purchase. No spotting it on someone else's blog and getting instantly smitten. One day I just picked up the stack I had on my desk and counted 35 or 40 of them. I realized then that I was too far gone to turn back. It was like the day long ago that I noticed my coffee table was covered with empty longnecks and Weller bottles. I was hit with the fact that I had a problem.

Much like that problem this new '60 Leaf thing is gonna cost me both time and money. But, unlike bourbon and Lone Star, it's not likely to kill me or land me in jail. This little (144 cards, give or take) set doesn't get much (any?) love from hobbyists. You almost never see it mentioned in publications, featured among auction listings, or displayed in dealers' showcases. Let's face it. it's not very popular. I guess I could have blown it off and just put the 40 or so cards I had (minus my Orioles) into a box and moved on. Hey, if I'd have given it much thought I'd have come up with this:

Reasons NOT TO collect the 1960 Leaf set:

• It's a B&W set! Ugh.
• Only headshots! Ugh
• The checklist pretty much sucks! Ugh
• We hated these back in the day! Ugh
• High numbers and scarcities! Ugh
• Errors and Variations! Ugh
• Nobody wants to hear about it! Ugh (OK, I don't really care so much about this one)
• Boring card backs! Ugh 
• My scanner hates them! Ugh
• Stupid Really stupid pricing! Ugh 
• Dealers don't have them! Ugh

I'll deal with the list in a second. First, here is a repost of cards I picked up at the Dallas-area card show a few weeks ago...

That was a long list of reasons to not collect this one. B&W headshots are probably first on everyone's list of things to exclude from a baseball card set. Black and white had last been used in a mainstream set with the '53 Bowmans. And those babies had much more artistic photos. And the Leaf checklist is uninspiring. No Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Clemente, Koufax, Spahn...you get the idea. In fact, the included Hall of Famers are all in this post. That's not to disparage them in any way (love ya, Brooks!) but sprinkling in a few of their friends might have been nice.

When we spent out post-lunch recess time flipping cards in the St. Mary's School playground circa 1962 Leaf cards were not allowed. I distinctly remember that we felt they were old and dull. The backs packed a lot of info but they were as boring as the fronts. Wall of text, no cartoons.

And as I am quickly discovering there are some silly prices attached to the second series of these things. And the price points seem so damn random. Nowhere do I see references to any of them being short printed but sky-high price tags seem to stick to certain players for no apparent reason. Finding that the cheapest Gordon Jones on COMC is pushing $40 is discouraging, to say the least. the fact that I hardly ever see these things at shows means one good source of possibly cheaper copies (through bargaining) is out the window.

Then there are the actual variations and an error or two to deal with. The Al Smith(s) and Mudcat Grant are the most well known. The incorrect photos (other than Grant) were not corrected which avoids even more heartache. And getting the things scanned properly on my Canon takes a change in settings which is a PITA and once you post them nobody's gonna read the post anyway (not that this has ever stopped me from collecting what I collect!).

BTW... you can see what I said about not collecting these a few years ago by clicking here. That post has a link to the rather snarky PSA review of the set.


So I just spent four paragraphs convincing myself that I made a bad choice in starting this thing. What's the other side of the coin? Let's see...


Reasons TO collect the 1960 Leaf set:

• I like it! 😇

Yes, I do. For all it's faults and lack of appeal I like it. I can't explain it, but I couldn't explain my high school girlfriend either. Sometimes you just do stuff, ya know?


OK, enough typing. here are the rest of the Hall of Famers.

Sparky Anderson was about 25 years old when this picture was taken. ╚(•⌂•)╝Yeesh. OTOH, Brooks Robinson looks almost too young to be a big leaguer. This has always been one of my favorite Brooks cards.

Here's the wall of text back I was mentioning.

I like the card number graphic.

The Genuine Baseball Photo bit is sort of charming.

The copyright line names Sports Novelties, Inc of Chicago. Nowhere is Leaf mentioned...

...not on the boxes or pack wrappers.

But back to the cards....

