1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #19 - 21

 Back to the Kellogg's card backs.  I am enjoying checking out my old Topps cards and sorting cards since track is starting 10 weeks later than usual this year.

#21 - Ellis Valentine

Valentine had three good seasons in a row even though Kellogg's noted that he had a bit of a drop-off in his performance in 1979.  He is noted as having power, speed and a great throwing arm.  He won a Gold Glove in 1978.

Not on the card - the Expos had quite a team with Valentine, Dawson, Carter, Tony Perez and Larry Parrish.  They did win 95 games.

He was traded in early 1981.  Injuries, a hit-by-pitch to his face and other issues meant that he didn't play much after turning 28.

#20 - Nolan Ryan

Unlike Valentine, Ryan played 19 years after he turned 28.  He led the league in strikeouts for the seventh time in eight years.   Even with that, Ryan didn't get a Kellogg's card in 1976, 1977 and 1979.  

At the time, he is already fourth on the all-time strikeout list with 2,909.

Not on the card - that is barely over half of his career total Ks.

The Ryan Kellogg's cards from the 1980s are the only cheap ones.  

Notice the Astros logo on the back.  The card mentions that he signed with them. 

#19 - Ron Cey

Kellogg's noted that Cey was one of the most consistent player on the Dodgers and it showed with his sixth consecutive All-Star game selection.  

In 1977 he had 29 RBIs in April.  That's a great start.

I couldn't think of how the Cubs acquired him.  The Cubs gave up two players to the Dodgers who never really made it big.  I also didn't realize that the Cubs traded him to the A's for Luis Quinones, who is famous in my house because I caught his first career home run.  

Will the New ebay Shipping Policy Change How You Buy - or Sell?

 This has been talked about for a while and now it is happening.  

New ebay Shipping for Trading Cards

This will allow for shipping costs of $1 or less, which will include tracking.  

I rarely buy individual cards on ebay - Kellogg's, Sportscaster or anything else.  Why?  A $1 card ends up costing about  $5 - $6 when adding shipping and tax.  Maybe this new policy will change things.  

This might also allow me to get rid of some of the basketball cards that I really don't collect.  

If I needed a common card, like Steve Kline, I would rather wait to find it than pay at least $5 for it with shipping.  

If dealers and collectors get on board with this I may start buying cheap individual cards.  How about you?  Will your buying or selling habits changed based on this news?

 

Time To Check Out Some of My 1976 Topps Cards

 In keeping with my goal of checking out my other cards, here are some of my 1976 Topps cards along with a few comments that came to mind without any research.

For the fourth year in a row Topps had Hank Aaron on the first card in the set.  Just another reason we knew that he was the best guy in baseball.  

From 1967 to 1972 card #1 featured the league leaders from the previous year or the team picture of the World Series champs.  I used to know who was card #1 in every Topps set up to 1990, but now I can only think of some of them.  How many can you name?

Stennett's card was a painful reminder of the Pirates crushing the Cubs.  FYI - we never had any previews of subsets or anything in 1976.  We found these things out by getting a checklist or getting a subset card.  My friends and I would try to see if we had all of the checklists so that we could find out what was included in the set.  

What a great hat.  The NFL would fine players for that.

Yes, this is still me marking up my cards.  No online lists, no home printer, no internet, etc.  This worked for me.  

One of my final two cards for the set.  Almost.  

We loved the back of the cards and we were excited that Fred was born in Chicago.  His was one of the most chased cards of the year.

The game action was really great in 1976.  I always liked the design too.

Baker and Spencer.  The last two I needed - almost.

In the early 1970s it seemed like all of the A's were going to the Hall of Fame.  They all made big free agent money.  

I used blue pen as usual.  

Old school - two hands on the mitt.  

More great action shots.

I liked seeing the stadiums in the background although the scoreboard is usually more interesting.

One of my favorites.

He doesn't look really fast here.  Sorry, that's not just the track coach here talking.  I saw him play for the Cubs.  Nice background star here - is that Mike Schmidt?  I'm going to stick to my plan and not look into it.

This just looks like a slow knuckle ball will be heading in soon.

There's Wrigley Field.  

My friend went to one game in college and got a BP ball that Hendrick hit.

I was needing a few of the rookie cards to complete my set.  I did like these cards.  

I just needed Spencer and Baker until I ended up getting this checklist and a few traded cards in what we thought was a normal pack.  How about that card numbering?  I really needed to fill in the checklist since they were not consecutively numbered.  

What made the traded cards worse?  They were not well done at all.  

It gets worse.  Airbrushing, no action and I was getting a bunch of them in each pack.  

Everyone knew Ed Armbrister after the 1975 World Series.  

Everyone knew Dave Winfield long before and after the 1975 World Series.  He looked like a giant here. 

