Maybe I Should Sell My Unopened 1970 Kellogg's Packs?

I found that the pack-busting site vintagebreaks.com has a 1970 Kellogg's six-card pack available.  Once six people pay for a random spot the pack will be opened.  The cost per card - $30.  For those too tired to do the math, that's $180 for the pack. 

I have a decent number of packs, but I don't think that I've paid more than $30 for any pack.  Should I be selling my duplicates to these folks?

The pack has Tommy Harper on the front.  Harper is card #74 in the set.  Based on that I am going to guess that the only stars possible in the pack are as follows - Harmon Killebrew, Bob Gibson and Joe Morgan.  Denny McLain was a star then but he's not considered a star now.

This is the pack from my collection, not the one on the website.

Give me your best guess as to who will be the six cards.  I will follow this and let you know which six cards are pulled from this pack.

My guess - Harper, Harrelson, Lolich, Perry, J., Gibson, Bunker.  Cards that won't be in the pack - all cards from #1 to #59.

I need to get my old backup file restored so I can look at the 1970 Kellogg's sheets. 

A Nice Surprise in the Sunday Sports Section Today

The Chicago Tribune had a story about this guy who tweets about sports from the 1970s.  Shockingly, the paper chose a tweet that included a Kellogg's card.  A clip from today's article is below.  

Since the author has got to be around my age I'd probably enjoy reading his stuff but that's not something I do.  

The White Sox fan was disappointed to pull out a Wayne Nordhagen card in 1979?  After checking Wayne's stats, I could see why.  Nordhagen had hit .301 in 1978, but he only batted 206 times.  Those 206 ABs were more than his total from his first two years (177).  

He only played in 500 career games with four different teams.  Although he didn't reach the majors with them, he was with three other teams - Yankees, Braves and Phillies (twice).  

The writer doesn't add anything else about this card, but there are some interest comments to his tweet.

1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Baseball Card Backs - #7

 I can confess to knowing very little about Lefty Grove.   I've always paid more attention to the National League and he played his entire career in the AL.

What can Kellogg's teach me about Grove?  I knew he was a left-handed pitcher with 300 wins already.  Wow, he led the AL in strikeouts during his first seven seasons.  

I checked that on baseball-reference.com.  He never again led the league in strikeouts in his 17-year career.  The site showed that he led the league in ERA nine times.  

Roger Clemens is second to Grove in number of seasons leading the league in ERA.  Clemens accomplished this seven times.  

Only three players have led the league in strikeouts more than seven times - Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.  None of them led the league in their first two seasons.

Nice to see that he fanned three famous Yankees (Ruth, Gehrig, Meusel) on nine pitches. 

This is the first mention in this set of someone being named Greatest Ever for this card set.  He beat out Hubbell, Wadell, Plank, Spahn and Koufax for the honor.

He had 31 wins in a season, the most ever by a lefty.  He won 16 games in a row during that season. 

Can This Unopened Kellogg's Pack Be Real?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1976-Kelloggs-Sealed-Unopened-Pack-3-Donald-Gullett-REDS/223406058702?hash=item340409ecce:g:yF8AAOSwdZJcbLzj:rk:13:pf:0

A while back I showed a partial pack with the 1976 Don Gullett.  How?  I put the card in a pack that had been opened already.  Here is the link - 1976 Kellogg's Cards #1, #2 and #3 Like You've Not Seen Before

Does anyone know if there is any chance that those cards were included in a sealed pack?

1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Baseball Card Backs - #8

Time to check out the back of Pie Traynor's 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats card.

He was a defensive star as well as a .320 lifetime hitter.  

He was known for covering a lot of ground, more than any player at his position ever says Kellogg's. 

He stayed in baseball as a manager, then as a scout.  He spent lots of time working with the kids in Pittsburgh.

This set declared him as the Greatest Third Baseman, but Bill James and others would argue that. 

I have no idea about the picture on the back of the card above.

1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Baseball Card Backs - #9

No sunshine at home so I am back to talking about the 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats baseball card backs.  Today I am down to #9 - Honus Wagner.

"The Flying Dutchman" had a .329 career average and was know as an amazing fielder.  He hit over .300 17 times in 21 years.

Kellogg's called him a " bow-legged, thick-framed man".  At some point in his career he played every position except catcher.  He won eight batting titles.  

The card mentioned that Stan Musial recently bettered lots of Wagner's records.  Recently was at least seven years before the 1970 cards were produced and two more years until the Kellogg's set was issued.  

He is mentioned as a "gentle giant" and to make sure we know that he was "bow-legged" it is mentioned a second time in the paragraph.