Hoyt always wore his cap like he was still in the service.


these next two cards are among my favorites, not only of the Hall guys but in the whole set.

And finally, Jim Bunning. Seems to have a rabbit under his cap.

So, I'm in too deep to turn around and swim out. Gotta just go with the tide. I'm at about 60% completion (88 of 145ish counting both Grants). The list of what I need is over in the sidebar. If you have any that you'd let go of on the cheap or would like to trade for other vintage stuff, gimme a shout.

Oh, one last thing. Here is a look at the marbles that came packaged with these in 1960. Might be fun to find a pack of these!

EDIT+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I meant to include a link to Jeff Katz' fun SABR Card Blog post on this set. I just looked at it again last night (I had left a comment back when it was published) but it slipped my mind today. Well worth checking out.

Johnny, of Johnny's Trading Spot, left a comment a bit ago and noted that he, too, collects this thing. I'm off to find his want list. I already know I don't have any dupes for Jeff. He's chasing the second series like me.

And finally, I want to give Whitey Herzog his well-earned due. He's a 2010 Hall of Fame inductee and has a (possibly airbrushed?) card in this set.

'58 Topps..the new project

Over the last couple of weeks I committed to chasing the third and final of my three 'cornerstone' sets, the 1958 Topps set. Along with the '59 and '60 these sets were the first ones that I dealt with as a kid and the ones with the most nostalgic value.

The 1958 isn't the most popular of the 50s era sets but it's colorful, relatively easy to track down and it doesn't have lots super expensive rookies. I set about to begin my quest in the same way I started with the 1960 set. I gathered together the '58 cards I already owned. I had all the Orioles, a few stars (Sandy Koufax!), a couple dozen commons and the entire All Star subset. 

Then I found a large lot (240+ cards) of cheap '58s on eBay and nabbed it at a price that netted me 210 new (to me) cards that included some stars in lesser condition. Even disregarding the 25 or 30 cards I already owned the lot cost me about 80 cents a card. The Frank Torre card at the top comes from that lot and more or less exemplifies the average condition of the lot. Trust me, some of the ones I received no doubt spent some time being attached to bike spokes.

Finally I took my wantlist to the monthly hotel card show and combed through my favorite dealer's vintage boxes and came up with about 60 more commons in really nice shape. He cut me a nice deal on a few stars as well. 

I spent last Sunday sorting what I had and making notes on cards that will need an eventual upgrade. I also looked closer at eBay and COMC to get an idea of what it will take for me to finish this thing off.

Here is a peek at some of what I have. This Luis Aparicio was part of the eBay lot. I so love the old Flying Sock logo. 

Frank Sullivan came in the lot, too. Soft corners and a bit scuffed. But this one is way down the upgrade list. Down far enough that I'll probably never do it.

Another Flying Sock guy, Jim Landis. This one came from the show. Nice card for the fifty cents or so that it cost.

Daryl Spencer sports a logo-enhanced cap. Topps modeled these on the old San Francisco Seals caps. Close but no cigar. This is another card show pickup.

Fianlly here is Hall of Famer early Wynn. I didn't intend for this to be a Sox-centric post but whatever. He came over from the Indians for 1958 as the cardback notes. And he had plenty of arm left. He won 49 games for Chicago between '58 and 1960 when his effectiveness diminished. 

Topps packed a lot of stuff on the reverse of these. Stats, cartoons, personal data and a blurb in most cases.

When the weekend was done I ended up with a total of 332 cards. That's roughly 2/3 of the 494 card set. I did have one surprise. I just know I have the Frank Robinson and Ted Williams cards from this set. But try as I might I couldn't come up with them. I'll keep digging. 

In addition to all the actual '58s I have I picked up some of Bob Lemke's customs including the 'missing' #145 Ed Bouchee. I'll post them soon.

I'm still debating whether of not I will have a dedicated '58 Topps blog. I'm waaaay behind on my 1960 blog. The idea of undertaking a new one is rather daunting. But nobody (that I have found) has blogged the set and I'd like to fill that gap. I'll try to come up with an idea for a simple way to do it.