"That George Brett card is off center" said no one ever to me in 1976.  It was just part of my set.  I know now that it is a condition sensitive card, but I will stick to the no research plan.   

Brooks can't even look at the Brett card since it is so off center.  I should have listened to Robinson.

I'd forgotten that Bull had such a big year.  He also had longer sideburns that the other two. 

I never liked Rose because he always found ways to win and I was never a Reds fan.  Topps did get some great cards for him.

More great action shots - one of AL's best.  

More great action shots - one of NL's best.  

This was one of our favorite subsets.  We were playing Strat-o-matic baseball at this point so we knew lots of stats about the old timers.  

Carter was always fun to watch.  The trophy worked well with the 1976 design. 

I was tempted to buy a pack at BBCE yesterday, but I didn't see anything older than 1980 on display.  Good thing too, because I probably would have been too cheap to actually make that purchase.  

Questions for an Expert on PSA - Kellogg's Cards, Topps Cards, Any Cards

 I needed to test drive a fix to my old car so I decided to go to a card shop.  I needed to check out expressway driving so I figured why not head to a shop that I've never been to before.  

Though I've never been to the Baseball Card Exchange, I've been to many Nationals where they set up shop with their amazing display.  

The shop was quite unlike their display at the National.  That makes sense too.  You will notice some nice unopened packs in the display case.  The oldest ones I saw were from 1980.  

I didn't see any Kellogg's cards and I didn't ask about them either.  I've seen a few Kellogg's items on their website but I wanted to just see what they sold in the store.

They had a nice selection of newer and older cards that would appeal to those who are fans of Chicago teams.  They had a nice mix of stars old and new from a variety of sets.  I was quite impressed by how affordable the cards were, including some that were autographed.  I don't really collect autographed cards, but I still like that the prices seemed reasonable.

Some kids were buying junk-era basketball boxes because it seems that those are popular now.  

Card savers and top loaders have gone up in price everywhere, so even though I need some I didn't know if the prices were good or not.  I needed pages and binders, so I picked up some of those.

There was some good conversation about the possibility of the National.  I felt like a valued customer even though I spent only $34.  The free SMR Magazine was nice too.  

Here are questions I would ask someone who knows PSA

Some cards should obviously be graded and some cards shouldn't be graded.  Since I've never sent a card to a TPG company, I am probably like lots of collectors who could use advice.

1.  I would think that a big company / dealer could offer (an "Estimator") something like this at the National / another show / at their office.  I would bring in cards that I am not sure should be graded and they would tell me which ones to send away.  Maybe I'd pay a fee at the beginning and another fee after grading when the estimator is proven correct.  Sure there are lots of things to work out, but does anything like this exist?

2.  What should something like that cost?

3.  How long would the estimator look at each card to determine if I should send it?  

4.  What other options are there?

Memorable Moments in Life and Hank Aaron Cards

By chance last week I was home with my kids watching along with everyone else as things unfolded in DC.  In non-COVID times I would have been at school coaching, my son would have been away at college and my daughter would have been at gymnastics practice.  Instead, we enjoyed an hour or two of discussing world events, memorable events in our lifetime, etc.  My wife was working so she missed something that we never do with the kids, who spend too much time connected online and too little time just talking.  

A few days before that my mother was reflecting on coming home from a movie to see her parents huddled around a radio for news about the bombing at Pearl Harbor.  My kids and I then started discussing some of the most memorable events of our lifetimes.  I won't get into the differences in comparing 1941 to 1974 to 2021.

They shared their most vivid memories and here are the things that I mentioned to them  - 

1.  Kennedy Assassination (1963) - I was too young to remember it since I was in diapers and eating food from a jar.  I might be getting to an age soon where I will be doing that again.

2.  USA's moon landing (1969) - normally we'd have been outside at a Chicago park doing something but not on this day.  I witnessed this from the floor of our living room with lots of family members.

3.  Olympic Hostages / Massacre (1972) - as a nine-year-old kid, this was my first Olympics that I remember.  Luckily, I was too young to understand some of what was happening.  I did try to run around the block 26 times after Frank Shorter won the marathon.  My mom stopped me after an hour, but I got more than 10 laps done (FYI - a lap was a lot shorter than a mile).  

4.  Lyndon Johnson Funeral (1973) - with the four of five television stations this was everywhere.  I don't remember if it was a school day or not, but I was home watching this.  

5.  Hank Aaron's Home Run #715 (1974) - this didn't come as a surprise.  We planned out watching this.  I was on the wooden floor using a cheap tape recorder to capture the event.  I don't have that recording today.  Why the floor?  There were more people than seats and I wanted to get close for the recording.  