My Plan for the Next Sunny Weekend Day - Curled Cards

In my last post, I linked to a 1970 Kellogg's Baseball card discussion.  One post mentioned placing cards in direct sunlight for a couple of hours and then placing the card in a heavy book for a few days.  

I'm not much of a scientist but I plan to track these tests very closely since each year of Kellogg's cards has a difference from the previous years in terms of size, thickness, gloss, etc.

I'm going to start with the 1983 Fernando Valenzuela since I have way too many of them.  They are curled but not cracked.  I will try two with one hour or sunlight, two for two hours and two for three hours.  Then I will leave them for two days in a book. 

I hope to try this on Saturday or Sunday if we get any sunshine here.  More later.

An Old Thread and An Idea That I Will Try

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/232220/set-discussion-of-the-week-1970-kelloggs

The thread above has some great comments about Kellogg's cards.  It is also mentioned by one person how he flattened the cards by using sunshine before putting them in a book.  Check out his recipe for success in the thread.  I will give it a try with some commons if we ever get sunshine around Chicago, a place that might not see much sun until May.

Good Thing No One Ran This Path in a Few Days

I found $5 while running today after coaching.  The bill was under some water, which was probably ice for the last week.  That's good for two packs of cards.  Last year I actually found $20 while running, which is good for a few packs of cards.

In 1976 I found $10 while walking on my paper route.  That would have been good for buying an entire box of cards.  I remember going to White Hen Pantry and splitting an entire box with one of my friends.  That was quite a surprise to the person at the register since we usually bought about 4 - 6 packs each.

Shortly after that, when I was searching for my final two cards in the set, Dusty Baker and Jim Spencer, we crossed the street to Crestline Pharmacy for a few packs.  That's when I opened the packs to find that traded cards were inserted.  Now I had more cards to chase.  Ugh.

They Are Opening 1970 Kellogg's Packs

This vintage breaks stuff is crazy.  They get six people to pay for a spot in the break and then they open a 1970 Kellogg's pack.  Does anyone know what they charged per slot?

I went back from now to 12-28 and they opened 14 packs that I found.  Maybe I missed some?  I am adding that data to what I've gotten from the packs that I've opened. 

I would love to accumulate more data on what comes in each pack.  If anyone has the contents of a pack, especially in order, please send them along.

I think that I stored pictures of the 1970 Proof sheets on an external hard drive before my Macbook crashed.  I will try to load that here and see how the packs compare to the sheets.

One of my goals is to get a 75 unopened 1970 Kellogg's packs - one with each player in the set on the front.  That might be difficult if these guys keep opening all of the cheaper packs.  Will all of the other ones soar in price due to this trend towards opening packs? 

1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Baseball Card Backs - #10

Back for another look at a great set - the 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Great set.  Today I am down to card #10 - Eddie Collins. 

I'm working late on this since school was already canceled for tomorrow due to ice storms.  That just means more time to train and organize my cards, both tasks that I never have enough time to do.

My knowledge of Collins is somewhat limited, so just like other cards in this set, I am learning some new things.  I mainly have collected cards from the post-WWII era since they were affordable when I was a kid in the 1970s.

I knew that Collins was on the White Sox / Black Sox in 1919.  He played 12 years with the Sox, but he actually played 13 more with the A's.  

I knew that he had lots of steals, but I didn't realize he hit .333 and had an MLB-record 512 sacrifice hits.  Of course averages were higher during that era.  

On to the back of the card with a nice picture of the White Sox uniform.  He led his position in fielding nine times.  

He's credited on this cards with 509 sacrifices, a number that is now 512 on baseball-reference.com. 

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939.

He played in six World Series from 1910 to 1919, and he was on the winning team four times, the losing team once and the Black Sox team that lost in 1919. 

1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Baseball Card Backs - #11

Speaker was the Center Fielder Finalist when the team was selected. 

He played from 1906 to 1928 for four different teams.  He was a Texas cowhand, whatever that is.  FYI - that is someone who tends to cattle.  

Look closely at the picture on the back.  Check out where his hands are on the bat.  That is definitely an old school approach.  

The card mentioned that he had one liability - he was overshadowed by playing during the same time as Ty Cobb.  He had a .3447 career batting average while Cobb leads the MLB rankings at .367.  Shouldn't that officially be .345?  Baseball-reference.com has him at .345 and Cobb at .366.  

Due to Cobb winning 12 batting titles, Speaker only managed to win one.

He still has the all-time lead in career doubles, and he led the league in that category eight times.

It was mentioned that he might not have been the greatest fielder, but he did become the first centerfielder to play shallow. 

Both Speaker and Cobb finished their careers in 1928 with Philadelphia's A's.  Too bad they didn't play their last game on the same day.