Cards for no reason

I haven't picked up any new cards other than Baltimore Colts cards in quite awhile. And I don't want to over do the football posts. So I'm going to post a few cards that I had scanned to my Picasa account for no other reason than they are (IMHO) awesome!

'57 Gil Hodges.... I'd like to see him elected to the Hall of Fame. But I don't think it's going to happen.

Leaf Luis Aparicio..... love the halo effect that these cards had. Great picture of Looie!

'62 Ralph Houk.... wearing a windbreaker under his jersey! Pretending to shout instructions! With Yogi Berra talking behind him!

T206 Rube Marquard... there is no such thing as a bad T206.

'58 All Star Mickey Mantle. This card is in contention for one of my favorites of all time.

A collection of awesome cards requires at least one Don Mossi card. It's a federal regulation I think.

A Little More of This, a Little More of That....

More 'stuff' chosen at random (more or less) from a box of 'oddball' collectibles I dug out of my closet. First up, some sort of General Mills sticker pair. The two stickers occupy one sheet of backing paper but are not themselves attached. These are bilingual stickers with English and French printing. I don't know the backstory on these but I bet someone else does. EDIT.....they are from 1985 and there were 26 in the checklist. No team logos are seen on them but using the team names was fine apparently.

BTW...Jeff Leonard was known as 'Penitentiary Face'. I tender that nugget without further comment.

Here is a Luis Aparicio card from another 1985 set. It's a TCMA issue. Interestingly the card depicts him from his days as an Oriole but it commemorates his rookie season which of course came in Chicago.

A 1962 Baseball Buck featuring Oriole catcher Gus Triandos. These were a 'test' issue and came one per pack which cost a penny. There are many Hall of Famers in the set. Gus Triandos isn't one of them. They are smaller than actual US currency...about 4 inches across and less than 2 inches tall. My favorite thing about them is the little stadium drawing to the right on the player photo. The only other one I own is the Brooks Robinson. He and Triandos are two of the five Orioles included. The others are Jackie Brandt, Chuck Estrada and Jim Gentile.

Coins of the Realm

I keep finding more of my stuff that hasn't seen the light of day in awhile. These are 1964 Topps coins. I've got a stack of these including the Orioles and some stars from both the 1964 and 1971 coin sets. 

The set has a lot of star power. And you can find most of the Hall of Famers pretty reasonably.There is a B-I-N Koufax All Star coin on eBay for 9 something now and I've seen them lower than that. Including the All Star coins there are 164 coins in the set plus three variations/errors. The checklist can be found here.

 I actually like the regular coins more that the All Star ones. Something about the gold rim makes them stand out. The All Stars coins, done in blue (A.L.) and red (N.L.), look a lot like the 1971 coins. I pulled out a bunch of the '71s as well and I'll post them soon.

2001 Topps Team Legends Autographed

I have a decent Aparicio collection. I can't remember if I bought this or won it in a box break a few years ago when I was participating in that sort of thing.

Either way it's kind of a neat card. Luis has that chaw going on. Either that or he is having some swollen jaw problems. Is there anyone out there that doesn't like the 1956 design?

1960 Leaf Brooks Robinson & Luis Aparicio

For a set of black and white cards the '60 Leaf cards have a weird aesthetic appeal for me. I think some of it is due to the 'aura' that surrounds each players head. Here is 'St. Brooks' and done below is 'St. Luis'.

It's not a very popular set it seems. Leaf went head to head with Topps and included a marble in their packs instead of gum. I remember having (or at least seeing) these when I was a young collector but I don't recall the packs or the marble. The checklist doesn't have a ton of stars among the 144 players but you will find Duke Snider among the dozen or so Hall of Famers.

The PSA site has a pretty thorough (and wicked) critique of the set. I think they are a little harsh but they do make some good points along side the insights. I have a handful of the cards including these two and while I like them I can't see myself chasing the rest.