7.  Bears Super Bowl Parade (1986) - I didn't go to the parade since I was working, but the parade let out just before I was done working.  I worked on State Street in downtown Chicago, so all of the parade spectators were now on State Street waiting for their busses.  I couldn't even get on a bus for over an hour.

8.  Space Shuttle Explosion (1986) - I remember watching the news at a Walgreen's store on State Street while I was taking lunch.  This happened the day after the Super Bowl Parade.  So that was three memorable days in my life in a row - Super Bowl win, Parade, Space Shuttle.  

9.  9/11 (2001) - I heard about it in the morning but I didn't get home from work until 11:30 p.m. so I knew little about it since I had no cell phone and very little internet at my three jobs at the time (computer programmer, cross country coach, night school computer science instructor).  

10.  Christmas Tsunami (2004) - unlike the 9/11 coverage, I was home for this and I watched a lot about a part of the world that I knew little about.

There were many others that I remember, but not as vividly as these events.

Hank Aaron Card Memories

1.  In the early 1970s we found someone with a box of 1970 Topps cards.  They were ten cents each, a lofty price that would make me think hard about who to buy.  I decided to go with the most famous guys I could find - Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.  I still have those cards including a few Clementes from that day.  

2.  1974 Topps #1 - 1974s were nice, but when someone showed up with that card they made all of us envious.  My sole focus for that set was to get that card.  What a great day it was to find it.  If I ever see it cheap at a card show I buy it.  Did we care that he was yet to be the All-Time Home Run King?  NO.

3.  1974 Topps Hank Aaron Special cards - this showed us all of his Topps cards just before we figured out where to buy these cards.  These cards and the Wholesale Card Company catalogue helped me learn what the cards from each year looked like.  At this point my oldest card was probably a 1964 Billy Williams.  I then got a 1956 Gil McDougald card which was my oldest for a while.   

4.  1975 Topps  - card #1 was awesome with the Braves uniform on his Highlights / NL All-Star card.  The Brewers card was nice too, but it was the rare instance where the subset card was desired more than the regular issue.  

A Baseball Card Shop in the mid-1970s Got Me Interested in Off-Condition Cards

 Why do I not mind cards that are not in great condition?   In the mid-1970s The Sports Collectors Store in Chicago on Archer Avenue was the only place to pick up cards besides the flea market or packs at a store.

Here's how a trip to this shop went.  Walk a mile to the bus stop.  Take that bus plus another one with a few friends in the early years.  By the time I was 12-14 I would go alone sometimes.  It was about eight miles away and I was sure to never mention it to my parents.  Since everyone knew everyone back then, someone saw me at the bus stop one time and word got back to my parents.  That didn't stop me from going.

Did anyone else ever go to this store?  I wish I could remember my last visit there.  Back to the cards.  

I remember the layout of the store but I would love to see pictures if anyone ever sees them.  I was always drawn to a box of mixed up 50s and 60s cards.  The box probably had about 5,000 cards in various conditions.  I would go through those to find creased cards of stars.  I know that I picked up many HOFers included damaged Mantles for a quarter each.  I could easily spend half an hour in that pile of cards.

I was drawn to these cards since I never card that old anywhere else since we didn't attend a card show until 1975-1976.  Even though it wasn't the best investment, I preferred to go home with 50 cards for a quarter than spend an outrageous sum of $2 on a nice card.  I still feel that way about 1971 Kellogg's cards since I am not investing in them at all. 

We usually just look at boxes of cards that were on the counter but sometimes we'd ask for a certain card as I would do with Al Kaline sometimes.  The workers would then pull out a box that had more of one card that I would ever see in my life.  They usually would have more than 50 of any card we wanted to see from the 1960s.   

Did anyone go to other shops during the 1970s before the shops sold new cards, plastic pages, etc.?  What do you remember most about them?

Wanted - Your Horribly Cracked, Damaged 1971 Kellogg's Baseball Cards

 I've officially given up on getting nice 1971 Kellogg's baseball cards for now.  Do you have unloved 1971 Kellogg's baseball cards?  Are they damaged like these cards?

I am working on a 1971 master set in G-VG condition, but that may go on for the rest of my life.  To make things more manageable, I am going to work on a 1971 Kellogg's baseball card set where all cards are damaged.  Most of the cards that I've come up with so far look much worse than the Jim Palmer shown above.

The Clyde Wright card is also probably nicer than the cards I am putting together for a set.  

I need a few stars and a bunch of others.  I can trade something similar for what you've got.  Here is my list.

5 Clemente, 13 Sanguillen, 17 Brock, 21 Selma, 31 Sutton, 33 McDowell, 43 White, 48 Dierker, 51 Gibson, 54 A. Johnson, 60 Palmer, 61 Williams, 62 Torre, 65 Rose, 67 Taylor, 68 Stargell, 70 Osteen

Has anyone else given up on getting a nice 1971 set?